Prometheus The Supremo
►Member №41+⅜◄
Roads should go back to the people....
volksstrata?
Roads should go back to the people....
Reduction in the Purchase of Buses – The TTC has revised its bus fleet plan in the 2009 to 2018 planning period. The revised bus fleet plan increases the number of buses to be purchased in 2010 from 80 to 120 and in 2011 from 30 to 40. However, the number of buses to be purchased in 2012 has decreased and there are no longer any bus purchases planned after 2014. The total number of buses to be purchased from 2009-2018 has decreased from 715 in the 2008 fleet plan to 410 in the 2009 fleet plan as a result of the conversion of major bus routes along avenues such as Finch, Sheppard and Eglinton to LRV routes that will form the Transit City Plan. In addition, the McNicoll Bus Garage is no longer required.
Boy, do I ever long for a day when every bus will be a damn Orion VII.
Though in 2014, wouldn't the oldest of the Orion VIIs (delivered in 2002) be 12 years old by then?
For what little it's worth, the Sun says that the TC cars will be an option on the order for the downtown cars:
http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2009/04/03/8986266-sun.html
Some of Melbourne's newest trams are cracking up, and repairs will force the removal of some seats.
The 59 Combino trams — distinctive three-section and five-section trams that have run across the network since 2002 — have microscopic cracks in their frames.
The cracks pose no risk to safety, but fixing them before the cracks get worse will require the removal of between four and eight seats.
No extra standing room will be created by removing seats because the extra space is needed for boxes housing the trams' suspension.
Public Transport Users Association president Daniel Bowen said the repairs raised questions about whether the trams should have been bought.
"With these trams having so few seats and now having to be taken out of service for repairs, it's beginning to look like taxpayers were sold a dud," he said.
The trams were made in Germany by Siemens, which also made 36 trains introduced to Melbourne in 2002 that have had serious braking problems.
Both the trams and trains were ordered as part of the privatisation of Melbourne's system in 1999.
For the next two years, four Combino trams will be taken off the rails every 10 weeks. Siemens will fix the trams at no cost to the Government.
Siemens, which would not comment on the repairs, has paid compensation to the Government.
An increase in maintenance scheduling by Yarra Trams means that no tram services will be cancelled while the trams are being repaired. Two of the 59 trams have already been fixed and a third is under repair.
Problems with the trams were uncovered in 2002 when European operators removed them from service after fatigue in body panels was discovered.
The fatigue had led to hairline fractures in the joints of the trams' aluminium bodies, which made them vulnerable to collapse in accidents.
An April 2007 briefing note given to Public Transport Minister Lynne Kosky said cracks had been found in five trams. But the cracking problem here was not as serious as in Europe, the briefing note said.
"Melbourne's topography, being largely flat, has protected its trams from the cracking," it said. "Tram track networks in (other) cities have more severe horizontal and vertical curves than in Melbourne."
Siemens, which has given the repair works the internal name the "Combino Sanitisation Program", has spent about 300 million euros ($A548 million) fixing the trams around the world.
After the repairs, the Combinos will have 32 seats on three-section trams and 56 seats on five-section trams. The city's older B-class trams, made in Melbourne, have 76 seats.
Transport Department spokeswoman Anne Sheedy said the work would be carried out at no cost to taxpayers.
Five yellow trams leased from France last year, which run only on the 96 route between East Brunswick and St Kilda, had more than offset the capacity of the Combinos undergoing maintenance, she said.
Any news yet on who is supplying Toronto with new LRTs/Streetcars, way back i thought i had heard early April 2009 for the contract decision.![]()
In principle, "getting it right" was complete several months ago after a more interactive process between the TTC and the manufacturers. All of the technical issues were to have been worked through as part of that process. What we're waiting on now is merely a matter of price, and a final decision of which manufacturer to go with.Let's hope they get it right this time so a manufacturer can actually commence building them before the entire current streetcar fleet is decommissioned.