TORONTO — Toronto’s transit agency is preparing to sell the rolling stock from its defunct Scarborough Rapid Transit line to Detroit, the CBC reports.
The Detroit Transportation Corp. has approved purchasing the equipment and parts for up to $1 million and would also cover the transportation costs, DTC General Manager Robert Cramer told the CBC. The equipment would be used on the Detroit’s People Mover, a 2.94-mile elevated, automated downtown rail system. Details remain to be worked out, he said: “We’re not talking about small things.”
Toronto Transit Commission spokesman Stuart Green told the CBC the deal would involve five trainsets. Two other trainsets will be retained for preservation.
The Scarborough line was shut down following a July derailment that saw one car detach from the rest of its four-car trainset and derail, sending five people to the hospital. The line had already been scheduled to close in November — it will eventually be replaced by a subway line slated to open in 2030 — and officials elected not to reopen it, given the amount of time it was going to take to complete a review of the derailment [see “Toronto’s Scarborough RT line will not reopen …,” Trains News Wire, Aug. 24, 2023]. The 6.4-kilometer (4-mile), six-station line was a technological orphan, not compatible with the rest of the Toronto subway system.
Green told the CBC that the rolling stock is in good condition, and that the problem in Scarborough was with the line’s track. The cars had been refurbished in 2015.
There were three such systems, all Standard RR Gauge (1435mm).
It was an Ontario project so Scarborough was the test line, and was operated by TTC. Track gauge was 1435mm versus Toronto gauge of 1495mm. The cars use linear induction motors.
Detroit’s People Mover was next, followed by Vancouver’s Skytrain. The cars are smaller than most rapid transit which allowed Vancouver to stack double track over/under in a single track railway tunnel. Vancouver’s Canada Line uses conventional technology, not the UTDC technology.
I always thought the linear induction motors sounded like a TARDIS getting underway.
Vancouver also the same railcars which will be retired in the next few years
All those years I thought Detroit DPM was a one-off. Who knew the world has two trains of the same strange format?
I wonder if the Toronto cars have the same unique three-stage acceleration as the DPM? Pulling out of each station, the electric motors sound like gears one, two and three of my ’72 Dodge Dart, but smoother shifting.
Does anyone know who built the Detroit and Toronto cars (or both)? Was it Bombardier (or a predecessor)?
Both the Detroit People Mover and the Toronto cars were developed and built by the Urban Transportation Development Corporation (UTDC) of Kingston, Ontario, then an Ontario Crown corporation, but later sold to Bombardier Transportation.