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

[zang]

This P3 arrangement really is proving to be a big time cock up in many aspects. Simple things like announcing service disruptions, bad quality audio announcements, inaccurate next vehicle timing are all things that shouldnt be difficult to sort out. But yet somehow it is.

When expecting corporations to take on the liability for public services, we shouldn't be surprised if they cut corners and cost more while vehemently gaslighting the public that they bring "efficiency" and "cost effectiveness".

 

[A 6264]

Considering it's a soft opening so far (with slower speeds and longer? headways), that may result in less people wanting to use it. Something something induced demand. I can see why someone would argue the opposite though.

Mainstream media has sporadically reported overcrowding, here is an example: "[...]there are still issues to be addressed, including accessibility, transit signal priority and overcrowding. 'It's quite crowded during peak hours especially. So one thing that we really hope that they start to move on is adding that third rail car,' he said."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/eglinton-crosstown-lrt-launched-one-month-ago-riders-react-9.7119903

Some people have made posts on Urban Toronto and elsewhere pointing out crush load / overcrowding well after opening day. I can't say it's extremely common, but the anecdotes do exist.

https://www.reddit.com/r/TTC/comments/1rckmgp/line_5_is_fast_and_impressive_but_overcrowded

https://twitter.com/x/status/2029545380824698943

I would give it six months to a year before making a definitive judgement on any capacity-demand mismatch. Glass half-full, if capacity is adequate then good; if capacity is not adequate, then hopefully that will expedite procurement of the expanded fleet (and third car).

The question is, do we have enough cars to put a 3rd car on every train? Wikipedia talks about the number of cars purchased, but says some of these were to be used for other lines in Ontario. Here is their summary:
182 Bombadier Flexity Freedom cars originally ordered for Line 5 plus other places in Ontario. Order reduced to 76 for Line 5 only.
Contingency order for 61 Citadis Spirit cars, of which 44 are for Line 5 and 17 for Line 6. I'm sure none of these are being used on Line 5 currently.
That does not answer the question of how many cars are required to run a fleet of 3 attached cars per train.

Also: The Wikipedia article for Line 6 says its fleet is 18 Citadis Spirit vehicles. Only 9 trains, then? Surely they have more than that. They must have more than that sitting in the train yard.

 

[urbanclient]

The question is, do we have enough cars to put a 3rd car on every train? Wikipedia talks about the number of cars purchased, but says some of these were to be used for other lines in Ontario. Here is their summary:
182 Bombadier Flexity Freedom cars originally ordered for Line 5 plus other places in Ontario. Order reduced to 76 for Line 5 only.
Contingency order for 61 Citadis Spirit cars, of which 44 are for Line 5 and 17 for Line 6. I'm sure none of these are being used on Line 5 currently.
That does not answer the question of how many cars are required to run a fleet of 3 attached cars per train.

Also: The Wikipedia article for Line 6 says its fleet is 18 Citadis Spirit vehicles. Only 9 trains, then? Surely they have more than that. They must have more than that sitting in the train yard.

I didn't make this clear earlier: we do not have enough in the current fleet.

I would guess new vehicles in 4-5 years. Forget the contingency order, they're not running Citadis Spirits with Flexity Freedoms on Line 5, that's outdated info. Even if they wanted to, I doubt the costs to ensure compatibility would be worth it.

For reference, weekday peak Line 1 uses 65 out of 76 six-car trains (65 x 6 of 76 x 6). You can do the math, it's been done on this thread before, the fleet is too small to run 3-car Eglinton trains with reasonable frequencies and a reasonable spare ratio. For simplicity, *as evidenced by their plan for shorter headways upon full opening* I think they would run shorter headways with 2-car trains, rather than longer headways with 3-car trains. Assuming both scenarios used the same number of cars at the same speed, the route capacity would be the same.

"Six-Month Service

• Hours of operation: 5:30 a.m. to 2:30 a.m.
• Peak frequency: Every 3 minutes and 30 seconds"

Ontario Newsroom

news.ontario.ca

Glass half-full, if capacity is adequate then good; if capacity is not adequate, then hopefully that will expedite procurement of the expanded fleet (and third car).

