If you were out and about before the crack of dawn Thursday morning you may have gotten a glimpse at the next generation of TTC streetcars.
But if you so much as blinked, you would have missed it.
At around 4 a.m. the city’s newest streetcar made its maiden voyage, a five-kilometre jaunt from the TTC’s Hillcrest storage yard to Bathurst subway station.
According to a news release, the trip was taken to see how the streetcar would perform on city streets.
A number of similar test runs are planned for the coming days and weeks, including a 2:30 a.m. run from the Hillcrest facility to Exhibition loop Friday morning.
“Since the first test streetcar arrived in Toronto last fall, TTC and Bombardier engineers and staff have conducted static tests on functions such as air conditioning, heating, lighting, CCTV cameras, stop announcements, ergonomics and many other components of the vehicle,” the news release states. “The next phase of testing moves to Toronto streets and includes power, braking, coupling/towing, clearance, cameras, doors and much more before the streetcar can be commissioned for service, scheduled for the first quarter of 2014. Testing locations and times will broaden and occur across the city over the next several months.”
The streetcar, one of 204 that have been ordered by the city, is about double the size of previous streetcars, carries about 68 more passengers and comes equipped with a lower floor to improve accessibility and an air conditioning system.
The new fleet comes with a price tag of about $1.19 billion.
“Hats off to the brilliant #TTC and Bombardier vehicle engineers and support staff for making this maiden trip a success,” TTC spokesperson Brad Ross wrote on Twitter Thursday morning.
The TTC has previously said that the streetcars will be placed on the 510 Spadina route first and then on other lines across the city.
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