Historic view from Harvey Shop

Rail Vehicle Engineering hosted the American Public Transportation Association’s Streetcar Sub-Committee recently.

More than 30 representatives were in Toronto for two days (Aug. 13-14) to examine the magnitude and complexity of introducing safe, accessible and user-friendly, low-floor vehicles to a mature legacy streetcar network. The sub-committee is preparing a Modern Streetcar Selection Guideline for North America.

Presentations were made by TTC staff from Strategy and Service Planning, Track Engineering, Electrical (Overhead) Engineering, Farecard Team, Vehicle Maintenance and Technical Services, Maintenance and Storage Facilities and Rail Vehicle Engineering. The group was officially welcomed by TTC Chair Karen Stintz.

The delegates toured Transit Control and Harvey Shop where they were treated to a special viewing of the Peter Witt and the low-floor streetcar mock-up side by side. The group also visited Bombardier’s Thunder Bay plant.

“I think they were very impressed with the expertise and experience demonstrated by staff participating in the sessions, as well as the capabilities of TCC and the Shop,” said Stephen Lam, Chief Engineer – Rail Vehicle Engineering.

The mock-up was on public display at Hillcrest last November. The first prototype low-floor streetcar is scheduled to be delivered next month.