Line 5 Eglinton, also known as the Eglinton Crosstown Line or the Crosstown, is a light rail line that is under construction in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Owned by Metrolinx and operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), the line will be part of the Toronto subway system as its fifth route. The first constructed phase of line will run entirely along Eglinton Avenue for 19 km (12 mi) from the future Mount Dennis station underground to Sunnybrook Park, after which it will run predominantly at-grade along the street's median to Kennedy station, where it will connect underground with Line 2 Bloor-Danforth and Line 3 Scarborough.
The line was conceived in 2007 by then-Toronto mayor David Miller and then-chair of the TTC Adam Giambrone as part of Transit City, a large-scale transit expansion plan. The first phase of the line will include 25 stops and is expected to be completed in 2021. Additional future extensions to the line in both directions, with proposed termini at Toronto Pearson International Airport in the west and the University of Toronto Scarborough in the east, were approved by Toronto City Council on March 31, 2016.
Video Line 5 Eglinton
History
Original concept
Line 5 Eglinton was originally conceived as the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, a partially underground light rail line, announced in 2007 by Toronto Mayor David Miller and TTC chair Adam Giambrone. It was part of the Transit City plan, which included the implementation of six other light rail lines across Toronto. The original version of the line would have run from Pearson Airport along Silver Dart Drive to Convair Drive. The line would have then turned southwest, to a bridge over Highway 401 to reach Commerce Boulevard on the other side, where it would run south to reach Eglinton Avenue and the east end of the Mississauga Transitway. The rest of the line would run east along Eglinton Avenue, including a portion along which the proposed Eglinton West subway line would have been built. The line would then traverse the city, connecting with Line 1 Yonge-University, Line 2 Bloor-Danforth, and Line 3 Scarborough.
There were 43 stops planned for the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, 13 of which would be underground. Surface stops would be spaced on average 500 metres (550 yd) apart and the underground stations would be 850 m apart on average, as constructing numerous underground stops would be costly. The average speed would be 28 kilometres per hour (17 mph), compared with the existing bus routes along Eglinton that have an average speed of 16 to 18 km/h (9.9 to 11.2 mph). The line would terminate at Kennedy station to the east in Scarborough where it would meet Line 2 Bloor-Danforth, the proposed Scarborough Malvern LRT and the Stouffville GO train line. The expected cost was $4.6 billion. As a result of provincial funding cuts, construction of the line was divided into two phases: Phase One would end at Jane Street, and Phase Two would terminate as had been planned at Pearson Airport.
Ford era redesigns
Miller's successor, Rob Ford, announced the cancellation of Transit City on December 1, 2010, the day he took office. He proposed an alternative titled the "Eglinton-Scarborough Crosstown line", which put the 19-kilometre line along Eglinton Avenue completely underground. The line would then follow the route of Line 3 Scarborough, thus forming a single line continuously from Black Creek Drive to McCowan. The cost would almost double to $8.2 billion and, compared to the original plan, 18 fewer stops were planned, including the elimination of the connection to Pearson Airport. Most of the additional cost would have come from putting 12 additional stations underground and for converting the Scarborough RT.
On February 8, 2012, in a special meeting, Toronto City Council, led by Karen Stintz, voted 25-18 to override Mayor Ford's modifications to the project. The vote reinstated the original proposal to only construct the portion between Laird Drive and Keele Street underground while the remainder of the line is built along the surface. On November 30, 2012, the environmental assessment was revised, such that the east tunnel portal location would be moved from east of Brentcliffe to east of Don Mills; however, this was reversed in May 2013 after receiving community feedback. In January 2013, Toronto City Councillors from Scarborough put forward an alternative plan to proceed with the construction of the Eglinton Avenue portion of the line as planned, but to exclude the Scarborough RT from the line. In July 2013, plans for an "Eglinton-Scarborough Crosstown" line were abandoned, thereby reverting the entire line back to the plan that had been conceived under Transit City.
Extensions
Under Mayor John Tory, Toronto city council approved two extensions for Line 5 Eglinton, to the east and to the west, on March 31, 2016. These extensions may be subject to further optimization such as additional grade separations and fewer stops.
