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

[Monarch Butterfly]

There is absolutely no good reason to have TTC announcements in French.

Canada has two official languages: English and French.

In Ontario...

• English: Spoken by approximately 93.8% of the population.
• French: Spoken by about 3.8% of the population.

Some of the most common non-official languages include:

Language	Percentage of Population
Mandarin	1.9%
Italian	1.5%
Spanish	1.2%
Punjabi	1.1%
Arabic	1.0%

For comparison, in Québec...

• Francophones: Approximately 77.1% of the population speaks French as their first language.
• Anglophones: About 7.45% of the population speaks English as their first language.

 

[A 6264]

There is absolutely no good reason to have TTC announcements in French.

Any major project like this, funded by the Ontario government, has to be bilingual. To the person who said, only New Brunswick is a bilingual province, not so, Ontario is too. It's just bilingual in the same sense that Canada is bilingual: Government services have to be equally available in 2 languages. The rule doesn't force retailers, for instance, to use both languages everywhere to put up signs in both languages, nor force English to be used on all signs. Go to various neighbourhoods in Toronto and you will see signs primarily in other languages if that's what's commonly spoken in that area. Quebec is different because they tell retailiers French is mandatory and other languages are either forbidden, or must come second. BTW, Canada also has trilingual provinces and territories.

But I do understand the concern that in Toronto, French is far from being the second most spoken language. I'm not sure what the second is. French is probably near #8 on the list. I don't think we want announcements and signage in 8 languages! (Although there has been a neat TTC advert about inclusion, printed in many languages.) So if it were not for the Ont Gov involvement, one language should be enough, to show we don't play favourites. Since I know why 2 are used, I'm not bothered by it.

I understand if Metrolinx wants to force French down our throats

Oh dear, the 80s have returned. ¡Ay, caramba!

 

[explodingchampion]

Am I just deaf or am I the only one lucky enough to be on the quieter trains? I never thought the announcements were too loud or distorted... Been hearing this gripe for the past month.

It depends on where you're seated; the transverse 2+2 seats & doors have speakers directly underneath, and therefore now I'm currently going deaf.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Canada has two official languages: English and French.

I seem to have triggered our linguists and constitutionalists. Use whatever languages are needed, but keep the volume and content reasonable, and ideally consistent across the TTC operated network (regardless of ownership). I expect the average ride on Line 5 is 4-6 stops or more, and no one needs to be told a half dozen times to hold a railing in case gravity and inertia are new to you.

 

[T3G]

I seem to have triggered our linguists and constitutionalists. Use whatever languages are needed, but keep the volume and content reasonable, and ideally consistent across the TTC operated network (regardless of ownership). I expect the average ride on Line 5 is 4-6 stops or more, and no one needs to be told a half dozen times to hold a railing in case gravity and inertia are new to you.

Metrolinx love to talk down to their user base as though they're 2 years old. Then they do shit like this:

GO train near Oakville was seconds away from ‘worst-case’ derailment, internal Metrolinx report shows

Experts raise concerns about the GO network’s safety infrastructure and Metrolinx’s transparency.

www.thestar.com

Safety never stops, my ass.

Why, for any reason, anyone, anywhere in the world, at any time, would think it necessary to have a transit vehicle announce anything besides the next stop and destination of the vehicle (and, if applicable, that it is now out of service) is a mystery to me. Their gratuitous abuse of the text to speech system was my primary motivation in procuring a pair of noise cancelling headphones. Nanny state nonsense.

 

[GenerationLee]

Yeah, it's patently absurd. I see no purpose in the French announcements, and am absolutely gobsmacked that we need to be told how to use a train while its in motion.
It's not like public transit has only just started running on Eglinton for the first time ever...

 

[thettctransitfanatic]

Metrolinx love to talk down to their user base as though they're 2 years old. Then they do shit like this:

GO train near Oakville was seconds away from ‘worst-case’ derailment, internal Metrolinx report shows

Experts raise concerns about the GO network’s safety infrastructure and Metrolinx’s transparency.

www.thestar.com

Safety never stops, my ass.

Why, for any reason, anyone, anywhere in the world, at any time, would think it necessary to have a transit vehicle announce anything besides the next stop and destination of the vehicle (and, if applicable, that it is now out of service) is a mystery to me. Their gratuitous abuse of the text to speech system was my primary motivation in procuring a pair of noise cancelling headphones. Nanny state nonsense.

No joke, in February Metrolinx had a Black History Month announcement playing on the GO.... some virtue signalling, indeed!

 

[David_Brown]

The subway in Busan, Korea has announcements in Korean, English, Chinese, and Japanese! Not loud, though.

 

[PL1]

I have no problem with French announcements. However, there is zero reason to repeat the safety announcements after each stop. Last time I was in Chicago (2018), they had a series of rotating messages, each of which would play every few stations.

As others have stated, people understand gravity and inertia.

The important announcements are: direction of travel, next stop, and which side to exit.

They absolutely need to fix the buzzy/garbled messages.

 

[PL1]

No joke, in February Metrolinx had a Black History Month announcement playing on the GO.... some virtue signalling, indeed!

Is that virtue signalling because Black History month has nothing to do with train operation? Personally, I don't mind this, but agree that some messages get diluted (e.g. "see something, say something" on the TTC(

 

[crs1026]

Is that virtue signalling because Black History month has nothing to do with train operation?

I won't pick on Black History Month, I have also heard promos for Jays games pre-parties, blood donor clinics, Run for the Cure, whatever. Personally I don't appreciate a stream of public service announcements on transit, no matter how i much I value their cause. Announcements should be limited to bare necessities. Transit should aspire to the same peace and tranquility as a public library or a church. There's enough operational chatter as it is, the incremental chatter does trigger some of us..

Personally, I don't mind this, but agree that some messages get diluted (e.g. "see something, say something" on the TTC(

"See it, say it, we will sort it" is every transit agency's announcement these days. I can live with it, although the harsh mechanical ML voice that says "Sept ....Sept....Sept....Sept....." is somehow more grating than other properties; versions.

- Paul

 

[81-717]

Then they do shit like this:

GO train near Oakville was seconds away from ‘worst-case’ derailment, internal Metrolinx report shows

Experts raise concerns about the GO network’s safety infrastructure and Metrolinx’s transparency.

www.thestar.com

Safety never stops, my ass.

Would love to read in more detail if it weren't for that stupid goddamn paywall I do tend to get a bit nervous when riding GO/VIA at over 100 km/h that it could suddenly derail when crossing switches or even just slightly swaying, but always tried to brush it off as unfounded paranoia. Guess it isn't entirely unfounded now...

Does Quebec return the courtesy and make their services, including municipal transit available in English?

Exactly my point that previously sparked a lengthy discussion in the Trudeau thread.

 

[APTA-2048]

My Franco ontarian family and friends appreciate French Language services and don’t find it stupid at all.

I don’t know why Anglo Ontarians get so up in arms about it. I’ve seen complaining about it here, Reddit, CPTDB, etc. Canada has two official languages. It is not a big deal. Other countries have multiple official languages too.

 

[A 6264]

The subway in Busan, Korea has announcements in Korean, English, Chinese, and Japanese! Not loud, though.

If they did that on Finch LRT, where stations are close together, you'd get to the next station while the train was still giving announcements for the previous one!

 

[GenerationLee]

You basically do on Eglinton as is...the trains are supposedly running a bit 'slower' in the tunnels at the moment so, they will have to tweak their announcement regiment, and understand we're not riding a bloody GO train, which takes a few minutes between stations.