News   Dec 05, 2025
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News   Dec 05, 2025
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News   Dec 05, 2025
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Toronto Eglinton Line 5 | ?m | ?s | Metrolinx | Arcadis

But protecting for a highly hypothetical, unfunded solution is also a waste of resources, and is never ending, unless you apply a hard constraint to when the scope stops creeping.

It was always an intention to connect both ECLRT and FWLRT to the airport; not something highly hypothetical.
 
What is the hold up?
In August 2011 construction began on the first phase (19 km, 25 stops) of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT. At 156 months (679 weeks) equal to 27 weeks per meter, is this the longest time ever needed for a Toronto transit project? If we can assume that after weather delays and hiccups the first phase finally opens in Spring 2025, it will be 162 months (648 weeks) from start to completion. That must be a record for a LRT build?

For comparison, the CN Tower took 40 months to build. The Boston Tunnel system, aka the Big Dig began construction in 1991 and opened (to cars) in 2003, for a total of 14 years or 728 weeks. How long would be have taken Ontario to make a Big Dig for Toronto, thirty years?
 
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Sept 5
was up at Yonge and Eglinton today after my last visited many months ago and surprise the north-east corner is still not finished considering the rest is done.

What is the hold up?
Crews are likely too busy with Metrolinx's silly and inane requirements to lower or raise sidewalks and curbs by single inches.

I know of a number of people in the construction industry who are in retrospect happy that they missed out on this job.

I though that building one pair of tracks is cheaper than building two pairs.
Sure, it would be.

Except that one is coming from the north, and one is coming from the south. The amount of overlap of the two lines is likely going to be limited to the length of the platforms.

Now, what may make sense is some sort of (unpowered or unsignalled) connection between the two for the purposes of moving MOW/specialty equipment between the two lines, but I struggle to be able to come up with a line design that makes sense for the two lines to operate on common tracks.

It was always an intention to connect both ECLRT and FWLRT to the airport; not something highly hypothetical.
It was an intention for both, sure, but that's hardly a statement of commitment. Hell, of the two lines only one saw anything remotely close to the engineering of a connection. I think it's fair to call it hypothetical in any timeframe in which most of us are alive.

Dan
 
Sept 5
was up at Yonge and Eglinton today after my last visited many months ago and surprise the north-east corner is still not finished considering the rest is done.

What is the hold up?
It's awful, especially for rush hour crowds. I guess some kind of Toronto Hydro or other contractual hold up is going on.
 
In August 2011 construction began on the first phase (19 km, 25 stops) of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT. At 156 months (679 weeks) equal to 27 weeks per meter, is this the longest time ever needed for a Toronto transit project? If we can assume that after weather delays and hiccups the first phase finally opens in Spring 2025, it will be 162 months (648 weeks) from start to completion. That must be a record for a LRT build?

For comparison, the CN Tower took 40 months to build. The Boston Tunnel system, aka the Big Dig began construction in 1991 and opened (to cars) in 2003, for a total of 14 years or 728 weeks. How long would be have taken Ontario to make a Big Dig for Toronto, thirty years?

that wasn't always the case. they used to build subway lines in under 4 years. i'll let you figure out why that's no longer the case.
 
I guess we won't be seeing anything new about this line untill it's actually complete. Plenty of stations we actually haven't seen below ground but doubt we'll get any new insight on that
 
Except that one is coming from the north, and one is coming from the south. The amount of overlap of the two lines is likely going to be limited to the length of the platforms.

ECLRT will likely follow Silver Dart Drive into the airport. Looking at the map, FWLRT could join where Silver Dart comes close to the Airport Road & Carlinview intersection. From there, the two lines could share about 800 m of tracks, assuming the LRT terminal will be located close to the UP terminal. The main benefit might not even be the construction cost saving, but a smaller footprint on the airport grounds that are already filled with a maze of ramps.

Furthermore, interoperable lines would allow some new LRT route(s). Such as: from Kipling subway up to Eglinton, then with ECLRT to the Renforth station and up Silver Dart, and then taking the Finch LRT tracks to Humber College.
 
I guess we won't be seeing anything new about this line untill it's actually complete. Plenty of stations we actually haven't seen below ground but doubt we'll get any new insight on that
It bothers me so much that the Metrolinx higher ups won't open anything until we have the line fully complete. Open segments that are functioning, even if it means not operating Yong/Eng station, which some people think is the problem. The mismanagement is unreal, baffles my mind how this isn't front page news everyday, how how FOI requests are able to give us info on what is going on.
 
It bothers me so much that the Metrolinx higher ups won't open anything until we have the line fully complete. Open segments that are functioning, even if it means not operating Yong/Eng station, which some people think is the problem. The mismanagement is unreal, baffles my mind how this isn't front page news everyday, how how FOI requests are able to give us info on what is going on.
What bothers me is how people keep trotting this idea out as though it in any way makes sense. Do you really think that opening a line without its central transfer point, forcing people to backtrack or transfer onto a different service, and have service bypass an active construction site while they figure out what is going on underneath the station, is really better than waiting until the project is safe to open? We're not talking about deferring the opening of the Scarborough segment here, you are suggesting that the central part of the line be left incomplete.

It strikes me as profoundly unsafe to run trains through an active construction site, and it would also be a fantastic failure in PR. "Gee, all this money pumped into the project and its centerpiece station isn't even done?" No one who is even remotely politically savvy would go for this. And you don't need a FOI request to figure that out, either.
 
What bothers me is how people keep trotting this idea out as though it in any way makes sense. Do you really think that opening a line without its central transfer point, forcing people to backtrack or transfer onto a different service, and have service bypass an active construction site while they figure out what is going on underneath the station, is really better than waiting until the project is safe to open? We're not talking about deferring the opening of the Scarborough segment here, you are suggesting that the central part of the line be left incomplete.

It strikes me as profoundly unsafe to run trains through an active construction site, and it would also be a fantastic failure in PR. "Gee, all this money pumped into the project and its centerpiece station isn't even done?" No one who is even remotely politically savvy would go for this. And you don't need a FOI request to figure that out, either.
There is a crossover on Line 5 between Cedarvale (Eglinton West) and Avenue Road. I forgot where the crossover is. (There is a track map of all the pocket tracks and crossovers.) They could use the section from Mt. Dennis to Cedarvale until Eglinton is up and running in the meantime.

Except that it would remind people of the cancelled Eglinton West Subway that former Premier Mike Harris filled in. That construction began in 1994 but was cancelled in 1995.
 
What bothers me is how people keep trotting this idea out as though it in any way makes sense. Do you really think that opening a line without its central transfer point, forcing people to backtrack or transfer onto a different service, and have service bypass an active construction site while they figure out what is going on underneath the station, is really better than waiting until the project is safe to open? We're not talking about deferring the opening of the Scarborough segment here, you are suggesting that the central part of the line be left incomplete.

It strikes me as profoundly unsafe to run trains through an active construction site, and it would also be a fantastic failure in PR. "Gee, all this money pumped into the project and its centerpiece station isn't even done?" No one who is even remotely politically savvy would go for this. And you don't need a FOI request to figure that out, either.
It depends. Can trains with passengers safely transit through Eglinton, or is it too dangerous even for that? Can we really consider Eglinton an “active” construction site? It can’t be all that active if they’re two years behind schedule.
 

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