From secondhand American PCCs to Toronto's own custom-built cars
The TTC's Streetcars
Toronto's streetcar fleet moved through distinct generations, from mid-century PCC cars bought secondhand from American cities to the custom CLRVs and ALRVs of the 1970s and 80s to the modern low-floor Flexity fleet.
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Toronto's streetcar fleet ran for decades on PCC (Presidents' Conference Committee) cars, a standardized North American streetcar design the TTC operated in large numbers, buying some new and acquiring others secondhand from American cities that were abandoning their own streetcar systems in favour of buses through the mid-20th century. Toronto's decision to keep and expand its streetcar network, rather than following most North American cities in tearing up the tracks, made it an outlier that later benefited from having a mature system already in place.
Custom-built successors
The TTC replaced its PCC fleet starting in the late 1970s with the CLRV (Canadian Light Rail Vehicle) and later the longer, articulated ALRV, both custom-designed and built specifically for Toronto's network rather than adapted from an off-the-shelf design. Those cars ran for decades before being phased out starting in the 2010s in favour of the modern, low-floor Flexity Outlook fleet, built by Bombardier, which brought accessible boarding to Toronto streetcars for the first time and represented the most significant fleet overhaul in the network's history.
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