First Mask CTrain cars hit the tracks in Calgary
Posted Jul 5, 2016 11:32 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The city has unveiled a brand new look for Calgary’s LRT.
The first four Mask CTrain cars took off from Tuscany station Tuesday morning, with help from Mayor Naheed Nenshi.
.@nenshi takes the helm on one of the new #Mask train cars. #yyc pic.twitter.com/IzxodZVYTv
— Kaitlin Lee (@Kaitlin_Lee) July 5, 2016
“Heated floors, air conditioning, more comfortable seating — we’ve finally gotten rid of the bum indents that fit no actual human bum,” he said. “You can actually hear the driver in the announcements.”
It also boasts a bit of a different look with sloped floors instead of ramps, and a wide-open concept.
“The front of the train resembling a hockey mask. Now, unless you start giving out every person who rides a free bowl of poutine, that’s about as Canadian as you can get,” Calgary-Hawkwood MLA Michael Connolly said.
The city has ordered 63 of the cars, and they’ll be rolled out slowly as they come off the assembly line.
“About half of them are going to increase capacity on the line without building new stations. The other half are going to increase reliability of the system. Those old U2 cars are older than I am (no they’re not)–,” Nenshi said. “The highest mileage on a U2 car right now, is 2,278,500 kilometres. That is more than seven times the distance between the earth and the moon. It’s time for them to have a well-deserved retirement.”
Each car cost $3.2-million, which Nenshi says was actually a deal and allowed them to purchase more.
The Government of Alberta kicked in $200 million for the project.
The new Mask cars have a lifespan of around 35 years.
