The Toronto Transit Commission says there will be no streetcars along the 501 Queen route until the transit agency can figure out how to repair damaged brakes.
The TTC said buses will replace streetcars until at least Monday morning.
Braking issues were discovered on Wednesday evening into the overnight hours on at least 25 streetcars, prompting the TTC to pull its entire new fleet of 35 streetcars off the tracks.
“In order to allow crews to complete their inspections and get as many cars as possible repaired, we are planning for bus replacement service to continue until Monday morning or until such time as the track is declared safe for operations and we make significant progress on repairs to the damaged streetcars,” the TTC said in an updated statement released Thursday afternoon.
The TTC had first said the issue is not with the main braking system, but the supplementary braking systems on the streetcars, all roughly in the same spot.
During inspection, the TTC sent out a specially equipped streetcar with crews and cameras and did real-time analysis of the track between Neville Park and Long Branch.
“That revealed nothing out of ordinary along the main part of the 501 route to identify potential trouble spots,” the statement said.
The transit agency tested the 501 main line again to confirm there are no issues. The TTC is also consulting with two companies with expertise in rail operations and vehicle engineering to figure out what could be causing the brake damage.
The TTC said its mechanics have been working with Bombardier to get the parts needed and make repairs so that the 25 streetcars can be put back in service.
In the meantime, the TTC has increased the number of streetcars along 504 King Street and 506 Carlton so that commuters have more options in case they don’t want to use the buses.
“It takes about three-ish buses to replace one streetcar, so we know it’s going to be a little bit crowded, especially during peak rush hour,” TTC spokesperson Kadeem Griffiths said.
“So we’ve increased the number of streetcars on parallel routes.”
— With files from Kamil Karamali.
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