Recent content by thenorth

Any recent operational changes on this line? Are we still in the “trial” period with slow speeds and limited TSP?

I know it’s all really nitpicky, but living in Midtown, I find the Crosstown isn’t nearly as helpful as I had hoped, for the reasons discussed over the past several posts. Some combination of Line 1, Line 2 and various surface routes are typically faster, easier or more comfortable. I really...

lol yes. But even with the escalators working, I’d rather just walk to Cedarvale.

I’ll tell you guys, I had some errands to run along Eglinton last weekend. I had to navigate four Eglinton Line stations in 90 minutes with somewhat heavy bags, and between the station depth and long wait times for trains, it was not a pleasant experience. I was very exhausted and very annoyed 😂

At Bathurst Station (Line 2), if I’m at platform level, I can be pretty damn sure that I can transfer to a bus departing in one minute. You could never do the same at Forest Hill (Bathurst) Station on Line 5. That alone means I’m going to be a lot more inclined to take Line 2 over Line 5. These...

I’ll give Metrolinx credit. The Crosstown works. In the sense that the trains get from Point A to Point B. But you can definitely tell that this was their first attempt at building rapid transit. More experienced builders and operators of rapid transit would not have messed up seemingly trivial...

If I had bad knees, I don’t think I’d want to use the underground portion of Line 5. That’s how bad the accessibility is. I couldn’t imagine using this thing multiple times a day with bad knees.

Honestly, Line 5’s entrance pavilions are the nicest architectural component of this project. My issue is more with the underground portions. Couple the immense depth, with the lack of escalator and elevators, the bare white and concrete walls, the lack of sunlight, the cold temperatures, the...

This is a false dichotomy. There is no correlation between cost and good design. Things like adequate seating and trash bins, and properly enclosed surface stops, are not expensive. Excellent visual interior design is also not expensive. The poor aesthetic and functional design of the Eglinton...

Putting aside the depth, the TYSSE stations were some of the best designed stations we’ve got in Toronto. To go from that, to Eglinton in less than a decade is just bleak. Metrolinx needs to get better at public design. People deserve to exist in spaces better designed than this.

Regarding cleanliness, let’s give Line 5 a decade and then talk about cleanliness. The TYSSE stations are just as clean, despite being a decade older.

I’m relatively young and able bodied, but the depths of these stations even leaves me feeling relatively exhausted. We gotta stop building these transit lines so deep. I thought the TYSSE was bad for this, but Eglinton is so much worse. And the depressing grey/white aesthetic of the stations...

Is the TTC building this?

I’d argue that an organization like Metrolinx is exactly what you get when a society proiritizes financially rewarding lawyers and finance bros over engineers and technicians. You get an organization with 150 VPs that are very good at drafting contracts, but not so good at building...

The amount of bureaucracy necessary to get the most basic of things done here is just ridiculous.