 

[nfitz]

The Wikipedia article for Line 6 says its fleet is 18 Citadis Spirit vehicles. Only 9 trains, then? Surely they have more than that. They must have more than that sitting in the train yard.

They don't run them in trains on Line 6.

 

[PL1]

I haven't seen anyone else post that the stairs from the south side of Leslie to TE Seton park are finally open

(Edit: typo and to note a cross post to the TE Seton thread)

 

[anb]

I was riding Line 5 today heading to Mount Dennis, and they already have announcements at Caledonia to transfer to the Barrie Line… Are the GO platforms even anywhere near half as done yet?

 

[hawc]

I haven't seen anyone else post that the stairs from the south side of Leslie to TE Seton park are finally open.

Nice. Now if you're naughty you can drive to DVP and Eglinton, pull into the parking lot here. Park all day for free walk up these stairs and get on the LRT to go downtown. Bet we'll see Green P meters in this lot soon.

 

[A 6264]

Nice. Now if you're naughty you can drive to DVP and Eglinton, pull into the parking lot here. Park all day for free walk up these stairs and get on the LRT to go downtown. Bet we'll see Green P meters in this lot soon.

There is also a parking lot within the park, to the north of the intersection, at street level and not in the valley, so no stairs to climb.

 

[hawc]

Now that I think of it, there are probably lots and lots and lots of parking lots and side streets that all of a sudden are going to be changing their parking policies all along entire LRT, so folks aren't driving right up to a stop and then getting free parking all day as they hop on and go to work.....

 

[Amare]

I was riding Line 5 today heading to Mount Dennis, and they already have announcements at Caledonia to transfer to the Barrie Line… Are the GO platforms even anywhere near half as done yet?

That's so cute of them to be so forward thinking.

Riders shouldnt expect to use that connection either this year, or even next year. If we're lucky maybe 2028.

But if we add the Metolinx idiocy premium and put that in play, i'll just go and say 2029.

 

[urbanclient]

THat's so cute of them to be so forward thinking.

Riders should expect to use that connection either this year, or even next year. If we're lucky maybe 2028.

But if we add the Metolinx idiocy premium and put that in play, i'll just go and say 2029.

Better early than late. This might be the one thing that Metrolinx isn't late on.

 

[McGillicuddy]

Now that I think of it, there are probably lots and lots and lots of parking lots and side streets that all of a sudden are going to be changing their parking policies all along entire LRT, so folks aren't driving right up to a stop and then getting free parking all day as they hop on and go to work.....

Perhaps the greatest force in Canadian nature is a homeowner denied "their" parking spot.

 

[hawc]

In Cabbagetown it's interesting how many homeowners turn their perfectly usable rear parking pads into backyard gardens and then park on the street. They had parking room on their property that they deliberately got rid of and now park on the street for a few hundred dollars a year. If your home never came with parking and you need a street parking spot for your one car that's one thing, but if you converted your backyard parking spot to a garden or have multiple cars and want to clog up the streets that's pretty wild. I've only ever applied for a temporary permit when I was having construction work done on my parking pad but only for a few days at a time. There's a woman across the street from me that leaves her SUV in the same spot on the street for weeks on end. Yowzers.

 

[Steve X]

I haven't seen anyone else post that the stairs from the south side of Leslie to TE Seton park are finally open

View attachment 724551
(Edit: typo and to note a cross post to the TE Seton thread)

That's definitely a lot of ground that can be used to lower the roadway to grade separated the tracks

 

[GenerationLee]

I haven't seen anyone else post that the stairs from the south side of Leslie to TE Seton park are finally open

View attachment 724551
(Edit: typo and to note a cross post to the TE Seton thread)

I used these steps like 2 weeks ago, didnt think it was note worthy to post. That being said, we do have parts of this line that are still not open to the public, like that station entrance at Bathurst, and the Salvation Army.