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

[Thaboss]

Is this still an eglinton crosstown thread ? Or is this a line 2/line 4 thread ? Lol


Anyway, has anyone noticed cross town activities? Do we have any insider scoops on how things are going.

 

[nfitz]

Anyway, has anyone noticed cross town activities?

What kind of activities? With regular running going on, I'd think only an absence of regular operation would be reported.

 

[Thaboss]

What kind of activities? With regular running going on, I'd think only an absence of regular operation would be reported.

With how metrolinx communicates about line 5, we might stumble across that info. 10 months after the fact, which is why I ask.

I also, haven't been down there to see for my self in some time so I was just wondering.

 

[nfitz]

With how metrolinx communicates about line 5, we might stumble across that info. 10 months after the fact, which is why I ask.

In this thread? The news will be quick.

 

[Monarch Butterfly]

Today is August 22, 2025. We have 11 days till September 2, 2025. Watching the chimney, just black smoke at the moment.

 

[Monarch Butterfly]

Does the TTC have a record of how many of the legacy streetcar operators requested a transfer to the Eglinton Maintenance and Storage Facility for training on the light rail vehicles on Line 5? Probably would be easier to operate than in mixed traffic.

 

[robmausser]

Does the TTC have a record of how many of the legacy streetcar operators requested a transfer to the Eglinton Maintenance and Storage Facility for training on the light rail vehicles on Line 5? Probably would be easier to operate than in mixed traffic.

Not to mention you get a nice break every time the train goes underground and into ATC.

That information would not be publically available though, id imagine. But I agree that internally the employees would be trying to get moved to the LRT.

 

[SaugeenJunction]

Some testing footage from today. Train frequency timestamps in the video description.

 

[Transportfan]

Is the significance in this video the train frequencies, as in pre-opening ghost service? There's been a lot of them the past few years.

 

[Transportfan]

Not to mention you get a nice break every time the train goes underground and into ATC.

That information would not be publically available though, id imagine. But I agree that internally the employees would be trying to get moved to the LRT.

It would make monetary sense to have the westbound drivers get off at Laird and run with the cab empty to Mount Dennis and have them change to run eastbound.

 

[Monarch Butterfly]

It would make monetary sense to have the westbound drivers get off at Laird and run with the cab empty to Mount Dennis and have them change to run eastbound.

Better to have a human onboard to handle rowdyism, medical emergencies, and tourist inquiries. May even pick up litter.

 

[zang]

Better to have a human onboard to handle rowdyism, medical emergencies, and tourist inquiries. May even pick up litter.

As we learned the hard way from cutting back on a human presence in the subway.

 

[urbancog]

The plan is for the human operator to initiate open & close of doors at each underground station, then trigger automated train operation to start movement of the train.

 

[Monarch Butterfly]

The plan is for the human operator to initiate open & close of doors at each underground station, then trigger automated train operation to start movement of the train.

Would be better to have the human "supervise" the automated opening & closing the doors and "supervise" the train operation through the tunnels.

A supervisor would be paid more than an operator.

 

[crs1026]

I was out on Eglinton today and saw plenty of trams along the line. Station signs seemed to predict their arrival accurately, and the voice announcements that a tram was arriving was operating. (digression - a woman I chatted with at the bus stop who lives in an apartment on Eglinton vociferously complained about how loud these announcements are in her apartment....perhaps residents on Eg will stop noticing after a while)

I stood at the O'Connor stop for a while (not by choice, but because the 34 bus was severely delayed) and timed the light cycles. In the absence of a tram, the eastward transit signal at Eglinton Square provided a green signal for about 15 seconds before turning yellow. The cycle then did not present a permissive transit signal for over 2 minutes, as the various auto traffic routes were cleared. The transit signal at Vic Park seemed to expedite eastbound trams into the O'Connor station, but they then had to wait for a permissive signal to leave the station. I timed trams that, after a reasonable station dwell, waited as long as 95 seconds for a transit signal to proceed. This seemed to be expected by the operators, as I saw some leave their seat and stretch or grab a bite from their lunchbox, and had time to do so and still get back "at the throttle" before their signal turned green.

It happened that my bus got a green at the same time as an eastward tram, so I was able to watch the tram's progress on the ride to Kennedy. Mostly, the bus got ahead of the tram thanks to aggressive acceleration from each light as it turned green.... but with the overloaded bus making long stops to load/unload, the tram caught up.... but was held at intersections by the same red light as the bus. So our progress reaching and then leaving each signalled intersection was identical. The tram clearly collected delay at most lights.

My conclusion is that the cumulative delay caused by trams waiting for a permissive signal at each intersection adds 3-5 minutes to the trip time between Vic Park and Kennedy. I don't know if the current testing is targeted to the eventual operating schedule, but it sure seems that the absence of true transit vehicle priority is downgrading the potential of the line. So much for squeezing LRT quality performance out of our newest street car line.

- Paul