Our rolling stock

You've probably seen national media coverage of Toronto's transit troubles: A mayor who loves subways, and a transit GM who loves streetcars. Toronto mayor Rob Ford came to power pledging to do away with the gravy train. That gravy train is the streetcar, and Toronto's loss is Halifax's gain.

At the same time, Toronto has committed to buying a fleet of new streetcars from Bombardier. They are due to arrive in 2013, leaving the city with a surplus stock of CLRV cars.

The Halifax Streetcar Conglomerate (HSC) is acquiring 35 surplus CLRV units to start, with an option for another 40 as ridership increases. They are arriving by railcar at the Ceres terminal this week.

Visitors to Toronto will recognize these as the "Red Rocket" streetcars. Due to the time constraints involved in our startup, we will not have them repainted for now, and the rollsigns will still display Toronto destinations, though route numbers will match.

A Wikipedia article on the CLRV (Canadian Light Rail Vehicle) will fill you in on the technical specifications of our fleet.

Each CLRV accomodates 42 passengers sitting, 132 standing. The maximum speed is 110 km/h, though ours will never go that fast, for obvious reasons.

Toronto has its "Red Rocket" -- what should we call the new Halifax streetcars? We welcome your comments below.