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Toronto Eglinton Line 5 | ?m | ?s | Metrolinx | Arcadis

North American manufactured rolling stock seems to be hot garbage.
Everything manufactured in North America is junk.

Especially the overpriced hot garbage made by GM, Ford, Stellantis, etc. Even brands like Toyota/Lexus took a hit in quality when they were forced to bring manufacturing here under NAFTA.

Thankfully we're getting some Chinese EVs up here.
 
North American manufactured rolling stock seems to be hot garbage. Across the board. Technology decades behind, poor quality management, everything. Had this discussion about Toronto Rockets being heavy etc. recently. I am all for keeping industry and jobs local. But if they're consistently soiling the bed, then they deserve to be replaced by offshore competitors.
I don’t think that’s necessarily a fair assessment. Not for Canada anyway. Though there is a lot less rolling stock manufactured here currently. I haven’t heard of any major problems with Vancouver’s MK IIIs and Vs. Bombardier has cranked out BiLevels successfully for over 40 years. Other than early teething issues, I haven’t heard of majors problems with the TRs and Azur trains. The second batch of LFLRVs appears to have been delivered with no issues.
 
I'm looking forward to it, full stop. Cedarvale to Yonge-Eglinton will be 9 minutes, down from 20+ minutes on the bus. It's going to make it so much easier to go there and go north on Yonge by transit. It's going to be a huge quality of life change.

The one piece that I think is going to be really important to continue to put pressure on the city and province is completing the remaining streetscape improvements, including the bike lanes directly on Eglinton and also connecting to Eglinton. They were promised as part of this project and they need to be delivered.
Don't forget the 20 minutes to wait for the 32 to move through all the Allan traffic and turn into the station.
 
I'm looking forward to it, full stop. Cedarvale to Yonge-Eglinton will be 9 minutes, down from 20+ minutes on the bus. It's going to make it so much easier to go there and go north on Yonge by transit. It's going to be a huge quality of life change.

The one piece that I think is going to be really important to continue to put pressure on the city and province is completing the remaining streetscape improvements, including the bike lanes directly on Eglinton and also connecting to Eglinton. They were promised as part of this project and they need to be delivered.
Bike lanes aren't allowed in Ford's Ontario anymore...
 
I don’t think that’s necessarily a fair assessment. Not for Canada anyway. Though there is a lot less rolling stock manufactured here currently. I haven’t heard of any major problems with Vancouver’s MK IIIs and Vs. Bombardier has cranked out BiLevels successfully for over 40 years. Other than early teething issues, I haven’t heard of majors problems with the TRs and Azur trains. The second batch of LFLRVs appears to have been delivered with no issues.
You're not comparing it to any baseline. You haven't heard of any major problems... Those Skytrain rolling stock types seem fine, but then again, only 5 other cities run Innovia Metros, and basically none of them bought Canadian-built rolling stock post-opening. EDIT: 3 of 5 didn't buy Canadian-built rolling stock period.

Bombardier BiLevels are outdated tech, and the doors between trains often don't work properly, forcing people to use this switch to keep doors closed or open:

1770236828248.png

It begs the question, why haven't GO carriages been upgraded to proper open gangways? Probably cost and familiarity with the legacy stuff.

Maybe I should've been more specific, it's some combination of "technology decades behind, poor quality management, etc."
The Toronto Rockets are running 28 inch wheels (for continuity with older stock?) when most of the world has moved on to 30-33 inch wheels for new rolling stock. They also had their own problems, whether you think they're major is up to you: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/new-ttc-trains-performance-unacceptable-says-ceo-1.1211708

Flexity Freedom tech is close to 2 decades old. Even then, it's unacceptable that they're capped at 60 kph despite over 6 years of testing.
 
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Bike lanes are still allowed, and if the tendering/contracting was done for Eglinton TOday before Bill 212 passed then it can still be done without asking the province for permission.
Ah. I mean to be fair this project was contracted under Wynne in 2015 so it predates him. Let's just hope Dougie doesn't drive down Eglinton one day....
 
There's a difference between negativity and avoiding complacency.

I am delighted by the opening and what it means for getting around the city.

But, the reality is, this line has the potential to be mediocre if we accept it as it stands, but excellent if we insist on fixing things..

The reality is, the various organizations and personalities involved will only rise to excellence if they are pushed, hard. So it's imperative that we monitor the areas where we know there are potential gaps, and keep the focus on improving on these.

Pointing out those very real gaps is the first step in correcting them. It's only negativity if one declares that they will never be solvable.

The deficiencies in Line 5 are largely solvable. Let's do our part to keep the pressure on towards that. If that means some harsh posts on this forum that dwell on those fixable deficiencies. I'm good with that.

