The TTC work signup is now in progress for the schedule period starting March 30.
It includes a signup for the Eglinton LRT for non-revenue simulation training.
Now if only we could get Metrolinx to give a clear indication of an opening date. They did once claim that there would be a three-month pre-opening period. We will see just how long “three months” is.
Steve Munro 
That’s funny I think.
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Steve writes re: Metrolinx projection time to operability:
But they didn’t state what planet on which that occurs. Plus they didn’t say “Simon Says”.
So it’s all our fault.
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I suspect that rather than the 3 months. It will be announced for like “next week” and boom it will be running. But I’m being hopeful, I mean they did start planning this thing when I was still in highschool, so there is that.
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Interesting, as that could be a staged showpiece event as three months would put the opening near enough to be set as right on Canada Day and that could be a gigantic ribbon cutting event for all the politicians.
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Thank heavens for the work you do Steve.
Without your detailed updates and analysis using the TTC would only fill me with despair. You offer me hope that the experience of travelling by public transit will improve.
Cheers,
Laurie
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It’s all so beyond ridiculous at this point. #dofomustgo
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Some words from a loyal Ottawa reader: you don’t want this rushed into service! Better a few more weeks delay than something like the complete and continuing disaster that is the O Train. Transit haters love the O train as exhibit of what can and will go wrong if we spend money on transit.
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But is a “Sign Of Life” enough of a notification of a notification of a notification…?
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It was at least in the 1957 plan; and yes, better to wait until safe. But why has it been taking so soo soooo long? And costs? It doesn’t bode well for the other mega-digs, more clearly boondougles as the Liberals began the Eglinton work, again. I’ve also heard the OL is up to about $2B a km, and they’ve hardly started, so will reality be ka-ching up with ‘us’ some year?
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Compared to European transit projects, soft costs (like planning, design, permitting, legal fees, and project management) tend to be significantly higher for transit projects in North America, contributing to overall higher project costs. Most likely it is the “soft costs” that delayed the Crosstown LRT, and likely will repeat for the Ontario Line.
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Isn’t Finch West close to opening too?
Steve: Supposedly yes, but crewing for the pre-opening ghost service has not started yet while they focus on Line 5.
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Unrelated to line 5, but to the Richmond hill extension:
From yorkregion.com
I didn’t know there was potential to extend it to Major Mack?
Have you heard of this anywhere else ?
Steve: There is already talk of going further north (to 16th) to reach land for a new subway yard because the extended Yonge line’s trains won’t fit within existing facilities. It’s a relatively short distance from there to Major Mack. The likely alignment is the rail corridor which Metrolinx already owns. All that said, don’t hold your breath for construction to start tomorrow.
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Now that the opening day is actually in sight, I’m curious if you’ll have access to your usual service stats when the LRT opens (at least the surface part)… and if you have a way of going (way) back to pre-construction conditions… for a “before and after” look at operations.
I was reminded of that this evening while watching a training car stopped at the signals around Eglinton Square and Vic Park. Watching how the LRVs have been operating while under testing, and seeing how the signals operate with or without LRVs present, I can’t help being nervous that the surface part of the LRT could end up being slower than the buses that it replaced, at least in the off-peak.
I think there’s enough schedule pages on archive.org that I could come up with pre-construction /scheduled/ operating times, but of course the schedule only tells part of the story.
Steve: There is a big concern that the “transit priority signalling” we were supposed to get will not be as good as originally hoped. Just as streetcars on Spadina are held by traffic signals more than buses that replaced them, I fear that Line 5 might suffer the same fate. And, yes, I have tracking data for routes 32 and 34 for comparison purposes.
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@ Steve:
Isn’t that part of CN’s Bala Sub. I thought Metrolinx ownership ended at the south side of the York Sub.
Steve: Somehow I suspect that if Metrolinx wants it they will find a way to get it. In any event there has been talk of a yard near 16th for some time.
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The Eglinton LRT was sold to Scarborough as light “RAPID” transit but in practice it will be as “FAST” as the Spadina streetcar line (which is currently the slowest rail line in the world) or even slower. 15 years and billions of dollars to construct a few kilometres of an ultra-slow streetcar line in Scarborough that will need to be constantly bustituted every snowstorm, every little construction, every tiny thing; what an excellent way to waste taxpayers’ dollars.
