Following the massive blow of the health crisis — which meant service cuts, layoffs and tens of millions in losses per week — the TTC is still pushing forward with several new projects and changes, including all-new subway trains.

The commission had outlined earlier in 2020 how it planned to invest a whopping $1.14 billion in updated vehicles over the next nine years, during which 60 new streetcars and 62 new subway trains will be rolled out.

The current six-and-four-car, open-gangway Toronto Rocket subways were first introduced to Line 1 Yonge-University in 2011, and were designed by Canadian manufacturer Bombardier and built in Thunder Bay, much like our contentious new streetcars.

For the next iteration, the TTC is still in what it calls the "earliest stages of design," and is asking the public for input through online focus groups and surveys this year.

They will operate primarily on Line 2 Bloor-Danforth, which still runs the old T1 series of trains, some of which are more than 20 years old.

The transit agency expects the new vehicles to be designed, produced and on the tracks starting in 2030. They will fully replace all the trains presently on Line 2 by 2030.

Seeing as Bombardier is in the process of handing over its train-making division to France-based company Alstom in February, we'll have to wait and see who they will be made by and how much the new subway cars will differ from those commuters are riding on other lines.

Meanwhile, hundreds of transit workers are still calling for a full resumption of service so they can return to work, and the TTC is being forced to consider "microtransit" options like Uber on some of its less busy bus routes to keep receiving the hundreds of millions in COVID-19 relief funding that it so desperately needs from the provincial government.