Eglinton West LRT
In a later phase, Metrolinx had planned for the Eglinton Crosstown to be extended westward from Mount Dennis along Eglinton Avenue West to Toronto Pearson International Airport. However, during the 2014 Toronto mayoral election, John Tory proposed SmartTrack, which would have included a heavy rail transit line established along this section of Eglinton Avenue. In 2016, the City of Toronto released a feasibility report that found this proposal would have significant capital costs ranging from $3.6 billion to $7.7 billion. In comparison, extending the Eglinton Crosstown as approved would cost $1.3 billion. It was also found that a light rail transit line had higher ridership than a heavy rail line.
The City of Toronto's Chief Planner recommended the extension of the Eglinton Crosstown line (referred to as Crosstown West) to Pearson Airport in lieu of establishing SmartTrack on Eglinton Avenue, based upon negative community impacts, higher costs, and lower projected ridership associated with a heavy rail corridor. On January 19, 2016, Tory agreed with the analysis and supported Metrolinx's original plan of extending the Crosstown. Tory has included the Crosstown West as a light-rail component of his SmartTrack plan.
The estimated completion is 2023 as of July 2016. The estimated cost to build the Eglinton West LRT is $2.47 billion of which the City of Toronto contributes $1.18 billion, the federal government contributes $822.9 million, and the City of Mississauga and the Greater Toronto Airports Authority would be asked to contribute $470 million for the portion of the line in Mississauga. Approvals for the financing were still to be secured as of November 2, 2016.
Public meetings for the extension, renamed the Eglinton West LRT, began November 13, 2017.
The 2010 Environmental Assessment for Transit City originally planned an entirely at-grade light rail line running west from Weston Road and Mount Dennis station. However, by October 2017, the City was considering grade separation using fly-overs and fly-unders at 6 intersections: Martin Grove Road, Kipling Avenue, Islington Avenue, Royal York Road, Scarlett Road, and Jane Street with surface running between stations.
On November 21, 2017, City staff recommended just 10 stops along Eglinton West between Mount Dennis station and Renforth station on the Mississauga Transitway. The most recent recommendation drops the stops at Rangoon, East Mall, and Russell / Eden Valley.
At a City executive committee meeting on November 28, 2017, City staff recommended building the extension without any grade separation. City staff had concluded that a fully at-grade extension would provide better access for transit users and have fewer environmental impacts. Grade separation would have little improvement on traffic because the at-grade option would use signal coordination; however, grade separation would require fewer restrictions on left turns. There would be no difference in development potential with either option. However, because of feedback from the public and local politicians, Mayor John Tory recommended more study on grade separation.
A fully at-grade extension is estimated to cost $1.5 to $2.1 billion. Grade separation would add an extra $881.9 million to $1.32 billion to that cost.
Eglinton East LRT
To complement the planned extension of Line 2 Bloor-Danforth to Scarborough Town Centre, the City of Toronto drafted a plan to extend Line 5 Eglinton further east into Scarborough to terminate at the University of Toronto Scarborough campus.
The 12-kilometre (7.5 mi) extension would connect with Eglinton GO Station and Guildwood GO Station and pass through "neighbourhood improvement areas" (often low-income areas) such as Eglinton East, Scarborough Junction, Morningside, Scarborough Village and West Hill. The extension would add 18 new stops east of Kennedy station and serve an estimated 43,400 additional riders per day (a ridership similar to that of Line 4 Sheppard subway).
The extension follows the alignment of the Scarborough Malvern LRT, which was proposed as part of Transit City. In 2010, the Scarborough Malvern LRT was cancelled by then-Mayor Rob Ford, despite being approved by Toronto City Council and the Government of Ontario in 2009.
In early 2016, the plan for the Scarborough Malvern LRT was revived and rebranded as "Crosstown East" before being renamed again to "Eglinton East" in 2017. As of November 2017, the project is mostly unfunded with the cost estimated at $1.6 billion to $1.7 billion, with an estimated completion date of 2023.
