TTC to launch 60 new made-in-Canada streetcars by 2025

Sixty new streetcars will join the TTC’s fleet by 2025—and all of them will be made in Canada.

The transit agency made the announcement on Friday morning, when the first new streetcars entered service with an inaugural run on the 504 King Street route. The streetcars, produced by Alstom in Thunder Bay, are funded by all three levels of government at a combined cost of $568 million.

The growing fleet of streetcars is part of the TTC’s long-term goals to meet ridership growth and demand.

“Transit has been a priority for me since day one. Increasing the number of streetcars on our roads means shorter wait times, more capacity, and more reliable service for transit users,” said Mayor Olivia Chow in a press release. “As Toronto continues to grow and we look for ways to improve peoples’ commutes, we need to continue to work with all levels of government to make more transit options available.”

During a press conference for the announcement, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland said the new streetcars will facilitate a “faster, more comfortable commute to wherever you want to go in Toronto.”

“And they represent great jobs for people in Thunder Bay for hardworking, highly skilled union workers in that great Canadian city,” she continued. “Creating good paying middle-class jobs across Canada, across Ontario, is a cornerstone of our economic plan. And a thriving Toronto and Toronto thriving absolutely depends on having a thriving public transit system.”

In her remarks, Freeland added that the federal government has committed $10.4 billion to upcoming transit infrastructure projects in the GTA, including the Scarborough subway extension, the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, the Ontario Line, and the Yonge North subway extension.

“We are really, really ambitious and we are building for our growing city, our growing province and our growing country,” she said.

The city initially ordered 13 new streetcars from Bombardier in 2020 but bought 47 more the following year after securing federal and provincial government funds.

The order came despite its previous purchase of 204 streetcars from Bombardier, which was plagued by delays that resulted in the TTC rebuilding some of its decades-old vehicles to keep up with demand.

It prompted the city to sue Bombardier in 2016 to recoup some of those costs.

Alstom took over the Thunder Bay facility after purchasing Bombardier’s rail division in 2020.

The remaining cars are scheduled to be delivered throughout 2023, 2024 and 2025.

The new streetcars are part of a wider vehicle procurement strategy approved by the TTC board in 2020 that also involved buying 1,422 new electric buses, 522 new Wheel-Trans buses and 80 new subway trains.