TORONTO — Five people were sent to the hospital with injuries Monday evening after a Toronto Transit Commission subway car separated from the rest of its train and derailed, the CBC reports.
None of the injuries were critical, according to Toronto Fire Services.
The accident was reported about 7:30 p.m. on TTC’s Scarborough Line near Kennedy and Ellesmere roads. The Ellesmere station on the 4-mile, 6-station line is closed, with service replaced by shuttle buses. Forty-four people were evacuated from the train.
CityNews Toronto reports that TTC CEO Rick Leary said he has ordered an immediate review of the incident, “using outside help and expertise as necessary,” and that the buses will replace Scarborough line service until the agency is “confident it is safe to resume train service.“I think we have to ask ourselves, is the system safe? Obviously at this point, the answer is no,”
In a Twitter post this morning (Tuesday, Jan. 25), the TTC said rail service could be replaced by buses for “several days at minimum” while the incident is reviewed.
The derailment prompted questions about the safety of the Scarborough line and the Toronto transit system as a whole, CTV News Toronto reports.
The Scarborough line is an orphan in the Toronto rail system, using four-car, lighter-weight trains unlike the rest of the subway. It is slated to be closed in November [see “Toronto transit board votes to shut down …,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 11, 2021]. It will be replaced by buses until the Bloor-Danforth line, with which it connects, is extended to serve its route in 2030.
Scarborough Centre Council member Michael Thompson, noting the line has exceeded its planned lifespan by almost 10 years, told media members at the derailment scene, “I think we have to ask ourselves, is the system safe? Obviously at this point, the answer is no.” And the advocacy group TTCriders said the TTC system is facing a state-of-good-repair backlog of C$6.3 billion over the next 10 years, and that an investigation of the incident needs to consider critical funding gaps in the state-of-good-repair program.
— Updated July 25 at 7:10 a.m. CDT with additional information.
Did the derailment lead to the car separation, or did the separation come first, then a derailment? Did the coupling break or just twist apart? How far was the stopped train from the derailed car? Both trucks derailed, or just one? Real dearth of info in many of these reports and often no follow up with further reports.
The Scarborough LRT was intended to be the prototype for many automated Light Rapid Transit systems. In the event, only the first part of Vancouver’s Skytrain and Detroit’s People Mover were built.
Linear Induction Motors provide propulsion and track gauge is Standard RR 1435 mm instead of Toronto gauge of 1495 mm.
According to the TTC’s website, Line 3 is a 6.4-kilometre intermediate capacity rapid transit line with six stations that opened in 1985, and that its trains have been in service 10 years past their design life. It notes they are “susceptible to cold weather, and have already been overhauled to ensure safe reliable service.”
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
Approximately 45 people were on the train when the derailment occurred. Many of those people then had to walk down the tracks to Ellesmere Station after the rear car was separated. At this point the cause of the incident is not clear, though the city councillor for the area told reporters at the scene that questions should be asked about the safety of the trains.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün