Nearly crippled by old age, the 30-year-old Scarborough RT is getting a makeover while riders wait for the subway extension that's supposed to replace it in eight or nine years.

The little trains that deliver 4.7 million rides a year and resemble small subway cars are being overhauled inside and out so the line can operate reliably and comfortably for the next decade, said TTC deputy chief operating officer Mike Palmer.

The SRT, which passed its best-before date years ago, is increasingly unreliable, particularly in winter.

For years the TTC has tried to keep the SRT running on a shoestring while the city debated whether to upgrade it or replace it with a different transit technology.

"It's got to that point where we can't patch it up any more. We have to do something about it," said Palmer, who says the makeover will see the SRT through the next decade.

Last year, it was out of service for about 291 hours, more than twice the 136 out-of-service hours it logged in 2010.

"We've had two significant shutdowns in the last month, though the second one is directly down to snow. The shoes that pick up the current were being pushed around by the snow," he said.

As part of the makeover, the TTC will replace the motors and all the under-car parts that contribute to the SRT's infamous rattle.

"It is not going to give you a much smoother ride and we'll still get the same whining noise, but it will push that reliability back up to where it used to be," said Palmer.

The TTC is partnering with Vancouver, which uses the SRT technology on its SkyTrain, and is sourcing parts from Bombardier and other suppliers to address the SRT's mechanical issues.

The first of the 14 cars is already getting a fresh blue wrap to cover its "scrappy" fiberglass and metal exterior. The Line 3 name and its six stops will be part of the new look and an updated train will run for a while before the rest of the fleet is wrapped, to give riders a chance to offer feedback.

The interior will also get a floor-to-ceiling overhaul, making it cleaner and brighter and, designating space for wheelchairs, mobility devices and strollers.

In April, the TTC plans to shut down the SRT for three or four weekends while it clears the guideway of leaves and refurbishes the old Thales signal system before the Pan Am Games. It's considered a key transit link to the aquatic centre at the U of T Scarborough campus.

While all the cars won't be refurbished this year, Palmer said, "We're accelerating the work as much as the funding will allow because I want to get as much benefit as quickly as possible. There's no point taking three or four years to renew the line piecemeal if we're only going to extend it for 10 years," he said.

Rebuilding the SRT is more economical than the other potential solution, which was to replace it with buses. It would take about 50 new buses and a garage to carry the same number of TTC riders.

Still, that was the plan when the city was still planning an LRT in Scarborough. Riders were going to be consigned to buses for up to four years while the SRT was torn down to make room for the LRT. Keeping the SRT in service during construction was a point in favour of a subway when council debated changing course on the technology.

Even before that, the TTC had considered renewing the SRT technology, but its linear induction propulsion was considered orphan technology in the fleet. Transit officials thought there would be efficiencies in going with vehicles that were used elsewhere in the system. When LRTs were introduced as the choice for Eglinton, Finch West and Sheppard East, that made sense.

So far, though, the only new LRT under construction is Eglinton. While Finch and Sheppard are officially still part of the plan, there's less political support for those lines.

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It's expected to cost $132 million to refurbish the SRT and keep it operational for a decade, including $16 million that was approved in this year's TTC capital budget.

Had the city opted to stay with a provincially funded LRT to replace the SRT, the buses and garage needed during construction would have been part of the package.

The SRT is the first generation of the technology that is used in Vancouver's Skytrain. Its Thales-built signal system is the same as that employed in Hong Kong and London, said Palmer. But some of the SRT's hardware and software will be renewed.