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Fleet Planning
The need to order cars “last week” arises directly from the evolution of the subway fleet plan, and the changes forced onto it by the SSE. First, a brief description of the existing subway fleet.
The TTC owns two types of subway car, with one sub-type:
- The T1 fleet is about 15 years old, and all of these vehicles are now used exclusively on Line 2 BD. They are not equipped with Automatic Train Control (ATC) equipment, and they will not be able to operate on Line 1 YUS or Line 4 Sheppard once these cut over to ATC operation in the next few years. A retrofit of ATC gear to these cars would be of limited use on Line 2 BD because it will not switch to ATC until the mid-2020s when these cars will be due for replacement.
- Most of the new TR trains are in 6-car units, and these are used on Line 1 YUS. The fleet is large enough already to handle the extension to Vaughan in late 2017 and some increase in service once ATC is fully operational. However, there are not enough 6-car TRs to allow operation at the minimum headway projected for ATC of 1’50” between trains. A further order will be needed to achieve that level of service.
- There are six 4-car TR trains used on Line 4 Sheppard. There is no plan to acquire more trains, and service on Sheppard could be increased from the current peak level of four trains to at most five trains (leaving one spare).
From the 2017 Capital Budget, the Line 2 fleet plan:
This plan
does not align with construction plans in various ways:
- The SSE extension service is shown as operating effective in 2023, a date long-known to be unachievable. The opening is now tentatively aimed at 2026.
- Procurement of replacement cars is shown as starting in 2026 and running through 2030. This aligns with a roughly 30-year lifespan for the T1 fleet.
- Plans for ATC on Line 2 now show this project completing in 2024, and the SSE would be built as an ATC-only facility. Therefore, a new fleet must be completely in place before the SSE can open.
- The total number of trains the TTC would have by 2031 is less than what they claim to need (69 vs 71).
Accelerating the provision of a new fleet would be challenging on the basis of a completely new tender and design, whereas resuming production of the TR trains would avoid the need for prototyping. However, this would only be possible with a sole source contract to Bombardier who are not the TTC’s favourite supplier at the moment. Moreover, the entire project would shift forward and add pressure to spending during a period when the City does not wish to incur any new debt to finance capital projects.
There is no funding in the City’s Capital Budget for these trains. The seven trains shown in the fleet plan for “SSE procurement” are not included in the SSE budget.
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