Roncesvalles Carhouse
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Maintenance building for Flexity Outlook streetcars
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Location | 20 The Queensway Toronto, Ontario Canada |
Coordinates | 43°38′22″N 79°26′52″W / 43.63944°N 79.44778°WCoordinates: 43°38′22″N 79°26′52″W / 43.63944°N 79.44778°W |
Operated by | Toronto Transit Commission |
Construction | |
Structure type | Streetcar carhouse, maintenance and storage facility |
History | |
Opened | 22 January 1895 |
Rebuilt | 1921 |
The Roncesvalles Carhouse, located at northwest corner of The Queensway and Roncesvalles Avenue in Toronto, is the oldest of the Toronto Transit Commission’s carhouses. The Toronto Railway Company (TRC) first built a streetcar maintenance and storage facility on the site in 1895. Like most other TRC facilities maintenance had been deferred as its contract with the city came up for renewal. When the City instead took over streetcar operations the Toronto Transportation Commission, its new transit agency, determined the existing facilities should be torn down and replaced. The new carhouse opened in 1923.
The carhouse is located west of the City's downtown core and maintains about half of the system's streetcars. The facility houses streetcars for 501 Queen, 504 King, 505 Dundas, 506 Carlton, 511 Bathurst, 512 St. Clair, and 514 Cherry routes.
The Toronto Railway Company opened the Roncesvalles Carhouse on January 22, 1895. When the TTC took over in 1921 they demolished the old car barn and constructed the current facility, with the tracks realigned north-south.
26,000 square feet (2,400 m2) of new maintenance capabilities were added, at Roncesvalles, to handle the new low floor Flexity streetcars introduced in 2014. Unlike the TTC's legacy streetcar fleet, where the vehicle's serviceable parts were under the floor, the low-floor vehicle house the serviceable parts above the ceiling. This requires a different infrastructure for servicing and maintaining the vehicles. An addition to the Roncesvalles structure, the TTC added two new bays capable of providing some maintenance for the new low-floor streetcar vehicles. This was the only facility built to service the first of the new vehicles in service, before the Leslie Carhouse opened, in 2016.