CANADA: The first of 60 Alstom streetcars ordered by Toronto Transit Commission in 2021 have entered service, with an inaugural run on the 504 King route on November 17.
The 1 495 mm gauge low-floor trams and associated alternations to Hillcrest depot have been funded with a total of C$568m made up of contributions from the federal government (C$180m), province of Ontario (C$180m) and the city of Toronto (C$208m). The order was placed when the funding was confirmed in 2021, and production is being undertaken at Alstom’s Thunder Bay factory with deliveries running from 2023 to 2025.
‘A thriving Toronto — with reliable and sustainable public transit — is very much a part of our economic plan’, said Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of Finance. ‘We are investing in Toronto, and in Toronto’s transit infrastructure. These new made-in-Canada streetcars for TTC are yet another example of how the people of Toronto have no greater partner than our federal government.’
Mayor Olivia Chow said ‘increasing the number of streetcars on our roads means shorter wait times, more capacity, and more reliable service’.
TTC’s streetcar services carried more than 26 million people in 2022, using fully accessible low-floor trams with each having a capacity greater than two buses.
