Toronto Eglinton Line 5 Crosstown West Extension | ?m | ?s | Metrolinx

cplchanb said:
curious on what the decision making process is. What do they have to review that will take almost a year especially since most of the contractors are well known and have done past jobs?
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Perhaps they are reviewing why they are boring a deep tunnel beneath a 300 foot wide prairie to carry 4K people an hour.
 
Eglinton Flats is a floodplain of the Humber River, located between what will be the Eglinton Flats Portal, east of Jane Street, to the Scarlett Road Portal, west of Scarlet Road.

From link.

Eglinton Flats includes three of the four corners surrounding the Jane and Eglinton intersection. The fourth corner is the City run Scarlett Woods Golf Course. The area, built on the Humber River Floodplain, was owned and farmed by the Scarlett family in the mid 1800's. It was later turned into a market garden that was flooded out by Hurricane Hazel in 1954. As part of a new floodplain plan the area was turned into parkland. Eglinton Flats is a sports focused park with six soccer fields, four field hockey pitches, a rugby field, a football field and winterized tennis courts. It is also home to a local community garden and playground. In the northeast corner of the park you will find two cricket pitches. The park is a popular place to spend time through the spring, summer and fall.
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I dont even care anymore, just build something. If they want to pour away billions unnecessarily and leave tax payers on the hook subsidizing the operations for centuries than by all means go ahead. Clearly the mass populous doesn't care if they'll have services cut or taxes hiked substantially to pay this off in the future.

The choice was between a massively overbuilt underground line in this project, or a literal streetcar in ROW with unnecessarily stops littered everywhere. Both options are deeply flawed.
 
TorPronto said:
Agreed but I want transit built and these guys are moving fast. Meaning that it's likely the transit will be built. Unlike the high hopes I had to be riding on all the transit city lines by now.
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Most of us want transit built, and quickly.

Now - How do you feel about paying extra taxes because these guys are overbuilding lines with unneeded capacity that will run half empty and could be built much cheaper if they weren’t going underground? And telling you they won’t be building other things that are badly needed, because they pissed away all the money on these vanity transit projects? And letting time pass redesigning what the City had designed a couple years ago?

Speed is critical, but getting things sized right matters too.

- Paul
 
TorPronto said:
Agreed but I want transit built and these guys are moving fast. Meaning that it's likely the transit will be built. Unlike the high hopes I had to be riding on all the transit city lines by now.
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90% of the expense for Eg West is the everything but tunnels contract (yet to be tendered); and Eg West is a terrible business case even if the tunnels are $0 (sunk cost). That said, Doug has an exceptionally strong chance of winning the 2022 provincial election with a majority.

After that comes the debate about who pays how much for operations and capital maintenance (private government fees are fixed but TTCs share of this is unknown); this isn't settled for Eglinton Crosstown either. By way of comparison, CDPQ will be charging 72 cents per km per passenger for REM trips in their DBFOM agreement; that fee structure on Eglinton would be ~$14 for the tunnelled portion (9km West + 10km Crosstown).
 
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Whether or not they are prioritizing the right things we can debate forever, but I am a bit pleasantly surprised by this government's unwavering push with transit expansion. This despite all the other COVID-related priorities. And I'm not saying this as someone who would ever vote for Doug Ford. I repeat, EVER.
 
crs1026 said:
Most of us want transit built, and quickly.

Now - How do you feel about paying extra taxes because these guys are overbuilding lines with unneeded capacity that will run half empty and could be built much cheaper if they weren’t going underground? And telling you they won’t be building other things that are badly needed, because they pissed away all the money on these vanity transit projects? And letting time pass redesigning what the City had designed a couple years ago?

Speed is critical, but getting things sized right matters too.

- Paul
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Overbuilding is not that big of a problem. Line 1 ran with 2 car trains when it's first started. Nobody is calling that line overbuilt. This line is going to the airport and is connecting with a lot of important bus routes. You should think of this as a 'Bloor Line North' and not as a 'St Claire South'.

The problem is zoning, the capacity of the line will not be easily filled if most of Eglington doesn't get rezoned appropriately. Luckily the Ford gov forced increased density around transit stations.

If anything, now is the time to build as interest rates are low.
 
NoahB said:
Overbuilding is not that big of a problem. Line 1 ran with 2 car trains when it's first started. Nobody is calling that line overbuilt today. This line is going to the airport and is connecting with a lot of important bus routes.
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Although, I don't believe it will get to YYZ in this phase, just Renforth.

Hopefully, it doesn't become our equivalent of the Roosevelt Ave-Jackson Heights MTA stop. Tantalizingly close to LGA, but not enough.
 
JasonParis said:
Although, I don't believe it will get to YYZ in this phase, just Renforth.
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They would have gone to the airport if the hub is ready. The airport is seen as the eventual terminus for the line. It is true that this project in particular stops short of entering the airport grounds. The Mississauga's Mayor and Metrolinx mention that in every announcement and document related to this project.

From today's press briefing:
“I want to thank the province for advancing the important work needed to extend and connect the Eglinton Crosstown to Renforth Station. Once complete, this will serve as Mississauga’s newest east to west regional transit link and fully connect our transit system to Toronto and the GTA. It will allow for more frequent and rapid service to the Airport Corporate Centre and, eventually, Pearson Airport, which will one day be Mississauga's Union Station West.”

Bonnie Crombie

Mayor of Mississauga
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Quick Facts
  • The Eglinton Crosstown West Extension (ECWE) will extend the Eglinton Crosstown Light Rail Transit project, currently under construction, by 9.2 km from the future Mount Dennis Station to Renforth Drive. The extension will create convenient connections between different transit systems throughout the region ― UP Express and Kitchener Line GO train service at Mount Dennis, TTC bus services at transit stops in Toronto, and MiWay and GO bus services via the Mississauga Transitway at Renforth Drive. The province is also committed to establishing connectivity to Pearson International Airport.
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crs1026 said:
Most of us want transit built, and quickly.

Now - How do you feel about paying extra taxes because these guys are overbuilding lines with unneeded capacity that will run half empty and could be built much cheaper if they weren’t going underground? And telling you they won’t be building other things that are badly needed, because they pissed away all the money on these vanity transit projects? And letting time pass redesigning what the City had designed a couple years ago?

Speed is critical, but getting things sized right matters too.

- Paul
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I hold the same view as you. All of Transit City was supposed to be running by 2020 and we got nothing. I think Transit City (excl Don Mills) is vastly superior to the current iteration of what we are getting. So how do I feel about actually getting infrastructure and paying extra taxes vs not having the infrastructure at all? I'm fine with it. Rapid transit enables Toronto's success.

We also have to know what extra taxes means. Does it mean I'm paying an extra $10/year? Does it mean $10/month? $1000/month? I'm guessing it'd be closer to $8 annually in extra taxes if that.

Many Torontonians will be getting to work faster, getting back home to their families faster. The Eg West ext serves many low income communities and I'm ok paying extra if they would spend 10 minutes less time per trip once this is running vs the status quo.
 
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