At a November 2017 public meeting, city staff presented the possibility of extending the Eglinton East LRT by six stops to Malvern Town Centre. The Malvern extension would be about 4.2 to 4.7 kilometres long.
Maps Line 5 Eglinton
Construction and implementation
Timeline
2010
On July 28, 2010, Metrolinx ordered four tunnel boring machines (TBMs) from Caterpillar at a cost of $54 million. Each TBM is 10 metres long, 6.5 metres in diameter and weighs 400 tons. They bore 10 metres per day, 16-20 metres below the surface. The TBMs were named Dennis, Lea, Humber, and Don. The names were chosen by Jason Paris, a moderator of the UrbanToronto blog and forums. Dennis is named after Mount Dennis, Lea is named after Leaside, Humber is named after the Humber River, and Don is named after the Don River. The names Dennis and Lea combined allude to the poet Dennis Lee. By the time all four machines reach Yonge Street, enough dirt will have been removed to fill the Air Canada Centre to the height of the CN Tower.
2011
In October 2011, the first part of tunnel construction began with the construction of a launch shaft for tunnel boring machines at Black Creek Drive.
On November 9, 2011, in Keelesdale Park, Mayor Rob Ford and then-Premier Dalton McGuinty officially broke ground on the new project.
2012
In May 2012, TTC staff released a report saying that completion of the Eglinton Crosstown was unlikely by 2020 and that a more realistic in-service date would be 2022-2023. The main reason given was that the project management had been transferred from the TTC to Infrastructure Ontario which uses the Alternative Finance and Procurement strategy. That strategy would use a private contractor to complete the project, effectively requiring that contractor to redo all design work already completed by the TTC. The TTC also warned that Metrolinx's aggressive timeline would lead to severe construction-related disruptions to communities and traffic because large stretches of the Eglinton Avenue would have to be torn up concurrently to meet deadlines.
2013
In January 2013, Infrastructure Ontario issued a request for qualifications to shortlist companies to construct the line. A request for proposal was expected in the summer of 2013.
On February 22, 2013, TBMs Don and Lea arrived in Keelesdale Park.
In June 2013, the TBMs Don and Lea began tunnelling on the line. Traffic on Eglinton Avenue near Keele Street was reduced to one lane in each direction.
On November 12, 2013, Metrolinx awarded a contract to construct the eastern portion of the Crosstown to a joint venture between Aecon Group Inc. and ACS Dragados Canada Inc. to construct the eastern portion of the line between Yonge Street and Laird Drive.
2014
In March 2014, work began to clear utilities and trees on the south side of Eglinton Avenue just east of Brentcliffe Road in order to set up the eastern launch shaft. For two and a half years, traffic around the excavation site will be reduced from two to one lane in each direction. West of the site, more lane restrictions will go into effect to construct head walls (below-ground walls that form the ends of each subway station) at the future Laird, Bayview and Mt. Pleasant stations. There will also be lane restrictions for two years near Hanna Road to build an emergency exit near Leaside High School.
By April 2014, the TBMs had arrived at Caledonia station. In April 2014, The Globe and Mail reported that the two western tunnel boring machines were excavating "approximately 1,000 cubic yards of spoil", per day.
For the year prior to May 2014, the two TBMs Dennis and Lea had been excavating and installing concrete tunnel liners at a rate of approximately 10 metres (33 ft) per day. The tunnels are lined with precast concrete liner segments. Six 2.5 tonne-segments form each ring.
In early December 2014, Dennis and Lea arrived at Eglinton West station. Dennis stopped to allow Lea to catch up, so that they would arrive at Eglinton West station at the same time.
2015
On the weekend of April 18-19, 2015, the boring machines, Dennis and Lea, were lifted out of a shaft west of Allen Road and moved about 100 metres to a shaft just east of Allen Road.
In April 2015, merchants along Eglinton Avenue West were complaining of lost revenue (up to a 35% dip in sales), because construction was discouraging customers with snarled traffic, limited parking options, reduced foot traffic and dusty sidewalks.
By September 2015, the TBMs Don and Humber arrived for assembly in the shaft at Brentcliffe Road before starting to drill the 3.25-kilometre (2.02 mi) section west to Yonge Street.