Steve: Eglinton will be faster than Spadina because there are fewer pesky cross streets and stops will be further apart. That said, it remains to be seen how well the transit signal priority works. We will get a sense of this once “ghost” service begins. The billions went to putting much of line underground. For the record, the 512 St. Clair car which runs on reserved lanes was not subject to bus replacement due to snow because autos cannot park foul of the tracks, and the TTC is not dependent on the utterly incompetent snow “removal” that was supposed to happen along streetcar routes.
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Allegedly, unnamed sources told The Toronto Star, that the tentative date is September 2025.
Regarding the subway extension to Major Mackenzie, there aren’t really a lot of spots along the CN tracks for a yard (north of 16th) unless they are planning on blowing up South Hill shopping centre or whats left of the Dunlap observatory lands. In my view, there is some space south of Langstaff GO/407 where there is a large empty plot of land (though it may have been rezoned for residential) or the overbuilt parking lots east of Langstaff GO which were built for the big box stores. This land is north of Hwy 7. There are industrial lands north of Richmond Hill GO station but I am not sure if the plan is really to go that north.
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Re;there’s been talk of a 16th Avenue yard for some time……
Steve, I love one long block west of Yonge between Highway 7 and Carrville/16th Avenues. The area between High Tech Road( next light after #7) and 16th is all condos, town houses, and houses close to the Metrolinx line in that area. The only spots I can see for a subway yard would be around Highway 7 where the theatre and current bus terminal(YRT and GO) are. Up at 16th, there is a plaza on the east side that’s about 30 years old but it is close to Yonge. Outside of that, everything is developed along the line…not giving much area for a new yard.
Sorry for not staying on topic. Enjoy your stuff. Thank you.
Steve: A new North Yonge yard is essential to operation of the extension plus planned additional service on Line 1. However, a specific site has not been earmarked for this, nor is there any funding committed. Subway car purchases are only funded up to the cars needed for replacing the T1’s on Line 2 plus those needed to extend Lines 1 and 2 at the previously standard 140 second headway.
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Test cars kept running in the snow along Eglinton. I was up around the east end after the second dump, and it was obvious that the snow had been trimmed down to undercarriage height by operating cars. So no, a bit or a lot of snow shouldn’t stop service.
At this same time, buses on Eglinton were suffering as there wasn’t enough room for them to clear oncoming traffic. Many buses pausing until they could move in a gap.
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I’m deeply, deeply concerned that Line 5 will befall the same fate as Amsterdam lines 51/25/5 (lots of ‘5’s to be sure!)
It too opened as a subway / surface rail split, and from what I gather, it never worked. Now to be fair, part of that was that the cars literally converted from third rail to pantograph en route, and the equipment didn’t always work. But the bigger issue was trying to combine one line as both surface rail dealing with streets and signals and traffic, and a metro line.
Initially, the line got unprecedented surface priority to ensure it wouldn’t cause any issues in headway or otherwise. Unfortunately, this caused many accidents including fatal ones. So the line was forced to operate as a regular tram while on the surface – yielding to cars, people, red lights, etc – which wreaked havoc on the metro section.
We’ve all seen how well the TTC manages surface lines. Appalling “on time” metrics combined with near non existent management means that cars run in pairs with large gaps between them in a relatively short time frame.
So line 5 train #1 leaves Kennedy, headed west, a minute early. Train #2 was stuck in traffic getting to Kennedy and so it leaves nearly 5 minutes late. Train #3 leaves right on the mark.
By the time they hit Don mills, train #1 has flown ahead since it was nipping at the heels of train “0”. Meanwhile, train #2 has extra passengers to deal with at each stop, it misses a few lights, and next thing you know it’s running a full 15 minutes behind train #1, with train #3 right behind it.
The thing is, the gaps and bunching that occur on the surface don’t fix themselves once you’re underground. So by the time trains 1 and 2 reach the western terminus, they’re still close to 20 minutes apart, or train #1 is traveling exceptionally slowly to back itself up into train #2. Either way, it’s a disaster for the customer experience.
I worry that the half decade delay will soon be the least of our concerns, and we’ll soon find ourselves needing to shut it down and rebuild a transfer station at Don Mills. At least they tunneled there to make an easy connection with the (now elevated!!!) Relief line / Ontario line, so building surface track and having a 3 level transfer (western subway underground, eastern LRT at street level, and Ontario line above ground) isn’t as horrifically bad as it could be.
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It’s almost nostalgic to remember how worried everyone used to be that the Bombardier delivery delays might have meant there wouldn’t be enough LRVs on the property for the Eglinton LRT to open on time. Such concerns almost feel quaint now.
Hopefully the Eglinton line opens in September, or at least sometime in 2025.
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