Transit City to use Standard Gauge Track
The Toronto Star reported yesterday that the TTC has agreed to build Transit City lines to standard gauge (4′-8.5″), instead of the TTC gauge (4′-10.875″) that is used on the subway and legacy streetcar lines.
Until recently, I had been on the fence about what gauge should be used, actually leaning towards TTC gauge. The primary reason for this is that shared maintenance facilities could be beneficial. That reason is only a possibility for the St. Clair streetcar line, but would first require that line to be extended west to Jane Street, plus would require the construction of the Jane LRT line to provide a way for St. Clair cars to reach the Eglinton maintenance facility.
Now, with the possibility of extending St. Clair west fading away, and the start of construction for Jane to be a decade away (or more), this benefit is a bit of a moot point.
The presumed benefit of standard gauge equipment is that there may be a cost benefit, partly due to mass orders with other future LRT systems, and partly due to a more open bidding process as most vendors have off-the-shelf models ready to go in standard gauge.
The TTC’s early orders for Sheppard, Finch, and Eglinton are large enough that quantity pricing will be there already. In the future, if a small order is needed, doing so as part of a larger order with other systems (Hamilton, KW, Ottawa, …) could be a real benefit.
Having more vendors bid can bring prices down, or at least give that impression. Giving another contract to Bombardier may not sit well with the public, whether or not it may be the most economical provider. Bombardier does have a benefit in that maintenance costs could be lower if TC cars are of the same basic design as the legacy cars. Common training and parts inventory can lower costs, and even though legacy cars are single-ended with trolley poles and TC cars will be double-ended with pantographs, there will be a lot of common spare parts and repair procedures.
I suspect a big advantage to using standard gauge will be the ability to borrow or lease cars from other systems, either to test a new model or to provide extra capacity to meet some short-term need. Re-gauging cars may not be as easy with low floor models as it is with high floor models. With high floor cars, it is a matter of changing the trucks. With low floor, if the design permits, it could be as easy as an adjustment, but if the design did not take that into account, then it could be nearly impossible.
The legacy system and Transit City will differ in supply voltage, 600 volts on the legacy system and 750 on Transit City. This, however, does not prevent one type of car from operating on the other system as modern electronic control systems can handle this variance.
Other than deadhead moves, there is no reason for the legacy network and Transit City to be interconnected. Legacy cars will only have doors on one side and will require loops at the end of the line while TC cars require cross-overs at the end of lines and cannot negotiate the 11 metre radius curves on the legacy network, not to mention the fact that their pantographs will snag on some of the overhead infrastructure.
One benefit from choosing standard gauge will come in some cost savings in the conversion of the SRT to LRT. That line is already standard gauge and in theory, coversion will just be a matter of removing the reaction rail and the power rails and installing overhead wiring. In practice, it won’t be quite that easy, as the at-grade part of the SRT may not have clearance enough between the two tracks, so at least one track will have to be shifted. Still, the other should be able to be used as-is, and the tracks on the elevated section should have the necessary clearance. We will have to see how this benefits the conversion or not.
January 10th, 2010 at 3:28 pm
There is of course the use of dual gauge. See this article for more information.
Cal’s comment: This is somewhat impossible with standard and TTC gauges. Even the Wikipedia entry cited says, “For dual-gauge track to be achievable using three rails, the difference between the gauges needs to be at least as wide as the foot of the rail.” The difference between the two is 2.375″ - barely the width of the rail head, let alone the foot of the rail!
The only dual gauge track that is possible is with four rails offset enough, which leads to a slightly wider median needed where it runs in a median. I’m not so sure that the benefits of sharing a maintenance facility outweighs the extra costs of construction and maintenance of four-rail dual gauge track.
April 2nd, 2011 at 11:40 am
What we want to do is remove as much vehicle customization as possible, because we think we can achieve better value for the taxpayer by taking an international off-the-shelf standard design, basically the same proven LRT vehicles that are used elsewhere in Canada, the U.S. and Europe.
Cal’s comment: Absolutely, and with Metrolinx responsible for the ordering of vehicles, their larger scope translates into improved buying power for not only Toronto LRVs, but also for other systems such as Mississauga, Hamilton, Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge, Ottawa, and so on.
May 20th, 2011 at 3:50 am
One benefit from choosing standard gauge will come in some cost savings in the conversion of the SRT to LRT. That line is already standard gauge and in theory, coversion will just be a matter of removing the reaction rail and the power rails and installing overhead wiring. In practice, it won’t be quite that easy, as the at-grade part of the SRT may not have clearance enough between the two tracks, so at least one track will have to be shifted. Still, the other should be able to be used as-is, and the tracks on the elevated section should have the necessary clearance. We will have to see how this benefits the conversion or not.