November 17, 2023 (Toronto, ON) – A new TTC staff report warns that less reliable subway service and more crowded trains are on the horizon if aging subway trains on Line 2 are not replaced. Transit advocacy group TTCriders is calling on Premier Ford and Prime Minister Trudeau to chip in for new trains on the TTC’s Line 2, and to add new trains to Line 1.
“I depend heavily on the TTC subway for my daily commute to York University,” said transit user Johannes Mahr. “I cannot risk service disruptions -- it is imperative that Premier Ford and Prime Minister Trudeau fund replacement trains so there are no service disruptions to the millions of riders like myself that depend on the TTC daily.”
Earlier this year on June 23rd, 2023 the TTC canceled its previously-issued Request for Proposals for new subway trains, due to a lack of secured funds to procure the trains. The City of Toronto has already allocated $800 million for their share of the funding required, but funding from provincial and federal governments is needed.
The TTC’s latest staff report updates the total cost to be between $3.23 billion to $3.74 billion, depending on how early funding is acquired. Without funding support from all levels of government in early 2024, the cost of replacing aging Line 2 trains could increase dramatically, and require costly measures to extend the life of aging trains and systems.
“As a Line 2 user for my whole life, I'm concerned about the lack of provincial and federal funding for a replacement of the current Line 2 fleet,” says TTCRiders member David Cho. “Without additional trains on Line 1, the subway will become overcrowded and there won’t be enough service on the Line 2 Scarborough Subway Extension.”
The new trains will not only be required to replace the aging T1 trains currently operating on Line 2, but also to increase service on Line 1 to meet capacity demands and serve subway extensions under construction.
“Ordering new trains now is urgent because it’s not like ordering a package from Amazon,” said August Puranauth. “The process to procure and then manufacture new trains can take many years. The Line 1 Toronto Rocket trains took 6 years from design to entering service in 2011.”
The TTC report notes that if full funding for new trains is secured in early 2024, trains will be delivered between 2030 and 2035. The report also warns that delaying new trains will limit the possibility of adding platform edge doors on Line 2, which requires Automatic Train Control. Without these features, overcrowding and reliability on Line 2 will worsen.
The current fleet of T1 trains entered service between 1995 and 2001 with an anticipated life span of approximately 30 years. Per the TTC’s capital budget plan, the already-extensive state-of-good repair (SOGR) backlog is estimated to grow to $6 billion over the next 10 years.
The TTC also faces a major operating budget shortfall of $366 million in 2023, contributing to Toronto’s operating budget shortfall of $1.5 billion for 2024, which could put TTC bus and subway service restoration in jeopardy. TTCriders is urging the provincial and federal governments to provide permanent transit operations funding to run the TTC.
Link to TTC staff report: https://cdn.ttc.ca/-/media/Project/TTC/DevProto/Documents/Home/Public-Meetings/Board/2023/November-22/5_New_Subway_Train_Procurement_and_Implications_for_Line_2_Modernization_and_Future_Growth.pdf?rev=69525545960a4030ba991bd23e5cfaa4&hash=A2728849127A8F4B62B4A7358195B372
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