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Today, Mayor John Tory, Scarborough-Agincourt Councillor Nick Mantas and TTC CEO Rick Leary celebrated the official opening of the TTC's newest state-of-the-art bus facility, McNicoll Garage, located at Kennedy Road and McNicoll Avenue in north Scarborough.

"The opening of the McNicoll Garage is good news for our whole city and, in particular, the residents of Scarborough. By having a new garage in the Scarborough area we can ensure that bus service is more efficient and that we are getting buses out on the road quicker. This is just one of many investments we are making in transit in Scarborough. Today's announcement is another example of the continued work we are doing to build up our transit system and ensure that it serves all our residents," said Mayor John Tory.

McNicoll Garage, the TTC's ninth bus facility, will begin service on Sunday, March 28, and will provide the TTC with vital storage as well as maintenance space to help accommodate its expanding bus fleet. The garage has the capacity to store and maintain up to 250 vehicles at a time. The development was funded through the TTC's 10-year capital budget, as approved by the TTC Board and Toronto City Council.

"The TTC's buses have been the workhorses of our transit system throughout the pandemic - providing flexible and dynamic service in priority areas across the city as needed. The opening of McNicoll Garage will allow us to further expand our bus fleet and enhance our ability to provide demand-responsive service to our riders," said TTC Chair Jaye Robinson.

"This is a very exciting milestone for the TTC and a great step towards an even better, more efficient and more reliable bus fleet," said TTC CEO Rick Leary. "The TTC has more than 2,000 accessible buses and Wheel-Trans vehicles, and it's important we have the space, expertise and technology in place to care for and dispatch those vehicles effectively for our customers."

Built to the Toronto Green Standard, the design boasts the largest green roof in Toronto and one of the largest in Canada. It also features solar panels and a metal transpired solar wall that harnesses energy to help heat the building in the winter and keep it cool in the summer. Other environmentally friendly features include:

- Storm water retention with a reservoir capacity greater than an Olympic-sized pool to limit the rate of water entering the sewer system
- Rooftop solar panels to power HVAC and lighting in the administrative area
- Plenty of glass to allow natural light and reduce energy consumption
- Bird-friendly glass
- More than 350 new trees on site
- A thermal wall that offsets five per cent of the facility's energy consumption

The 29,000 square metre facility also has:

- Two service lines with an exterior wash system
- A bus cleaning area
- Transportation and maintenance offices
- Repair bays, including 14 hoists and two inspection pits
- Paint and body shops with two bays and one hoist
- One degrease room with a hoist

It will also be home to 100 maintenance employees and 600 operators and transportation staff.

The TTC's last new bus garage, Mount Dennis, was opened in 2008, and is located in the northwest part of the city. Each of the TTC's bus, streetcar and subway facilities are strategically located to maximize operational efficiency of service.
 
When they haven't even selected a manufacturer or charging technology/standard yet? No, it would have been a huge mistake and may have tied them down to the wrong company or technology.

Dan
We might have used a different brand of electrons? You could do most of the work of provisioning power without committing to a specific charging standard.
 
We might have used a different brand of electrons? You could do most of the work of provisioning power without committing to a specific charging standard.
Not necessarily.

The equipment used for the charging of the BYD buses is DC-based, versus the AC-based charging of the New Flyer and Proterras. While yes, the feed into the property from the "source" is the same, the differences between the two charging methodologies has huge implications on equipment and siting within the facility itself.

And even between the two AC-charging buses they are using a couple of different charging methods - overhead versus wayside plug - which, while aren't really changing the base equipment, does change how the feeds to the vehicles are being routed throughout the facility.

Dan
 
I think @smallspy and I have gone around on this before when I asked where the next one would be and he offered 'in the west'. Real estate is deadly downtown, but if you've ever watched buses dead-heading on O'Conner Drive to Scarborough, locations like the Lansdowne Carhouse/Garage, the Eglinton Garage, and the Danforth Carhouse/Garage make a ton of sense to me.
 
I think @smallspy and I have gone around on this before when I asked where the next one would be and he offered 'in the west'. Real estate is deadly downtown, but if you've ever watched buses dead-heading on O'Conner Drive to Scarborough, locations like the Lansdowne Carhouse/Garage, the Eglinton Garage, and the Danforth Carhouse/Garage make a ton of sense to me.
@W. K. Lis - did I express this badly?
 
