The extended shutdown of Line 2 on May 13 brought the TTC’s work car fleet into the spotlight thanks to multiple equipment failures leading to hydraulic fluid leaks.

In the management presentation, the average age of that fleet was cited as 17 years, but these cars vary greatly in age. Here are the affected cars.

Vehicle	Built	Function	Leak Incident Dates
RT-41	1993	Tie Tamper	Apr. 2/24 & May 16/24
RT-17	1996	Tunnel Washer	Jan. 17/24
RT-7	1998	Locomotive	Feb. 10/24
RT-56	2006	Vacuum & Drain Cleaning	Jan. 14/24 & May 13/24
RT-84	2011	Vacuum Car	May 15/24

Replacement of RT-41 with a new car was proposed in the 2018 Capital Budget along with several other new and replacement cars. The intent was to refresh the fleet and increase capacity to perform more work on the expanding subway network. Most of this program was deferred under CEO Rick Leary, although a second Tie Tamper, RT-21, does now appear in the illustrated list of work cars. RT-41 is well overdue for replacement.

Inspection of all work cars began a few days after the May 13 incident. Sources indicate that fewer than one third of the three dozen cars reviewed in the first two days passed inspection.

Planned work on Line 1 on the May 18-19 weekend was deferred, and it is unclear how the sidelining of RT-41 and other cars might affect planned track repairs.

Questions for the TTC

On May 22, I wrote a series of questions to TTC Media Relations attempting to get an official version of what I had heard from sources. Here are the questions.

1. Can you confirm the failure rate for inspections (over 2/3)?
2. Has all of the fleet been inspected now and what are the results?
3. Will further adjustments be required in maintenance plans?
4. A key vehicle that was not available last weekend was RT-41 the tamper car. According to the fleet diagram included in the board presentation there is another tamper car RT-21. What is its status?
5. In 2018 the capital budget included a multi-year program to replace elderly work cars and expand the fleet including [replacement of] RT-41, but this program was repeatedly pushed into future years. What is its status?
6. Since the pandemic the budget blue books have not been available, although there was talk of an e-version of them. What is the current status?

The TTC’s response on the afternoon of May 22 was not very revealing:

As you know from the Board meeting, we’ve already started the deep dive with external consultants AND our own staff have enhanced our proactive inspections on the workcar fleet.

The results, outcomes and findings will first be shared with our Board when they are known.

I can say that your source has misinformed you in as much as we have not yet inspected the entire fleet as this is a time-consuming process that sometimes requires workcars being shunted from one location to another.

As deficiencies are identified, they are corrected before being the work cars are put into service.

The TTC’s response was less than helpful for all questions:

1. The TTC did not address the failure rate for cars that had been inspected.
2. The TTC claimed my source was incorrect, but misrepresented the question. In fact I asked whether the inspections had been completed, and indirectly they confirmed that the answer is “no”.
3. Not answered.
4. Not answered. Tamper RT-21 is a comparatively new vehicle (it does not appear in 2018 fleet lists). It is not clear why it was unavailable when tamper RT-41 was sidelined.
5. Not answered. The repeated deferral of this project is a matter of record within the budget papers from 2017-2024.
6. Not answered. The significance of the “blue books” (so named because of the colour of the binders that held them) is that they included detailed descriptions of all capital projects and their status well beyond information in budgets or quarterly financial reports. Before the pandemic, these were routinely provided on request, but I have not been able to obtain them since 2019.

Most of the questions have nothing to do with the “deep dive” into fleet condition, but the TTC has used a simplistic response to dismiss all questions whether they relate to the deep dive or not. The one “answer” attempted to discredit a statement I did not make, and by extension the entire sequence.

Maybe, somewhere, there is a Board member who will demand answers.

Reduced Speed Zones

The tables below track the Reduced Speed Zones where track is awaiting repair. This is an updated version since the previous article. Depending on how your browser presents the tables, you may have to scroll to the right to see the most recent entries.

Although many of the entries from early 2024 have cleared off, others appear suggesting that inspections are uncovering new problem areas and adding them to the list. Little has changed through the month of May.

Source: TTC Reduced Speed Zones Page

Line 1	Jan 18	Feb 2	Feb 12	Mar 7	Mar 12	Mar 14	Mar 21	Apr 29	May 8	May 17	May 22
Hwy 407 to Vaughan			NB
Sheppard W to Wilson									NB	NB	NB
Wilson to Yorkdale								SB	SB	SB	SB
Yorkdale to Lawrence W								SB	SB	SB	SB
Eglinton W to St. Clair W									NB	NB	NB
St. Clair W to Dupont							NB	SB	SB	SB	SB
Spadina to St. George	BW	BW	BW
St. George to Museum	NB	NB	NB
St. Andrew to Union	BW	BW	SB	SB	SB	SB	SB
Union to King	NB	BW	NB	NB	NB	NB		SB	SB	SB	SB
College to Wellesley	BW	BW	BW
Bloor to Rosedale	NB	NB	NB	NB				NB	NB	NB	NB
Summerhill to St. Clair	BW	BW	NB
St. Clair to Davisville	BW	BW	BW	BW	BW	SB
Davisville to Eglinton								BW	SB
Lawrence to York Mills		NB	NB						NB	NB	NB
York Mills to Sheppard	NB	NB	NB	NB	NB	NB	NB
North York Centre to Finch			NB		NB

Line 2	Jan 18	Feb 2	Feb 12	Mar 7	Mar 12	Mar 14	Mar 21	Apr 29	May 8	May 17	May 22
Royal York to Jane		BW	BW
Runnymede to High Park	WB
Keele to Dundas West							BW	BW	EB	EB	EB
Sherbourne to Castle Frank	EB	EB
Castle Frank to Chester	EB	EB	EB	EB	EB	EB	EB
Chester to Broadview							WB
Greenwood to Coxwell								EB
Coxwell to Woodbine									EB	EB	EB
Woodbine to Main Street									EB
Victoria Park to Warden	EB		BW
Warden to Kennedy		WB