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

If it's not calling every stop then something is broken. They could get fined for lack of AODA compliance.
I could be mistaken regarding calling out stations. But they've definitely reduced the warnings while riding the train.

Edit: My mistake, riding the line back westward and it's calling out all the stations. Just no sit down warnings.

Edit2: I take it all back! My eastbound train must have been having issues with it's audio. Warnings seemed to have kicked back in. So annoying!
 
Last edited:
[...]Just fewer sit down warnings.
I'm sorry, I couldn't resist...

C0B118D8-8977-4356-8AD7-BB05C47D0D1F.jpeg
 
Red lights killed me on Line 5 today. Unfortunately one of the worst offenders was the lights by Sunnybrook station.

With future plans to have the Ontario line connect with the Don Valley station, it's odd they chose to make the line between Laird and Sunnybrook at grade only to go underground again at Don Valley.

What was the reason for not tunneling Line 5 all the way to Don Valley? If we were to exclude the surface portion of Line 5, it seems like once the Ontario Line is up & running, we're going to have this entirley grade separated transit network in Toronto with the lone exception at Sunnybrook station on Line 5.

Could they not do like a Calagry, C-Train setup at Leslie & Eglinton and add gates/ crossing arms?

Atleast that way Line 5 would basically be grade separated up to Don Valley where it connects with the Ontario Line.

Screenshot_20260224_182622_Speedometer.jpg


Screenshot_20260224_182630_Speedometer.jpg
 
Side by side comparison of my two westbound trips on the surface portion of Line 5. Feb. 9th & Feb. 24th.

My second trip was during afternoon rush hour. It seems the surface portion of the Line travels slower during rush hours because the city is probably less forgiving with the lights. Eglinton was jammed up with drivers and our tram was passing by a lot of cars, but we were waiting longer at red lights.

Will Toronto be generous with TSP during morning and afternoon rush hours once it's up & running?

Speedometer Comparison.png
 
Red lights killed me on Line 5 today. Unfortunately one of the worst offenders was the lights by Sunnybrook station.

With future plans to have the Ontario line connect with the Don Valley station, it's odd they chose to make the line between Laird and Sunnybrook at grade only to go underground again at Don Valley.

What was the reason for not tunneling Line 5 all the way to Don Valley? If we were to exclude the surface portion of Line 5, it seems like once the Ontario Line is up & running, we're going to have this entirley grade separated transit network in Toronto with the lone exception at Sunnybrook station on Line 5.

Could they not do like a Calagry, C-Train setup at Leslie & Eglinton and add gates/ crossing arms?

Atleast that way Line 5 would basically be grade separated up to Don Valley where it connects with the Ontario Line.
History.
  • Many transit people said that in-median was a placeholder and they were sure it would switch to south side alignment in detail design.
  • I think it was after Ford was defeated in his transit plans (2012?) that somehow Metrolinx (e.g. Liberal provincial gov't) decided to make Eglinton underground under Don River and Leslie (2013).
  • They said they'd drop the Leslie station because underground it would add $80M to build it.
  • Locals protested the loss of the station. Metrolinx decided instead of doing the south side alignment or adding $80M (<1% of total) to build the station - they would revert to the in-median option.
  • They couldn't tolerate any delays because Liberals had a minority then and if they lost a potential election the PC's could restore this line to Rob Fords vision.
  • This was in the period where everyone had forgotten about Downtown Relief line. It was a thing from about the late 1980's to the mid 2000's, but then when Transit City mania hit - it was relegated to the extra long-term goal and almost forgotten.
  • With no DRL even on the radar, the on-street LRT moved forward.
  • Shortly thereafter, when there was a fear of losing the next election, the Liberals, and several councilors, joined the PC's to push for a Scarborough Subway and the DRL came back.
  • But Eglinton was caught in the wrong place/wrong time. An era when defeating Rob Ford was more important that creating good transit. We are paying for that to this day.
 
I have always been saying, just keep the tracks and platform at the same elevation, excavate under the tracks. Move the intersection below grade. I'm certain this would be much cheaper than building the station deep deep underground.
 
I have always been saying, just keep the tracks and platform at the same elevation, excavate under the tracks. Move the intersection below grade. I'm certain this would be much cheaper than building the station deep deep underground.
At Leslie?!? It's a park
 
I rode this line for the first time yesterday and it’s not that bad. Only issue was stopping at red lights on the surface sections. It was pretty busy. The interior of underground stations seem too bland. Where is the colour ? I would rate is 7/10.
 

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