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diminutive said:
In the long run, I'd like a plan to gradually give all of the main downtown streetcars (which don't get replaced by a DRL) some kind of exclusive ROW, more rapid stop spacing and substantial station infrastructure. These streetcars we are buying are so expensive per-unit, the idea of having them stuck in traffic just seems like a waste of resources. If we were just going to have downtown surface transit doddle along at walking speeds, we might as well have just gotten the cheapest vehicles we could (buses).
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Agree with the philosophy - though I am not sure how much real improvement one can expect even with an exclusive row, given the sheer number of closely spaced intersections the streetcar will still have to deal with. Better than nothing I suppose, but one shouldn't expect miracles from it.

AoD
 
diminutive said:
In the long run, I'd like a plan to gradually give all of the main downtown streetcars (which don't get replaced by a DRL) some kind of exclusive ROW, more rapid stop spacing and substantial station infrastructure. These streetcars we are buying are so expensive per-unit, the idea of having them stuck in traffic just seems like a waste of resources. If we were just going to have downtown surface transit doddle along at walking speeds, we might as well have just gotten the cheapest vehicles we could (buses).
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From a numbers point of view, this makes perfect sense. Streets like Queen already move several times more people on streetcars than via cars. Building a ROW would help to massively increase road capacity. But I'm worried about how vehicles will move throughout the core with the ROW. Parking would have to be eliminated and there'd only be one driving lane. And cars would have nowhere to turn left/right without completely blocking traffic.
 
This week the TTC is conducting tests of the new cars along Queen St E between River and Parliament. Here are some shots from last night.

A few interesting observations:
- the trucks make the same distinctive "wobbling" sound as they do currently on the ALRVs/CLRVs, once the car gets a decent speed going.
- I really like the flashing DO NOT PASS sign at the back of the car, when the doors are open. Also they have a neat vertical strip of red LED lights on the edge of the door facing the back of the vehicle
- they were using the pantograph and switched from trolley pole before they started the testing.
- overheard an official state that they got it up to 84 kph, but that it can go up to 89 kph.

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Brief video of a brake test:
[video=youtube_share;dfF2C3QC9uQ]http://youtu.be/dfF2C3QC9uQ[/video]
 
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Love the pantograph. These things look serious badass. I can't wait till they roll them out everywhere. So futuristic. Toronto is going to have a new icon.
 
M II A II R II K said:
And they go backwards.
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You're right - and FAST. Although apparently they have to disable the security override features to do that. They did this along this stretch here which was completely cleared for their testing purposes - Queen was completely blocked off and cars weren't allowed to cross.
 
Apparently the TTC or Metrolinx doesn't yet know what colour it will be. I expect green since that's the colour of Metrolinx's other LRVs.
 
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innsertnamehere said:
They will probably be red considering the TTC will be operating them.
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The rest of Metrolinx's LRVs (for outside Toronto) will be green. I don't see why it would be an issue for them to order red trainsets as well.

And some of Metrolinx's reports on the LRT projects show the LRVs as red. However most show green.

I guess we'll find out in a few years. This isn't exactly a pressing issue
 
Some of the renderings for the LRT lines showed silver and red trams--a colour scheme that looks better than the TTC's red-white-black in my opinion. That's what I'd like to see. The red means a visual connection to the TTC streetcar fleet, but the silver makes a distinction since it's a different breed of light rail.
 
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