Ooops! The initial version of this article used Line 6 in the title. I am too focused on the impending Finch opening!

The Ontario Ministry of Transportation has announced that the Line 5 Crosstown project achieved substantial completion today, December 5. The line is now transferred to the TTC for operation.

No start date has been set, and the TTC will have to conduct its own final pre-service testing just as they did on 6 Finch after the provincial hand-off. A likely date would be mid-February which corresponds to a planned schedule change far enough in the future to accommodate both Line 5 testing and the crewing process for concurrent network changes.

The opening of Line 6 on December 7 is a “mid period” change that is not part of the TTC’s regular cycle, but is likely due to a political desire to complete at least one of the lines in 2025.

According to the Ministry, service on Line 5 will ramp up:

Opening Day

• Operation from 6am to 11pm
• Peak service every 4’45”

Six-Month Service

• Operation from 5:30am to 2:30am
• Peak service every 3’30”

The TTC has not announced what type of supplementary service will operate during the six-month interim period, nor the service to be provided on a parallel 34 Eglinton bus from Kennedy to Mount Dennis Station in the long term.