Extreme cold took 25 of the TTC’s 200 aging streetcars out of commission and left transit officials scrambling Wednesday for vehicles, while warning that riders will wait longer than usual for service as long as the frigid air hangs over Toronto.

Crews were scheduled to work overnight and buses were being put on standby for Thursday’s morning rush as the TTC tried to avoid leaving the city’s 250,000 streetcar riders stamping their numb feet at the curb.

The 1970s streetcars use dated pneumatic brakes and doors that won’t work when condensation freezes in the lines. The sanders used to increase friction on the tracks also clog due to moisture, taking many cars out of service.

The shortage of streetcars was so severe Wednesday that the 502 Downtowner and 503 Kingston Rd. routes were replaced entirely with buses in the afternoon, freeing up 11 streetcars to serve the other lines.

The Queen route was hardest hit earlier in the day, when five cars couldn’t even leave the yard and eight broke down along the line.

“We’ve been running storm cars overnight to keep switches clear of ice, so that’s not an issue. It’s just the door and brakes and sanders, critical pieces of equipment that fail in the extreme cold,” said TTC spokesman Brad Ross.

Wednesday’s difficulties, he said, “come down again to the age of the fleet and speaks to why we’re replacing that fleet.”

The first three cars in the new fleet ran without issue on the Spadina line as temperatures continued to drop through the afternoon, said Ross.

Those vehicles, part of a $1.2-billion replacement order from Bombardier, are trickling into the city significantly behind schedule.

But a spokesman said Wednesday the company is now committed to delivering all 204 new streetcars by 2019, something Marc-Andre Lefebvre stopped short of promising in a December interview with the Toronto Star.

He continued to blame the production issues on a strike at the company’s Thunder Bay plant last year and on difficulties in the design of the two-stage wheelchair ramp the TTC specified so that it can be used both where streetcars stop on the road and at platforms.

Lefebvre confirmed that Bombardier has laid off 89 of about 875 unionized workers at the plant. But the layoffs are temporary and are mostly not related to streetcar production, he said.

The company is working with its global and domestic suppliers to increase the efficiency and the reliability of its production, according to Lefebvre.

“We have found parts from some vendors that do not meet the high quality standards that we expect, and we are making sure that we fix these problems, to make sure we’re more efficient in the long run,” he said.

Lefebvre stressed that the TTC’s unique track gauge wasn’t delaying production or delivery — that the requirement was incorporated into the design from the outset.

“Every vehicle is unique, because each and every system is unique in the world,” he said.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...