It was a tacked-on retrofit of a planned ambitious interurban streetcar network, converted to a light rail system after a lot of it was already built. The trains don’t even use some of the built track. This used technology that was completely different from the rest of the network and only found there within all of Toronto. The sharp corners the cars weren’t particularly designed for effected loud shrieking guitarless metal heard far and wide, loud and clear at the Kennedy bus platforms. When it came time to decide the future of the line, the planners decided to blow it up and start it anew (well, turn it into a three-station extension to Line 2); among other things, all of the above plus relatively low usage and decades of inattention prior to the “what now?” discussions made their usual maintenance unprepared and inadept. In fact, just four months before the planned closure, a train derailed due to failures of track maintenance.
btw as mentioned below, line 3 was cut to make way for replacing it with a line 2 extension
Yeah, the Wikipedia article is pretty long and I can’t really make out what’s going on easily. Did they not have funding to maintain both?
It was a tacked-on retrofit of a planned ambitious interurban streetcar network, converted to a light rail system after a lot of it was already built. The trains don’t even use some of the built track. This used technology that was completely different from the rest of the network and only found there within all of Toronto. The sharp corners the cars weren’t particularly designed for effected loud shrieking guitarless metal heard far and wide, loud and clear at the Kennedy bus platforms. When it came time to decide the future of the line, the planners decided to blow it up and start it anew (well, turn it into a three-station extension to Line 2); among other things, all of the above plus relatively low usage and decades of inattention prior to the “what now?” discussions made their usual maintenance unprepared and inadept. In fact, just four months before the planned closure, a train derailed due to failures of track maintenance.
If you’re into 15-minute videos, try this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvwmiSU7zLY&pp=ygUQbGluZSAzIHJtdHJhbnNpdA%3D%3D
I do like 15-minute videos! Thank you!
It’s interesting it still was decent to ride, according to this, in spite of the nightmare backstory.