I did some rough math yesterday to estimate how slow the Line 5 Eglinton eastern section will be compared to the 21 minutes cited by
@smallspy. Many people seem to correlate Line 6's current sad state with Line 5. For reference, Line 6 averages 52 minutes, for an average speed of 11.88 km/h over 10.3 km.
I'll take the blame for starting it, I cited the Finch experience as a proxy for Eglinton
Consider yourself corrected.
Operators have been simulating service at all stops, opening and closing the doors, but more importantly leaving them open for some time before initiating the closing sequence. The 21 minute figure is an average of travel times and factors in the traffic lights. Just like on the subway, that can be longer or shorter if the dwell time is lengthened or reduced.
Dan
The Line 5 eastern section distance is 7.7 km which is ~75% of 10.3 km. All else being the same, Line 5 should have a ~39 minute travel time from the Brentcliffe Portal to Kennedy compared to 52 minutes for Line 6 (corroborated by a TTC instructor). However, I count 14 traffic lights that Line 5 crosses from Leslie to Kennedy inclusive, versus 23 traffic lights for Line 6*. More than 10 minutes of that 52 minute travel time was time stopped at intersections, not even fully accounting for deceleration time loss. Full ride video source:
Yes, I actually timed each red light stop.
Line 5 Eglinton would have 17 traffic lights if it had the same density of traffic lights as Line 6 Finch West. 7.7/10.3*23=~17. Fortunately Eglinton has only 14 traffic lights. Approxiately 30 seconds are lost on average to each traffic light on Line 6. Having three (3) less traffic lights than Line 6 proportionally means that Line 5 should save 90 seconds or 1.5 minutes compared to the travel time calculated purely based on distance. 39-1.5-37.5. Round down to 37 minutes to be generous.
37 minutes. That is 16 minutes longer than the 21 minutes @smallspy mentioned.
That is an end-to-end travel time of 58 minutes from Mount Dennis to Kennedy for an average speed of 19.66 km/h. Remember, Metrolinx claimed 38 minutes end-to-end in the marketing, and @smallspy claimed 42 minutes end-to-end. 58 minutes is my worst case scenario.
And before someone says, "oh b-but Line 5 has less stops", yeah, 12 stops east of Brentcliffe portal instead of 17 stops west of Finch West portal for Line 6.
7.7/10.3*17=~12.7. So let's knock off another 1 minute to be generous, so 36 minutes for the eastern section of Line 5.
In the video linked above, Line 6 averages a ridiculous ~49 seconds of dwell time (door open chime to vehicle leaving). Let's say that's 30 seconds excess dwell time because the TTC operates Line 6 like clowns. 30 seconds each for 12 stops is 6 minutes shaved off 36, so
30 minutes for Line 5's eastern section in a near-best case scenario, where the door open chime to vehicle moving dwell times are only 20 seconds for each stop.
For reference, Line 1 averages around 20 seconds of dwell time.
Therefore, Line 5 east of the Brentcliffe tunnel portal should take at least 30 minutes if operated like Line 6.
Total end-to-end trip times on Line 5 Eglinton should be 51 minutes for 19km for an average of 22.35 km/h.
TL;DR Unless the Line 5 operators are speedsters and can somehow squeeze 9 minutes of further time savings to get 30 down to 21 minutes, there is no chance Line 5 ends up being 42 minutes end-to-end on average.
I am calling it right now, there is NO way Line 5 will be 42 minutes end-to-end, much less 38 minutes if operated like Line 6 on opening day. It won't be any faster than 50 minutes until operations significantly improve, if ever.
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*Yes Line 6 Finch West has 24 at-grade signals technically, but one of them is a dedicated pedestrian crossing just west of the Sentinel stop which I doubt will ever be used. For a better comparison, I used only vehicular traffic intersections.
**Only 11/12 stops matter for Line 5 Eglinton's eastern section when factoring in dwell times, there is no dwell time at Kennedy, so I am being very generous about my trip time estimates.
