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Last week, the Greater Toronto Transit Authority (GO Transit) took the wraps off a sleek prototype of 27 soon-to-be-in-service locomotives.

Ordered in 2005 from Wabtec Corp. subsidiary MotivePower Inc., the locomotives can pull 12-car instead of 10-car trains, "making room for at least 300 additional passengers, and are more powerful, more fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly," said Ontario's Minister of Transportation Donna Cansfield during a June 14 unveiling ceremony at GO Transit's Willowbrook rail maintenance facility.

GO Transit has an option to order 26 more locomotives. Deliveries of the units, which are "very different in appearance from traditional, boxy train equipment," according to GO Transit, will begin in fall. The locomotives gradually will be put into service on the agency's Lakeshore East, Lakeshore West and Milton lines. GO Transit is extending station platforms to accommodate the longer trains.