Updated June 28, 2015: Additional historical information from TTC Budgets has been added to the end of this article.
Ever since the introduction of the articulated streetcars back when the earth was still cooling, automatic track switches have been plagued with less-than-ideal reliability of the new system that was installed to operate them. This was triggered by the different lengths of ALRVs and, hence, the different distance from the front of the car to the point where the trolley pole sits on the overhead. A system based on a contactor on the overhead simply would not work with the ALRVs. The new system uses antennae at the front and rear of each car together with antennae in the pavement. This system allows the “front” of the car (rather than the rear) to signal the direction it wants to turn, and also provides a lock-unlock logic based on the rear end antenna passing the switch.
A project to replace this system has been on the books for years, but with little progress. Meanwhile, many switches that should be automatic (and through that automation interface with traffic signals) are manual. At the newly opened Queens Quay and Spadina, a pointman operates the switches.
I wrote to the TTC about this situation. Here are my questions and their replies.
Q: With the Queens Quay project finishing, an issue has shown up (again) that the switches at Queens Quay and Spadina are still being manually operated usually by a point duty operator, sometimes by the streetcar ops themself.
A: We are in the process of prioritizing restoration of a number of out-of-service switches in the network. Resources will be made available to restore the four (4) switches on Spadina and Queens Quay as a top priority.
Q: This delays service and also means that the transit priority signals cannot work as intended because they don’t “know” where a car intends to go. Two points:
For years there has been a budgeted project to update the switch electronics because the old equipment has never been reliable.
A: We would not characterize the equipment in those terms. We are short of replacement parts due to the OEM changing ownership, losing interest in supplying parts, and that the original design files were lost in a major fire.
Q: If I remember correctly, this was one of the projects sloughed off to 2016 due to budget cuts. Is this correct?
A: We are still working on a new equivalent design and taking steps to secure its safety certification. Our objective is to create a controller with identical functionalities and a design that we own and take control.
Q: A commenter on my blog claims that there are long delays because Hydro must to an inspection when a switch is activated. Switches that are ready to be energized sit for months in manual mode. Is this correct?
A: New installation of wiring and controller must be performed in accordance with Hydro’s electrical safety code. Safety inspection by Hydro can indeed be a lengthy process. We would normally submit our application for inspection partway through the Work to reduce wait time gap.
There really is only one obvious question left here: if this were a subway signal system, would the problem have been left outstanding this long?
Updated June 28, 2015:
On the afternoon of June 27, an eastbound streetcar on Queens Quay at the entrance to Queens Quay Loop took an open switch and turned into the side of a westbound car. As luck would have it, this was one of the new LRVs, 4404. The story was covered in brief by CBC and several photos appeared on Twitter including this overhead view. The Star also has an article.
In their response to my series of questions, the TTC took issue with my statement about reliability of electric switches. For the record, here is the TTC’s own description of this project from the 2015 Capital Budget.
This description is notable on a few counts. First, it is quite clear that the TTC acknowledges that the existing technology needs to be improved for reliability. This is not a question of reproducing an existing system.
Second, it is noteworthy that the existing system is described as having been in service “for approximately 20 years”. The need to shift from a system based on trolley poles and overhead contactors to one using radio signals and loops buried in pavement arose with the introduction of the articulated streetcars over 30 years ago. This project has been on the books for some time, and like many projects in the budget, some of the text may get copied from year to year without careful editing. Back in the 2011 budget, the corresponding project description stated that the TTC was still working on design alternatives for the new LRVs and Transit City, text that appears unchanged in the 2015 version above. The project, then as now, had an estimated final cost of $15m.
In the 2015 budget, the spending plan looked like this:
This is quite clearly a four-year project stretching out to 2018, and it will not be finished overnight.
In the 2016 Capital Budget Preview, this project shows up among the streetcar-related items.
Note that $13m remains to be spent, and by comparison with the 2015 plans, it is clear little work will actually occur until at best 2016 because the already-spent $2m is in past years.
Will the TTC finally take this project seriously? Toronto’s is not the only streetcar system on the planet, and other cities have track switching systems that have worked reliably for decades.
Steve Munro 
I’m guessing that having Fred Flintstone release a trained chimpanzee to throw the switch before and after the streetcar has not worked out. Guess the rising cost of bananas was too much, along with the protests from Bob Barker, negated that arrangement.
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How come a Hydro inspection is required? The electrical requirements aren’t anything major – it’s not like TTC is hooking up a 100kW motor or using a 5kV supply. It shoudl be sufficient that the installation be signed-off by an electrician.
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Hi Steve
Why can’t the TTC copy what other systems have done worldwide that have the same issues with different car lengths?
Take Milan. They have the Witt’s, two types of six axle cars, various lengths of Breda cars and longer BBD cars. Yet, their electric switches seem to work quite well. As it stands, we are going to have three different car lengths for quite some time so why not get this working?
Thanks!
Steve: Not invented here syndrome?
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So what is the difference in how other systems with variable car lengths work and how the TTC’s system works? Do they still use pavement loops and antennae?
