Updated August 4, 2021: Metrolinx has begun installation of a test strip of grass at the Golden Mile stop (Warden). See their blog article The Eglinton Crosstown LRT is going green.
With the recent interest in testing activities on the Eglinton Crosstown, and the inevitable flurry of photos that will appear in coming weeks, a question popped up on social media recently: where is the grass?
Illustrations of the line’s eventual state vary, but there are two examples below that clearly show a grassed right-of-way, at least in some locations. [Source: Early Works Open House Presentation]
I asked Metrolinx about the extent of the line that will be grassed, and when we might see more about this. Here is their reply [email from Metrolinx Media Relations, June 1, 2021]:
- There will be grass across the full width of the Guideway, with the exception of bridges and underpasses, Stop platforms, intersections, and where roadway vehicular, pedestrian and/or emergency services access is required.
- Plant material of the Green Tracks shall be selected from suitable species of sedum or grass that are low maintenance and resilient to track conditions such as drought, salt, frost and cold, urban pollution, heat, and pulling wind forces of the vehicle.
- Vegetation surface of the Green Tracks shall be harmonized with the whole track system.
- We’ll have more details to share closer to the project’s completion.
Steve Munro 
I want some of that grass, for my boulevard.
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The ECLRT has taken so long to build that the mix of vehicles shown in the diagrams stand out as belonging from a previous era.
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Basically there won’t be grass as everything they just mentioned is encountered above ground.
If they did put in grass it would be 100 foot stretches here and there most likely.
Steve: The point is that they are on the record about what is supposed to be happening.
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No artificial grass as a compromise, it seems.
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Good to hear. Sometimes radio silence can be very worrying!
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Ah, looks like they’re going to fill in the tracks with concrete.
Right now the tracks are sitting a bit elevated and that would stop any cars from going into the guideway.
Also, they should have installed electric automatic bollards at the on-grade intersections, it would prevent any cars from hitting the trains too if they made an illegal turn.
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It turns out that the rich areas got underground LRT, the middle income areas got on surface LRT with grass, and the poor areas (Scarborough) got on surface LRT with NO GRASS. This is NOT FAIR and this is why I switched my support from LRT to subway in Scarborough and the Scarborough subway is already under construction as we speak.
Steve: You just keep trotting out that “poor Scarborough” line if it makes you happy. There are a lot of things Scarborough needs, but a subway isn’t one of them.
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I don’t think that this is relevant to discussion about transit but just to point out the unfairness that poor areas like Scarborough face, I point this out. The pharmacies in hard hit poor areas like Scarborough also got few to no doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine but the pharmacies in rich areas like Rosedale, Bridle Path, Forest Hill, Lawrence Park, etc were loaded with AstraZeneca vaccines even though that there was very little COVID in these rich communities. Turns out that this was the right decision as the British AstraZeneca vaccines turned out to be inferior and the German mRNA based BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine turned out to be far superior.
This discrimination against poor areas like Scarborough is not limited to transit or vaccines but extends to every walk of life. This discrimination against poor areas is not limited to Toronto or Ontario or even Canada but it is a worldwide phenomenon and has been documented extensively in research by scholars all over the world. But Steve dismisses any suggestion of discrimination as if it were pure fiction.
Steve: You were ok up to the point where you accuse me of dismissing suggestions of discrimination.
A huge problem, and not just for vaccines, is that the province does a deal with their vendor of choice, Shoppers Drug Mart, for things like Presto card loading even though the distribution of SHoppers stores is concentrated in high income areas. The big markup stuff at Shoppers is aimed at people with disposable incomes.
I have been writing for years about the inferior transit service provided in the suburbs, but you yearn for a Scarborough Subway as some sort of badge of honour that Scarborough matters.
The Eglinton line is underground in its central section because there is no room for it on the surface. That’s not the situation in Etobicoke where what we are dealing with is the Premier’s ego and hatred of “streetcars”.
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Someone on YouTube posted a short video of a 3-car test train crossing Sloan Avenue. I’m surprised that Crosslinx did such a test so early. I thought the first tests would be using a single car at crawl speed to test clearances.
Steve: They did low speed tests before this with only single cars. It’s interesting seeing a three-car train out there because the plans are for initial service to be two-car sets, and it could be quite a while before we regularly see three-car sets in revenue service.
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But there is space for surface rail in Riverdale and Thornhill and Richmond Hill but you (Steve) are up in arms over putting surface rail in Riverdale, Thornhill, and Richmond Hill and you demand nothing less than underground. You have a double standard here.
Steve: As usual, you are full of crap, regardless of which pseudonym you post under. There is not room for surface rail in Riverdale despite Metrolinx’ lies on the subject. As for Richmond Hill, I never advocated for or against any specific alignment.
The issue in the Royal Orchard neighbourhood is that Metrolinx claims the new tunnel will be well below grade, but they don’t deal with the eastern end of it where it comes to the surface and obviously cannot be deep under the neighbourhood it will pass through. This is a typical Metrolinx PR screw-up where they have a generic response that does not apply to all of their proposal.
In Riverdale, Metrolinx makes up justifications as they go along and publishes falsehoods under the guise of correcting “misinformation”. They react to arguments that the community has not advanced so that they can knock over the straw men Metrolinx itself created.
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If there is no room for surface rail in Riverdale, then what are you worried about? Why are you so vehemently opposed to surface rail in Riverdale if there is no room to even build it? Because if there really were no room, then you would not need to fight it. If it is okay to shove surface rail down Scarborough’s throat, then it should be okay to build it in Riverdale as well.
Steve: There is room in Scarborough, especially on the alignment of the about to shut down SRT. That’s where the Scarborough LRT should have been built years ago. Now piss off.
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