Could the Red Rocket retire to Florida?

Should the Rocket be teal? That's one line of comment on Metro Jacksonville, a civic affairs website that examines issues and solutions for Florida's largest city.

Apparently teal is the colour of the Jacksonville Jaguars, that city's football team.

The site suggests Jacksonville buy the TTC's old cars if it the city decides to join the streetcar renaissance that's been going on in places like Portland, San Diego and Houston.

Jacksonville, it says, has a mobility plan that could fund fixed rail around 2030, according to the site. But it could be nearly that long before Toronto is ready to let go of its CLRVs and ALRVs, which won't be immediately sold or scrapped when the new light rail vehicles arrive in Bombardier starting in 2013.

Because we're already short of streetcars, the existing 35-year-old models will still be needed to furnish the existing 11 downtown lines.

Metro Jacksonville suggests that buying Toronto's old Rockets would save the city millions if it decides to jump aboard light rail. But the website is also clear that Toronto's cars would be a victory for substance over style: "While many may not view the CLRV as being "sexy" like the modern streetcar, cost savings would be in the tens of millions, considering modern streetcars run as much as $3 million per vehicle," says the website.

 

Comments

[Darwin O'Connor]

The maintenance costs would be high. They will probably go to a developing country who can't afford the high cost of new streetcars on the world market but could pay the high maintenance costs because of lower wages.

The last large group of Toronto streetcars where sold to Alexandria, Egypt (Yes, the one from the news).

[MattH]

Extensive accessibility retrofits including either wheelchair lifts or retrofits to allow high level boarding would be needed if Toronto's old streetcars cars were ever sold to the US, due to the Americans with Disabilities Act, which now requires that new public transit lines be accessible to people with disabilities. Plus given how much $$ the TTC spends to maintain its cars which are already falling apart and unreliable due to their age, it would likely be more cost effective to just buy new cars, or at least newer used cars.