Steve: I am quite sure they use some form of radio communication from the front of the car. The difference is that it works reliably. In some cities, routes are lined through intersections before the car arrives at the switch.
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Anything over 48 V, IIRC, is considered high voltage and has to be signed of by the Electrical Inspection Agency, after it is connected by Hydro unless they are allowed to sign off on their own connections. Ontario may take safety to an extremely high level but your chances of electrocuting yourself are much smaller than they would be in many countries.
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The Hydro inspection is a horrible excuse. I have worked on a large number of projects from large industrial to condo buildings with high and low voltage and never had to wait more than a week to schedule an ESA/Hydro inspection. Not sure why TTC is any different especially for something like a switch that probably operates at low voltage.
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Haha … oh man … so the equipment is not reliable, it’s the OEM has just given up on the product due to lack of giving a crap.
The TTC itself however seems to have also decided to re-design their own system (sounds like a great use of funds … because nobody has ever designed a streetcar switch that works automatically).
It also seems that their switches which operate once every couple of minutes are powered by some sort of huge amount of power – instead of charging some sort of capacitor or battery with 48V power and then be hooked up with less requirements. Honestly just bury a 12V car battery with the switch and go around once a year and change the batteries.
Honestly the Council needs to take a look at this project and do something … the CEO report should track how many of the switches are operational.
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I really don’t get what the TTC is doing designing their own system. There are many off the shelf systems available for switching streetcar tracks, most of which can automatically throw the switch for the correct route without the operator having to do anything. Some of the newer digital systems don’t even require loop antennas buried in the street, just a very compact antenna that can be mounted on the overhead.
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I have a hard time accepting this idea, that what must be a relatively small cost is pushed out. Correcting these nearly invisible issues, is a huge factor in the delivery quality service. The failure to do so raises serious questions with regards to how seriously the TTC takes service delivery – versus simply having vehicles on the road.
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Unbeknownst to anyone – including Steve, egad! – the switches along Queen’s Quay (and elsewhere, it is rumored) are powered via *really* long wires hooked up to the top of the CN Tower. They only function automatically during episodes of extreme lightning, where the power from the strikes that hit the top of the tower travels down the Tower’s …
What’s amazing is how forward-thinking the TTC was in having this network of wires connected to the grounding rods when the Tower was originally built in order to help out with powering all the streetcar switches in the downtown core. It may also help to explain why some contributors on this site have, in the past, brought up switches that aren’t always in the positions that they’re supposed to be in…. Darn that Mother Nature!
Oh, and Hydro are just annoyed that TTC is taking advantage of free power – the income from the electricity used by all the streetcars isn’t enough, you see – so they’re in no hurry to perform any inspections or give any approval to the transit agency….
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I must say I agree with Malcolm N when he says
It is the same kind of mind-set that obsesses on the schedule rather than the headway, that fails to put up proper signage informing customers of diversions and then fails to remove outdated signage when the diversion is over.
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It looks like there was a collision involving a CLRV and 4404 on Saturday morning at Queens Quay and Spadina loop. It’s purely speculation on my part but from the overhead photos it looked like an eastbound car took the switch entering the loop and hit the westbound 4404 which was passing through that intersection. Derailment of 4404 followed. Oh TTC…
I should add that I don’t know if it was driver error or a switch malfunction that caused this collision but given the topic the timing couldn’t have been better (worse?)
Steve: I have posted comments on the Twitter feed from CBC Toronto in the hopes of stirring up this issue, again. There is a basic point: operators are responsible for verifying switch positions before they move, and a Union Station bound car clearly took the curve. Because we know these switches have not yet been energized, this one certainly could not have magically opened under the car. Where was the pointman? It was raining. Did the operators get distracted and assume the switch was properly aligned? Who knows. It’s time for the TTC to address this issue which has been outstanding for years, and explain why they don’t simply install a system that is “off the shelf” and proven other cities.
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What kind of damage did the Flexity sustain? What’s the typical turnaround to repair a streetcar and get it back in service? Hoping this is purely cosmetic damage.
Similarly, that collision that occurred at Broadview a while back, I think with a bus, and it crushed the front end of the streetcar. Did that car get rebuilt? Retired? Ongoing?
Steve: I will leave this for responses for “well informed” commenters.
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I boarded a streetcar for Union at this intersection shortly before the accident happened this afternoon. The point man was busy scurrying back and forth between the the Spadina switch and the Queen’s Quay loop switch as well as redirecting the automobiles that were frequently turning onto the streetcar right-of-way from Spadina – and yes, the weather was miserable.
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For those who are following this thread, the article has been updated with information from the 2015 and 2016 Capital Budgets.
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Going back to your post on the 2013 capital budget, the requirements given then were as follows:
– switch position detection and indication (so operators know how a switch is set even in the dark, rain or snow)
– switch mechanical or electrical locking
– use of higher quality “vital relays” for what is considered a safety application
I wonder how much of this has survived the last couple of years. If wayside indicators are coming they’re going to run out of places to put them in places like Queens Quay because the posts are already well populated.
