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

yurt2022 said:
Steve Munro reports that there are rumours of issues in the underground section of Line 5 with tracks and signals, meaning that there will likely be slow zones during operation.

"Trains won't drop down the portal at Brentcliffe and fly to Mount Dennis."
Click to expand...
If there are serious issues with underground tracks and signals, how the f*** did the third party "independent engineers [verify] the line is ready for service"???

The whole point of an up to 14 day long substantial completion certification period was to make sure everything was right. Instead, less than 4 days after RSD completion on the evening of December 1st, they announced substantial completion on the morning of December 5th. It seems Metrolinx rammed through a rubber stamp substantial completion for political reasons, in pursuit of a December 28th opening.

"To achieve Substantial Completion, extensive testing was conducted to ensure the line is prepared for safe and reliable service. This testing included:

  • Running the line at full capacity in a variety of weather conditions, including 10 centimetres of snowfall
  • Operating the fleet more than 11,000 kilometres per week to replicate customer service
  • Maintaining service for 16 hours per day
  • Ensuring a full complement of staff to proactively manage and mitigate any problems that arise during testing"
https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/...stantial-completion-of-eglinton-crosstown-lrt

December 28th was pushed by Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay, but the TTC CEO Mandeep Lali pushed back. "Sources said he wanted to see the line open around Feb. 8, citing concerns about rushing fixes to the remaining technical problems. The meeting appeared to end with Ford accepting Toronto’s position the line could not be opened this year."
https://globalnews.ca/news/11570650/metrolinx-pushes-2025-opening-eglinton-crosstown-lrt/

"TTC’s Laurence Lui stated that the contracted travel times for Line 5 are 98 minutes peak, 90 off-peak, but the TTC is actually scheduling 112 for testing and initial service. This is similar to the situation on Finch, and that begs the question of just how slowly trains will move across Eglinton. Separate from this, but unconfirmed, are rumours of speed restrictions in the tunnelled section because of issues with signals and braking systems. If so, this fault lies squarely in Metrolinx’ hands."
https://stevemunro.ca/2025/12/10/ttc-board-debates-finch-lrt/
 
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It's crazy how demonized some of us were for having the audacity to say that Eglinton (and Sheppard East) should have been a subway and that they cooked the numbers (Neptis) to make sure LRT won over subway while excluding Skytrain/OL technology from the studies.

How the table have turned today - looks like this line will have the same issues as O-Train.
 
Cobra said:
It's crazy how demonized some of us were for having the audacity to say that Eglinton (and Sheppard East) should have been a subway and that they cooked the numbers (Neptis) to make sure LRT won over subway while excluding Skytrain/OL technology from the studies.

How the table have turned today - looks like this line will have the same issues as O-Train.
Click to expand...

A subway wont have better reliability. There will be just as many issues with the Ontario Line. Its simply how crap everything is built today in North America
 
Cobra said:
It's crazy how demonized some of us were for having the audacity to say that Eglinton (and Sheppard East) should have been a subway and that they cooked the numbers (Neptis) to make sure LRT won over subway while excluding Skytrain/OL technology from the studies.

How the table have turned today - looks like this line will have the same issues as O-Train.
Click to expand...
Yeah, we’ve never seen slow zones in the subway, schedule bloat, lineups at terminals, operational problems, lines that never get built, etc. Such a transit paradise.
 
Apparently this thread can't continue until we give this out, so.

fcd9a810-b6c1-4078-b234-8ee52b6c744a.png
 
Bojaxs said:
It's quite damning that people are now suggesting it'll be faster to get to Mt. Dennis from Scarborough by riding line 2 to Dundas West and then take the UP from Bloor GO. Probably even quicker once the tunnel connecting Dundas W. with Bloor GO is complete.
Click to expand...
crosstown
look inside
not useful for crossing town
 
yurt2022 said:
Steve Munro reports that there are rumours of issues in the underground section of Line 5 with tracks and signals, meaning that there will likely be slow zones during operation.

"Trains won't drop down the portal at Brentcliffe and fly to Mount Dennis."
Click to expand...
The issue is not with the tracks and signals. They are fine (finally).

The issue is with the maintenance regime that the winning proponent wishes to follow once the line is in operation. And, unfortunately, they are able to get final say.

Cobra said:
Did such issue happen at the opening of a brand new line? I don't recall Sheppard having those issues on day 1.
Click to expand...
Sheppard had a bunch of issues on day 1. It's just that virtually none of them were operational, as the line had been running for 6 months prior to service.

Dan
 
Cobra said:
Did such issue happen at the opening of a brand new line? I don't recall Sheppard having those issues on day 1.
Click to expand...
Sheppard was way less complicated. Eglinton among other things has been a systems integration nightmare. Some of this is due to newer code requirements, but for instance maybe in hindsight it should have been built with a more conventional lineside signal system rather than CBTC.

Eglinton is pretty egregiously bad but not the only transit project with these kind of problems, for instance I think the Melbourne Metro Tunnel had problems with CBTC too and is still in a limited service soft launch (a 3tph shuttle in off peak times only, and no peak service to AFAIK not risk a service meltdown in the peaks) until February. So I would expect any new build heavy rail subway line in Toronto to have some sort of launch issues too.
 
I found it ironic that when I boarded Line 2 to head for my first ride on Finch, it took 16 minutes to go from Royal York to Kipling due to bunched trains crawling to the end of the line. And after riding the new LRT - when I went down to Line 1 at Finch West, my train was sitting in the station, and it was close to ten minutes before it moved, due to some delay up the line.
It's not like slow LRT's are the exception to slow service on the TTC.

- Paul
 
Ratazana said:
I think everyone needs to be reminded why Transit City was proposed: we ain’t got enough money to build half a line of subway and our city was built on urban sprawl.

No one would have chosen surface LRT had we got healthy transit funding/investment since the mid 90s….
Click to expand...
I don't think Toronto can afford LRT, especially when it doesn't perform better than buses.
 
Cobra said:
Did such issue happen at the opening of a brand new line? I don't recall Sheppard having those issues on day 1.
Click to expand...
It wouldn't have to happen on the Eglinton line, either. There is nothing inherent in the choice of technology that caused this, it all comes down to the people in charge and their ability (or lack thereof) to execute the project correctly.

If all were equal, but the choice of technology was different, do we really think this quagmire wouldn't have occurred? This is a problem with the PPP, and trusting Metrolinx to execute any project more complicated than spilling a drink on the floor.
 
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