Superfluous Rants

The TTC unveiled its new subway trains named “Toronto Rocket” at Downsview station today. Developed by Bombardier; the trains feature six open cars from end-to-end with wider aisles, non-slip floors, electronic maps and brighter interiors. The new subway cars cost $236.7-million, paid by all three levels of the government. They also aim to reduce energy consumption. The TTC is hoping to have a few of the new trains running on the Yonge-University-Spadina line by the end of this year or early January next year. The full fleet is expected to be up by the year 2013.
It has been a big week for TTC as earlier they rolled out new features to their Trip Planner on the TTC website. Powered by Google Transit, the new Trip Planner is completely accessible on mobile devices. Commuters can now plan their trip from point A to point B with complete information such as transfer lines, wait periods and accessible options. As for the new trains, I like the open-end concept as I believe this will help in decreasing congestion and uninvited bumping and grinding from other commuters. There are obvious downsides to the concept as well. No longer can I ignore a person on the subway by getting on a different car haha.