Old C-Trains will need lots of TLC since budget holds no money for new ones

Calgary Transit staff will be trying their best to keep the oldest train cars running, but without new money in this year's budget, they're warning the city's four-car C-Train service may be jeopardized.

The oldest cars in the C-Train fleet date back to 1981. While they're still OK to be on the rails today, they won't last indefinitely even with attentive maintenance, transit director Doug Morgan says.

The city budget released this week noted that without any additional money to buy new LRT cars, transit's four-car train service could be in trouble.

The province has reduced municipal grants and without more money, the city won't be able to replace old cars when they can no longer be used.

"Probably about 40 per cent of the trains are four-car, but as these cars break down and we're unable to repair them, it'll just mean we'll slowly have less and less four-car trains," Morgan said. "If we can't use any of them, that's when we would have no four-car service."

The goal, Morgan said, is to maintain four-car train service as long as possible to reduce crowding and long waits.

"We have great mechanics. They're going to work really hard to keep them running and we'll see what happens," Morgan said. "We're going to certainly watch them carefully and make sure they're safe."

The older model cars make up roughly a third of the fleet and are more prone to breakdowns and needing maintenance.

​With files from Scott Dippel