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

Bojaxs said:
oes this mean trains going through the underground and grade separated portions of the line will be relegated to travel at the same speed as the trains travelling along the eastern/ at grade portion of the line?
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No, they just need to maintain a constant rate of speed in relation to other cars on the line.

You can try this out for yourself with another person: start running from point A, then you walk normally onwards from point B. Have a second person follow 30 seconds later, maintaining the same rate of speed. The only way they would catch up with you is if they continued running past point B.
 
zang said:
I believe mechanics are generally supplied by the manufacturer as part of the purchase. I get standardization of the track widths, but standardization of rolling stock means less flexibility and a greater chance of a systemwide problem. If all Flexity trains were found to have a potentially fatal flaw in them, our entire streetcar system would be shut down right now (ahem, moreso than it currently is). If the Toronto Rockets had a similar type of flaw, we could at least pull the old T1s onto the Yonge line and provide at least some semblance of service for a while. Having mixed stock is an advantage.
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This is absolutely, positively the wrong way to view it.

If all of the equipment is the same, all of the parts, tools, techniques etc. can be the same - leading to savings. You're not buying spare parts for multiple different fleets. You're not having to provide new tools for the same. You're not having to train your employees to operate and maintain multiple types of equipment.

It is more cost efficient to take the known savings of standardization against the potential (and unlikely) costs of your "flexibility".

zang said:
Likewise, costs go up with standardized stock. Once you're set with a particular stock, you're stuck with it. No leverage for better pricing, no incremental improvements in the vehicles, etc. And the manufacturer knows that. You'll end up paying more in the long run.
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If this was somehow the case, mass production wouldn't be a thing.

No, standardization saves money - both up-front in terms of purchasing (buying more of the same thing is cheaper than buying fewer of custom stuff), and over the long term (fewer parts to have to stock, simplified maintenance techniques, less training, etc.)

zang said:
In Europe, standardized stock is not very common across an entire system, and we should be following their example in transit value for money.
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Again, absolutely not the case. Why do you think that Berlin just got 200 of the same type of streetcar? 20 years ago, Portugal rebuilt 3 different kinds of regional EMU and standardized them all into one homogeneous fleet - with the resultant cost savings and service improvements that went with it.

Dan
 
I can't find a YouTube livestream video of today's press conference related to OL station construction, but the media naturally asked about Crosstown and here is what Phil Verster said. Unfortunately, without the video we don't have the verbatim quotes cc @Northern Light
  • NEW: Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster says they are “relentlessly progressing” towards an opening date for the Eglinton LRT. Verster says there have been some “significant milestones” and they are now in the 4th week of operator driver training.
  • 36/40 occupancy permits have now been issued, Verster says, but he is not giving us a date for the opening of the LRT. Verster said “speculating on a date creates fictitious deadlines.”
  • Verster says speculation on dates “gets us into a messy place.”He says the province “will declare a date as soon as we can”
  • We asked Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria about specific accountability measures the Ford government has taken with Metrolinx re: Eglinton LRT. The minister says the gov’t has taken “learnings” and changed its process. But no accountability actions taken.
^ Tweets from Colin D'Mello
 
^ And as a reminder of what the dashboard looks like, this was from one year ago from this: https://assets.metrolinx.com/image/...x/ECLRT_Briefing_Deck_-_September_27_2023.pdf

From February on Occupancy Permits: https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threads/toronto-crosstown-lrt-m-s-metrolinx-arcadis.11782/post-2047191 (and if you search this thread for "occupancy permits" you can see the progress where people have posted it when the info was publicly mentioned. Haven't searched in the thread for the other dashboard items. Software is the big one).

1725462222704.png
 
Allandale25 said:
I can't find a YouTube livestream video of today's press conference related to OL station construction, but the media naturally asked about Crosstown and here is what Phil Verster said. Unfortunately, without the video we don't have the verbatim quotes cc @Northern Light
  • NEW: Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster says they are “relentlessly progressing” towards an opening date for the Eglinton LRT. Verster says there have been some “significant milestones” and they are now in the 4th week of operator driver training.
  • 36/40 occupancy permits have now been issued, Verster says, but he is not giving us a date for the opening of the LRT. Verster said “speculating on a date creates fictitious deadlines.”
  • Verster says speculation on dates “gets us into a messy place.”He says the province “will declare a date as soon as we can”
  • We asked Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria about specific accountability measures the Ford government has taken with Metrolinx re: Eglinton LRT. The minister says the gov’t has taken “learnings” and changed its process. But no accountability actions taken.
^ Tweets from Colin D'Mello
Click to expand...
LOL no new permits since June wtf is up with those 4 occupancy permits
 
Voltz said:
Nine years late now, on when the TTC was going to open the first phase of the line back when it was their project.
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When/how was it considered 'their' project - just for clarity, are you referring to the Transit City/City's EA days?
 
Allandale25 said:
When/how was it considered 'their' project - just for clarity, are you referring to the Transit City/City's EA days?
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It was TTC's project well past the EA. The tunnelling contract was developed by TTC, and Metrolinx just assumed control. That's when things went wrong, as there was a many-year delay for Metrolinx to put together the RFP for the stations and systems. In addition to the delay in finalizing the tunnelling contract.
 
I think I've figured it out!! They're timing the opening of the Eglinton Crosstown to mark the 40 year anniversary from Network 2011, which was published in 1985. Network 2011 was the first call for higher order transit on Eglinton. So if you think about it - it's not 5 years late on a 10 year project, it's ~40 years late ;)
 
Allandale25 said:
A few more details in this. No time to parse them out at the moment. cc @Northern Light

toronto.citynews.ca

'Progress is relentless': Still no opening date for Eglinton Crosstown LRT

Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster said progress on the Eglinton Crosstown project has stabilized adding that a couple of significant milestones have been achieved
toronto.citynews.ca toronto.citynews.ca
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I don't think there's much that's new there, beyond what's been posted. I suppose we got that 'Yonge' is one of the outstanding occupancy permits.
 
“One of the most important milestones was at the end of July. For four consecutive days we operated 75 per cent of the fleet, which delivers the service level six that we’ll have on opening day, eight hours a day, relentlessly, to check that the infrastructure is ready for the next stage which is so important which is operator driver training for the TTC,” said Verster. “It wasn’t perfection – there were still issues with the signalling and control system – but all of the important infrastructure held up to the extent that the TTC and ourselves were satisfied to start operator driver training.”
Click to expand...
 
Allandale25 said:
I can't find a YouTube livestream video of today's press conference related to OL station construction, but the media naturally asked about Crosstown and here is what Phil Verster said. Unfortunately, without the video we don't have the verbatim quotes cc @Northern Light
  • NEW: Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster says they are “relentlessly progressing” towards an opening date for the Eglinton LRT. Verster says there have been some “significant milestones” and they are now in the 4th week of operator driver training.
  • 36/40 occupancy permits have now been issued, Verster says, but he is not giving us a date for the opening of the LRT. Verster said “speculating on a date creates fictitious deadlines.”
  • Verster says speculation on dates “gets us into a messy place.”He says the province “will declare a date as soon as we can”
  • We asked Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria about specific accountability measures the Ford government has taken with Metrolinx re: Eglinton LRT. The minister says the gov’t has taken “learnings” and changed its process. But no accountability actions taken.
^ Tweets from Colin D'Mello
Click to expand...
honestly by giving no deadlines Verster is allowing contractors to go carte blanche on their construction schedules. they are under no pressure to deliver on time since their opening date goals are secret from the main stakeholders of this project: the public.
verster needs to be relieved of duty after this project is finished. he is at fault for most of these delays.
 
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