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There is a crew working on the box at Queens Quay and Spadina this morning (Monday) the first weekday after the accident at the loop. Surely it is a coincidence…
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What happened to the rule that cars are not to pass each other at intersections with special work? Now we can see why. As the CLRV was signed for Union Station it was probably not going into the loop. Maybe they can fix the pan on 4404 while they fix any other damage done to it.
Steve: That is one of those TTC rules made up to avoid dealing with other problems, notably electric switches that don’t work.
There was an article in Metro News on June 17 stating the TTC has started to scrap CLRVs and it has a picture.
A number of the European systems I rode last year had lights on the overhead or poles that showed the alignment of the switches. Most of them were [whatever character was typed here showed up as a blank in the comment] but some were \, |, or /. Whatever is used it would be a help. There was also a nice assortment of colours that were nor red, orange or green. My favourite was neon blue.
Steve: But the Ministry of Transportation says that we only need vertical bars. The Great and Powerful Oz has spoken!
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In which the TTC confirms almost everything Steve has ever posted about TTC streetcar switches.
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Once all CLRV’s and ALRV’s retire, making the entire fleet uniform length, can the TTC switch back to the old contact-on-wire system? You once said that the old contact-on-wire system doesn’t work with pantographs, but there’s a comment online saying that it does, using a second wire for the pantograph to contact.
Steve: There will still be a mixed fleet for at least the next five years, possibly longer, and we need a system that works today.
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So what I want to know is can an antennae-based system be reliable enough such that streetcars travelling in the straight-through direction do not have to slow down at all? It’s hard to find answers on how other systems around the world operate, but I noticed that the Hong Kong LRT, for example, slows down at every switch (not a complete stop).
Steve: It varies from city to city — some are slow-and-proceed, some proceed without slowing down at all (usually accompanied by traffic signals that are already clear for the streetcar when it arrives. Obviously in the latter case, route selection is handled further from the switch and is based on vehicle tracking info.
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It seems the recent MetroNews article is telling a different story from the TTC document of 2014/09/19. The TTC document says the current switch control system should be replaced while the MetroNews article says that the TTC is hiring a consultant to reverse engineer the current devices in order to recreate design info lost in a fire in order to manufacture replacement parts. So did the TTC abandon the idea of replacing the switch control system?
Steve: I really don’t know, but considering the same department is responsible for the switches as brought us the totally cocked-up mess with signalling contracts on the subway, anything is possible.
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The LFLRV/CLRV caught the attention of Byford who then raised hell with Toronto Hydro; A/C power has been hooked up and passed. Test cars are currently being used to check the antennae looping/controllers/D/C motors and all switches should be in service by mid week.
Yes the new operator of the Union bound streetcar did not check the switch and may be looking for new employment; however, if the switches were working electrically it would have (hopefully) restored for the straight. Even at high speed there is a safety to restore to mainline. Unfortunately even in regular conditions both the switch and the streetcar have to be both working for everything to mesh, which is why the operator is the safety net.
4404 suffered significant body damage to the closed side affecting 3 modules both high and low. The open side received relatively minor damage to 1 module both high and low (pole contact). It is currently at Hillcrest with an unknown return date.
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As a quick side note 4151 was retired from service June 22 2014 out of Roncesvalles Carhouse being stripped of some parts and towed in a 3 car train to Hillcrest.
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Indeed. On a snowy winter’s day it’s astonishing to watch a streetcar driver stop at a switch, exit the car and sweep the track with a broom to verify the switch setting. Hello, TTC? It’s the 21st century calling! Outdated procedures such as this slow streetcar and auto operations and give the impression that LRT is yesterday’s technology.
I don’t understand why the ATU has not objected to this practice as being dangerous and unsafe given current traffic volume. Does anyone have any insight into this?
Steve: Yes, I too have wondered why ATU does not object to this. The TTC is very big on “safety” when it suits them.
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It really seems to reflect a culture in the TTC that has given up on fixing things. Either there is a lack of concern, or somehow there is a perception that there is so much obstruction from outside it (or within), that things simply can’t get fixed so why try. To what degree are the TTC’s hands tied when it comes to spending money? Is there a reasonable way to allocate reasonable funds without requiring a signature from 200 different people and an OK from the mayor’s office?
Steve: The attitude to electric switches, their reliability and number, goes back decades, long before money was an issue for TTC maintenance.
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This is sad – because it really makes the operation of the TTC harder, and frankly makes it look penny ante. Keeping the trains running on time – so to speak (as it should include buses as well) – is the mark of a well run organization. We should be talking about capacity at Union Station, and large capital items and being the real issues, however, this trumps that – and makes the TTC look sad.
Toronto should have electric switches, and a top line signal priority system at this point, although it should also have a closed ROW from the end of the Queensway to downtown, and out to at least just beyond the Don. However, at least the last 2 look like real dollars, not basic management and keeping up to date. While we look for mega projects, one wonders how much impact just a disciplined service culture and the basic fixes and tweaks would have on transit in Toronto. Gee would signal timing, enforcement, electrifying and bringing to a state of reliable function and decent dispatch solve a huge chunk of the current problems.
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