As the TTC gets ready to retire the last of its older model streetcars, a group of artists is ensuring at least one of the creaking vehicles goes out in style.

Thanks to an art project orchestrated by a local charity called CityFund, the Toronto Transit Commission will unveil one of its iconic Canadian Light Rail Vehicles (CLRVs) with an eye-popping new look later this week.

The revamped rail car, which the TTC plans to put into regular service until the CLRV fleet is decommissioned at the end of the year, will be hard to miss.

Toronto-based mural artist Jacquie Comrie has replaced Car No. 4178’s familiar red-and-white livery with dazzling tropical colours that will stand out against any city backdrop.

Taking a break from painting the car in a specialized booth at the TTC’s Hillcrest Yard on Friday, Comrie said she loves the idea of creating “a moving work of art ... just spreading colour and positivity throughout the whole city.”

Comrie, 34, has done work in Miami, Mexico, Panama, Spain and locations around Toronto. As with previous pieces, she said the kaleidoscopic colours she chose for the streetcar were carefully selected to boost the mood of anyone who sees it.

Comrie said it was a thrill to be able to work with one of the TTC vehicles, which in their four decades of service have become an internationally recognizable symbol of Toronto. That civic heritage is hinted at by the name CityFund has chosen for the project, “A Streetcar Named Toronto.”

Like many Toronto residents, she has fond memories of the streetcars. She said she still remembers riding one for the first time after moving here from Panama nearly two decades ago at the age of 15. They were so different than anything in her hometown, she said, that being on one made her realize “I’m in a new home and there’s a world of possibilities ahead of me now.”

But while it memorializes a classic Toronto vehicle, her treatment of the streetcar also includes a nod to where she came from. She said she drew inspiration from the flashy paint jobs commonly sported by buses in Panama City.

The inside of the car has also undergone a transformation, albeit a more subtle one.

On Friday, artist Chris Perez was painting leaves of red and white, the TTC’s traditional colours, on the floor of the vehicle.

Riders sitting at the rear of the car will be able to look up and see a more abstract floral pattern on the ceiling, in colours that evoke the northern lights.

Some of the seats had been removed and were being replaced with new upholstery in different colours, and photos of the waterfront were set to be installed where ads usually are.

Perez said he hoped the changes inside the car will help “pull the average Joe out of their average day.”

CityFund founder Mark Fiorillo said the idea of turning a streetcar into a moving art piece was inspired in part by the ubiquitous advertising on TTC vehicles.

“We’ve had streetcars wrapped in advertising — can we do something with art?” he said.

He said he founded CityFund with the goal of supporting projects that would make the city “more enjoyable to be in, more healthy, more livable,” and first conceived of the streetcar project two years ago.

Fiorillo described the CLRVs, which were first deployed in the late 1970s, as feeling “like an old friend” and he hoped the project would give the vehicles a fitting send-off.

“It’s sort of like a swan song, a celebration of life,” he said.

The CLRV cars are not to be confused with the TTC’s articulated light rail vehicles (ALRVs), longer “bendy” model streetcars the last of which the transit agency retired earlier this month.

The CLRV’s look like those cars but are shorter. At one time the TTC had nearly 200 CLRVs, but the agency has been decommissioning them as it takes delivery of its new fleet of larger, accessible streetcars from Bombardier.

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The TTC plans to reveal the newly painted car on Wednesday at Hillcrest. According to spokesperson Stuart Green, it will run on the 506 Carlton route during the week, and be put into limited service on the 501 Queen route on weekends. For Nuit Blanche on Oct. 5, the car will run on the 511 Bathurst line.

Art lovers and transit enthusiasts hoping to catch a ride on the beautifully bedecked streetcar won’t have long. Its unique paint job apparently won’t save it from meeting the same fate as most of the rest of the old fleet — being torn apart for scrap.

“The CLRV cars are sent for recycling as they are retired. As of now, (that) would be the plan for this car,” Green said.

With files from Shawn Micallef

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