- Paul
 
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The party is only just getting started...
As per the TTC CEO, there is no party:

 
There are 3-5 accounts on here that are utterly poisoning the discourse. The Line 6 thread has been unreadable for its unrelenting nihilism and negativity for some time now. Line 5 hasn't opened, and it's already happening here too.

Is Line 5 imperfect? Of course. Lots of criticism is merited. But there is a pocket of users on here that are assailing the line for seemingly no reason except to 1) provoke? rage bait? or 2) to make anyone that expresses even a modicum of excitement feel like shit.

Enough already! Do you know how awful you have to be to make the Reddit threads seem fair and balanced? Have some self restraint, or mods: please step in more aggressively, or the rest of us should find somewhere else to talk about this project.

I've found the "Ignore" feature on here very useful. You can hover over a member's username and then click the "Ignore" button. I'm just not interested in reading comments repeatedly calling everything "a cancer" when all I want is project updates and photos of construction progress.
 
As far as I have covered this line in the past. There should be zero problems between Mount Dennis and Science Centre (sorry Don Mills) after that, it could be a bit iffy. They just need signal priority at Leslie. There's a fair amount of track and a couple of crossovers between Don Mills and Vic Park. I could be wrong there but it would mean offloads and short turnarounds. I can see them trying very hard to keep the tunnel portions evenly spaced and on schedule. I assume this would be very unwelcome and unfair for Scarborough residents though.

Edit: Excited to see this in service though :)
 
You're not comparing it to any baseline. You haven't heard of any major problems... Those Skytrain rolling stock types seem fine, but then again, only 5 other cities run Innovia Metros, and basically none of them bought Canadian-built rolling stock post-opening. Bombardier BiLevels are outdated tech, and the doors between trains often don't work properly, forcing people to use this switch to keep doors closed or open:
What would that baseline be? Also, I'm pretty sure Kuala Lumpur bought MK IIIs that were built in Ontario. I'm not sure how advanced you're expecting a North American commuter rail car to be, but the CEM BiLevels are quite different from the first generation. What would you say is outdated about them? I find those door switches annoying to, but that seems like a really minor issue, and appears to be more of a supplier problem.

The Toronto Rockets are running 28 inch wheels (for continuity with older stock?) when most of the world has moved on to 30-33 inch wheels for new rolling stock. They also had their own problems, whether you think they're major is up to you: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/new-ttc-trains-performance-unacceptable-says-ceo-1.1211708
Those early problems have since been rectified as far as I know.

Flexity Freedom tech is close to 2 decades old. Even then, it's unacceptable that they're capped at 60 kph despite over 6 years of testing.
It was designed way back in the late 2009s. With very few orders, I'm not sure there is any incentive to change anything. Also there wasn't any opportunity to actually run any in service at high speeds, so the issue is only coming to light now. But there is no way to say either way if this is due to being manufactured in North America. Bogie design is probably European. Though I'm not entirely sure if they were manufactured in Europe.
 
You're not comparing it to any baseline. You haven't heard of any major problems... Those Skytrain rolling stock types seem fine, but then again, only 5 other cities run Innovia Metros, and basically none of them bought Canadian-built rolling stock post-opening. EDIT: 3 of 5 didn't buy Canadian-built rolling stock period.

Bombardier BiLevels are outdated tech, and the doors between trains often don't work properly, forcing people to use this switch to keep doors closed or open:
I don't ride GO every day, but I do use it reasonably often. And the number of times that I have seen a failed end door is fewer than the digits on my right hand.

What is more common is people who aren't able to read the signs and open the doors properly.

View attachment 712861
It begs the question, why haven't GO carriages been upgraded to proper open gangways? Probably cost and familiarity with the legacy stuff.
Because they use couplers. Each car is a discrete element. The diaphragm does not couple to each car, it is just held against the next by springs and friction.

To have open gangways, the diaphram needs to be a singular unit that attaches to both carbodies so that there are never any gaps and openings - meaning that you can't use couplers between cars. The TRs are drawbarred together, which is why they can use those types of gangway covers (and larger openings between them).

Maybe I should've been more specific, it's some combination of "technology decades behind, poor quality management, etc."
The Toronto Rockets are running 28 inch wheels (for continuity with older stock?) when most of the world has moved on to 30-33 inch wheels for new rolling stock. They also had their own problems, whether you think they're major is up to you: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/new-ttc-trains-performance-unacceptable-says-ceo-1.1211708
I'm not sure what bearing the size of the wheel has on rolling stock, other than it doesn't actually mean anything, but.....

Proof that a 28" wheel is somehow a Toronto thing?

Flexity Freedom tech is close to 2 decades old. Even then, it's unacceptable that they're capped at 60 kph despite over 6 years of testing.
Take it up with Crosslinx. As I've written before, they're the ones who have instituted this silly speed limit.

Dan
 

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