I think @smallspy and I have gone around on this before when I asked where the next one would be and he offered 'in the west'. Real estate is deadly downtown, but if you've ever watched buses dead-heading on O'Conner Drive to Scarborough, locations like the Lansdowne Carhouse/Garage, the Eglinton Garage, and the Danforth Carhouse/Garage make a ton of sense to me.
Deadheading vehicles downtown for service is as prevalent as it ever has been, and as it is unlikely to decrease anytime soon some thoughts have been thrown around within the TTC about different ways to mitigate this.

One of the ideas that a number of my friends within the organization had heard was repurposing the Lakeshore Garage - currently used exclusively for the Wheel-Trans fleet - for use as a closer-to-downtown garage. (Heavy maintenance of the Wheel-Trans fleet would occur at a newly-built facility, and the buses would be stored and serviced at the existing TTC garages.) And while it may work as an option, it's also a fairly small property and may not offer enough of an improvement over the status quo.

As far as I know, the TTC's actual plans still call for a new garage "in the west" end of Toronto somewhere, to open towards the latter half of this decade.

Dan
 
The Portlands would likely be a good spot for a new downtown garage. The city already owns a ton of lands there, they are designated for low density employment uses still, and it would provide very easy deadheading into the downtown with access to the Gardiner.
 
Still think the TTC should consider building a 2 in 1 bus garage and subway yard when the Obico Yard at Kipling eventually gets turned into a subway yard for Line 2. Example shown below is from Singapore. We're looking at double storey bus depots here in London, too - such is the demand for space!

Singapore is also building "East Coast Integrated Depot", a 4 in 1 bus and rail depot (3 metro lines and 1 bus depot) but that's another story

Dd2JwBSUQAAOlOv.jpg
 
Still think the TTC should consider building a 2 in 1 bus garage and subway yard when the Obico Yard at Kipling eventually gets turned into a subway yard for Line 2. Example shown below is from Singapore. We're looking at double storey bus depots here in London, too - such is the demand for space!

Singapore is also building "East Coast Integrated Depot", a 4 in 1 bus and rail depot (3 metro lines and 1 bus depot) but that's another story

View attachment 307306

Using this idea, how about a deck over Greenwood Yard? Its relatively close to downtown, its over 12ha which is double the size of the Eglinton Garage on Comstock.

Its my understanding that Greenwood Yard was designed with being built over in mind.

Which should make it cheaper to do so than might otherwise be the case.

From this Beach Metro article: https://www.beachmetro.com/2017/10/...elopment-haunt-police-station-site-selection/

Ed Levy, long-time transportation planner and author of Rapid Transit in Toronto, did recall something. He tracked down (though not in time for that story) an April 1966 copy of U.S. railway magazine Headlights with a feature on Greenwood stating: “… consideration was given to the potential of development of air rights over the yard and shop. Steps were taken to permit such development should it become economically feasible. Tracks were located so that column construction would be possible without interference with yard operations and functions. Foundations and columns of shop buildings have sufficient strength to permit additional floors being erected at some future date.”

Also from the same article, interesting to see that the possibility of building over Davisville was considered decades ago.

1616431201268.png
 
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Its my understanding that Greenwood Yard was designed with being built over in mind.
Given Greenwood Yard used to be a clay quarry and then a landfill site, I can imagine the structural engineers of 2021 sucking air through their teeth if they were asked to provide a cost estimate...

Regardless, I can imagine the local NIMBYs kicking up all manner of fuss - given you'd need to build pretty tall and dense to make enough money back to pay for the decking!
 
Given Greenwood Yard used to be a clay quarry and then a landfill site, I can imagine the structural engineers of 2021 sucking air through their teeth if they were asked to provide a cost estimate...

Regardless, I can imagine the local NIMBYs kicking up all manner of fuss - given you'd need to build pretty tall and dense to make enough money back to pay for the decking!

The landfill was removed when the yard was built; the TTC excavated 75 feet deep of wasted and trucked it out.

I'll leave the judgement on costs to those in engineering, which is not my background; but as its clear this was looked into and planned for at the time of construction, I can't imagine it being all the exorbitant; but perhaps I'm wrong.
 

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