Streetcars are back in operation along Queen Street in Toronto after a mysterious braking issue forced the transit agency to pull the fleet off the tracks on Wednesday afternoon.
TTC originally decided to replace the streetcars with buses until Monday, but after completing rail inspections along the entire 501 route, streetcar service resumed Saturday morning.
Braking issues were discovered on Wednesday evening into the overnight hours on at least 25 streetcars, prompting the TTC to remove its entire new fleet of 35 streetcars.
The TTC had first said the issue was not with the main braking system, but with 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 was also consulting with two companies with expertise in rail operations and vehicle engineering to figure out what could be causing the brake damage.
— with files from Gabby Rodrigues and Kamil Karamali