Newman Transit 2001-2020



Newman Transit 2001-2020, 2115-2124 are Tatra K2 streetcars built from 1975-1983. Originally built for a medium-sized Slovakian town, they were withdrawn from service and put in storage in 1995 after the company closed down. The first shipment of streetcars from Slovakia contained a large amount of K2s, and so it was decided to reserve the first 20 numbers in the 2000 series for them.

None of the units, in their original state, received air-conditioning, so their usage during summers was limited. The first unit to be rebuilt was car 2017 – after a collision with a truck in December 1997, it was rebuilt into type K2G, but retained its original numbering. Driver air-conditioning was installed in 2002, and passenger air-conditioning in 2003.

From 1998-2005, 10 units were rebuilt to type K2S by Pars Nova – they were heavily modernized and were finally equipped with air-conditioning. Additionally, they were renumbered to 2115-2124. The remaining units were progressively withdrawn, with 2015 and 2019 as the last surviving units in early 2013. 2015 was equipped with digital screen signs from BUSE; 2019 retained its original metal plate installations. Both units are earmarked for preservation – 2015 at the Royal Island Transit Museum and 2019 in Newman Transit's historical vehicle collection.

These streetcars are mainly used on routes 1 Flatbush, 3 River Oaks and 4 Dundas – however, they occasionally appear on routes 5 Bridge Street, 7 Lakeside and 8 Creekbank.

2001-2020

2001-2020 are the numbers of the K2s in their original state.

 2115-2124

These cars are grouped under three variants: variant 1 is fitted with a Brecknell-Willis pantograph and has plug doors (2115-2119), variant 2 is fitted with a Lekov pantograph, has collapsible doors and roof mounted side destination signs(2120-2122), and  variant 3 is fitted with a Lekov pantograph, has collapsible doors and has its side destination signs mounted in its windows(2123-2124). Car 2123 has an expanded cab with an extra seat for driver training purposes.

The original contract for modernizations called for two batches: one to be completed from 1998-2000 (2115-2119), and the second to be completed from 2001-2002 (2120-2122). Generally pleased with the K2S, Newman Transit added an additional two units to the contract in 2004 (2123-2124).

The lack of wheelchair lifts on the 2nd and 3rd variants was the source of a controversy between Newman Transit and Pars Nova in 2000 – 2115-2119 had been installed with a very failure-prone type of plug door, and Pars Nova announced in October of that year that they would be installing collapsible doors, incompatible with wheelchair lifts, on the rest of their modernizations.

Newman Transit expressed outrage at this, given how they had managed to sort out the issues with the doors within their shops, and even threatened to cancel the contract, but Pars dug their heels in and with no other company to complete the modernizations (Pragoimex would not appear on the scene until later), Newman gave in. Various surveys found that wheelchair ridership was the lowest in North America, and that the existing streetcars could handle it adequately, so the rest of the K2S cars modernized came with collapsible doors, as planned. Besides the lack of amenities for wheelchair-bound passengers, Newman Transit has been generally pleased with the K2S modernizations – in 2012, they looked into purchasing several new builds from Pars Nova, but plug doors continued not to be available, so transit declined to expand the fleet. 