Will Ottawa's last 600-series streetcar ever ride again?

Volunteers spent decades trying to restore Streetcar 696. But the project stalled when the city locked the streetcar away in storage.

Article content Rhéaume Laplante poured his retirement years into reviving one of Ottawa’s last streetcars . He helped install seats, upgraded the windows and gave every last inch a fresh coat of paint. Article content

The ultimate goal was to, one day, perhaps see Ottawa’s last remaining 600-series streetcar ride again on steel tracks. Article content Article content

Since 2000, volunteers like Laplante — who spent decades working for OC Transpo as an auto body technician — have spent much of their spare time restoring the 108-year-old streetcar.

That is, until their beloved Streetcar 696 was relocated to a remote city storage facility.

“I mis