A new fleet of jumbo streetcars are the right fit for the tight turns and hills of Toronto’s streets, TTC CEO Andy Byford says.

“These vehicles have been designed specifically for Toronto,” Byford said at Monday news conference, dismissing reports that the new vehicles are too ponderous for existing routes.

“They are not too long,” he said.

The new streetcars will be double the size of existing fleet vehicles and can be boarded through doors along their length, which means there will be fewer TTC stops. “Otherwise they’d all bunch up,” Byford said, adding that it is yet to be decided which stops will be cut.

The low-rise vehicles will come equipped with ramps to make them wheelchair- and stroller-accessible, Byford said.

Extensive work is needed on traffic islands to make them the right height to accommodate the ramps, but “This is not a problem that has taken us by surprise,” Byford said. “This is an issue that we’ve always known about.”

The $58-million cost of modifying the height of traffic islands has already been set aside in the transit system’s budget, he said.

Such work will mean traffic disruptions, but that’s inevitable.

“If you want new state-of-the-art vehicles, you sometimes have to change the infrastructure,” Byford said. “Clearly we will be looking to minimize the disruption.”

The new fleet will come equipped with air-conditioning, two bike racks per streetcar, and Presto capabilities. The first are currently undergoing testing inside the TTC’s Hillcrest facility.

Byford stressed that the city’s existing transit islands, including those on St. Clair Ave., are long enough to accommodate the new fleet.

Byford said the city badly needs the new streetcars. “They are increasingly difficult to maintain,” he said of the older vehicles, some of which were built in the mid-1980s.

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“I have no plans to order shorter streetcars,” Byford said.