Training begins on 4-Car CTrains
Beginning Tuesday, Oct. 13, citizens may start noticing four-car CTrains on the tracks along the 201 Red Line (Tuscany-Somerset).
Two four-car trains will be in service throughout most of the day from Oct. 13-23 as Calgary Transit continues with preparations to introduce some four-car train service in December.
Both four-car trains will be used to prepare transit operators and other staff for the upcoming transition to four-car CTrain service. The trains will be in regular service for Calgary Transit customers to board.
Extension work is complete at all 45 station platforms to accommodate four-car trains.
There has been much work happening behind the scenes preparing for four-car train service.
That work includes:
- Platform extension work is complete at all 45 stations to accommodate the longer four-car trains
- Aligning and adding heated shelters for customers
- Levelling the ballast (coarse stone used to form the bed of a track) for track longevity
- Building powerful new substations to power the longer cars
Sixty new 60 CTrain cars are on order with the first scheduled to arrive later this year.
Calgary Transit’s new Customer Commitment identifies safety, reliability and ease of use as three of the six most important qualities of service. Adequate training for LRT Operators ensures safety on the system, and four-car CTrains will improve reliability and ease of use by increasing the passenger capacity on trains.
One three-car CTrain can carry as many as 600 passengers. Adding a fourth car will allow for an additional 200 people and will help alleviate overcrowding on some CTrains during peak periods. This will provide more comfort for customers while increasing capacity.
More than 325,000 passengers are carried on the CTrain each week day, making it the most successful Light Rail Transit (LRT) system in North America.
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