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TTC: Flexity Streetcars Testing & Delivery (Bombardier)

It's guaranteed to not work on the existing system. TC will be equipped to handle such lengths, but not the existing network. The amount of rebuiding in the netowrk that would be required to accomodate such long trams would never be considered. All of Spadina, St.Clair, Queen's Quay would have to have platforms lengthened and include major renovations to Broadview, Dundas West, St.Clair West, St.Clair, Bathurst, possibly Main Street, and although it is already slated for renos anyway, Union. Existing island platforms scattered across parts of the system, such as College, Lake Shore, Bingham loop, they'd have to be re-done as well. Then there's the real fun part of the length of loops. Would such a long tram fit in Neville Loop? Fleet Loop? Wolesley Loop? Sunnyside Loop? Lansdowne Loop?
 
The Olympic Line – the streetcar returns to Vancouver
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The Olympic Line – Vancouver’s 2010 Streetcar – is a state-of-the-art, accessible and sustainable transportation project that will connect Granville Island to the Canada Line Olympic Village Station (Cambie Street and West 2nd Avenue) during 60 days of celebration between January 21 and March 21, 2010. Transit trips on the Olympic Line will be free.

Vancouver’s partner in this project, Bombardier Transportation Globe, will bring two modern, accessible streetcars on loan from Brussels, Belgium to Canada. Bombardier will also operate and maintain the vehicles during the demonstration project. The Olympic Line will run about every six to ten minutes on approximately 1.8 kms of dedicated track.

Bombardier_Brussels_Car.jpg
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Click on this link for more information.

So that's Vancouver and Montreal on the drawing boards for returning to streetcars or tramways. Hamilton, Waterloo Region, and maybe Mississauga on the drawing boards for LRT.
 
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^

Isn't saying trams are back on the drawing boards for Vancouver a bit like saying Monorails have made a valuable contribution to Montreal's transit network at this point?
 
Automation Gallery said:
So its fair to say that the first city to get these new hi-tec next generation trams in Canada will be Vancouver.
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I think the key words here are "on-loan". It depends how you construe it, they will be the first to get them, but they won't get to keep them. :)
 
In fairness to Canada, Bombardier is only a "Canadian company" when it comes to extorting federal subsidies as a "national champion." Especially when it comes to trains and rail solutions, Bombardier is a German company. Most of its current tram and metro designs(like the Flexity line) come from the German-Swiss firm ADtranz which Bombardier bought in 2001. The only company which even constructs LRVs on this continent, somewhat ironically, is Siemens.
 
Whoaccio said:
In fairness to Canada, Bombardier is only a "Canadian company" when it comes to extorting federal subsidies as a "national champion." Especially when it comes to trains and rail solutions, Bombardier is a German company. Most of its current tram and metro designs(like the Flexity line) come from the German-Swiss firm ADtranz which Bombardier bought in 2001. The only company which even constructs LRVs on this continent, somewhat ironically, is Siemens.
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I should excuse my ignorance then. Though, I'm not gonna lie....I didn't really think those fancy-assed Bombardier LRVs were designed here.
 
Bombardier isn't German. Sure, ADtranz was, but just because that company gets bought up by Bombardier doesn't mean Bombardier automatically becomes German as a result. Bombardier's bought up a number of companies... including other Canadian ones like UTDC (the original source of our streetcars as well as the SRT... yes, UTDC sucked big time, but they were, unfortunately, Canadian). Bombardier invented the snowmobile, they're a Canadian company.
 
^^Unfortunately, Bombardier Transportation is headquartered in Berlin, as opposed to the main Bombardier HQ in Motreal.
 
If you wanted to be accurate, Bombardier is a multinational company. It has operations in many countries all over the world. Saying it is "Canadian" is ridiculous in that if Canada magically disappeared from the face of the earth tomorrow, Bombardier would still exist mostly the way it is today. When it comes to its rail products, Bombardier is more German than Canadian. Their designs are German made, their engineering is German, their production is German and their management is German. Only a total sap would think there is any mythical national bond between Bombardier and Canada.

Looking at it another way... Bank of Montreal is HQed in Montreal. It's name is "Bank of Montreal." Is it a Montreal company? No.
 
Bombardier no longer retains the snowmobiles they were famous for.

It's been spun off into its separate firm in 2003, and now Bombardier only concentrates on aerospace and rail.
 
Saying Bombardier isn't Canadian is like saying that Coca-Cola isn't American. Or any other multinational has no ties to its home country. If you're going to accuse Bombardier of not being Canadian, then don't ever complain about "American" multinationals like GM, Coca-Cola, IBM, Apple, GE, Boeing, etc. for being American.

Hell, I wish we had MORE Bombardiers. More Manulifes. More RIMs.
 
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