On September 24, 2015, Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca issued a statement saying the Crosstown would not operate until September 2021, in order "to mitigate disruption to the local community and infrastructure as much as possible." The earlier plan had been to open in 2020 with tunnelling and station construction to start in 2012. Infrastructure Ontario has awarded the Crosstown construction contract to Crosslinx, a consortium led by SNC Lavalin. It will take about four years to build the stations, 15 of which will be underground.
On September 29, 2015, TBM Don started to bore the north tunnel from the Brentcliffe Road launching site westward towards Yonge Street. TBM Humber will start boring the south tunnel approximately one month later.
On November 3, 2015, Del Duca announced that the contract awarded to Crosslinx Transit Solutions to complete the Crosstown and maintain it for 30 years will cost $2 billion less than originally estimated.
2016
On March 10, 2016, a ground-breaking ceremony was held at the site of Keelesdale station, the first station to be started for construction along the Eglinton Crosstown line.
In February 2016, work began on the extraction shaft for TBMs Humber and Don, which are digging the eastern segment of the line. However, the hole in the street there will be much smaller than the one near Leslie Street.
On April 18, 2016, at the location of the future Forest Hill station, the façade of the former House of Chan restaurant and the scaffolding that was holding it up collapsed, injuring seven people.
On May 10, TBMs Dennis and Lea, which had been boring the western segment of the line, completed their work by reaching Yonge Street. Dennis and Lea bored 6.4 kilometres installing 25,647 precast concrete tunnel segments to construct the 4,279 rings to line the twin tunnels.
On August 17, TBMs Don and Humber, which had been boring the eastern segment of the line, completed their work by reaching Yonge Street. Don and Humber bored 3.3 kilometres installing 26,178 precast concrete tunnel segments to construct the 4,363 rings to line the twin tunnels.
On September 1, Bombardier Transportation, which is producing cars for the line, failed to meet the delivery deadline for the pilot vehicle. As a result, Metrolinx filed notice to terminate the contract with Bombardier.
On November 3, 2016, Metrolinx file an "notice of intention" to cancel its contract with Bombardier for the Crosstown's rolling stock.
2017
On February 10, 2017, Bombardier filed an injunction, seeking to compel Metrolinx to stick with their contract. Metrolinx responded that Bombardier did deliver a prototype for testing, as required by the contract. However, Metrolinx claimed that the prototype was so incomplete that it would not power up.
Between March 13 and 17, the TBMs Don and Humber were removed in pieces from the extraction shaft on Eglinton Avenue just east of Yonge Street.
In July 2017, construction crews began preparation for constructing the eastern at-grade portion of the line by removing the median in the roadway.
On August 9, the first piece of track, a turnout, was installed at the Eglinton Maintenance and Storage Facility in Mount Dennis. The facility is scheduled for completion in 2018.
2021
Metrolinx expects the line to be completed.
Crosslinx
Crosslinx Transit Solutions, a consortium of more than 26 companies, was awarded the contract to design, build and finance the Eglinton Crosstown line and to maintain it for 30 years. The contract, which excludes boring the tunnels, is for completing all other remaining work, including the stations and the finishing work within the tunnels. Some of the members of the consortium are SNC-Lavalin, Aecon, EllisDon, ACS Infrastructure Canada, Dragados, IBI Group and the Bank of Nova Scotia. The contract defines a public-private partnership.
The 30-year contract to build and maintain the line will total $9.1 billion. Capital costs will be $5.3 billion, with each of the 15 underground stations costing $80-$100 million to build and the ten street-level stops $3-$5 million each. The remainder will be for financing, lifecycle and maintenance costs.
Unique station names
In the planning stages for Line 5 Eglinton, many stations and stops were given working names identical to names of pre-existing stations within the Toronto subway system. On November 23, 2015, a report to the TTC Board recommended giving a unique name to each station within the subway system (including Line 5 Eglinton). Thus, several stations with non-unique working names were renamed (new name in brackets): Keele (Keelesdale), Dufferin (Fairbank), Bathurst (Forest Hill), Bayview (Leaside), Leslie (Sunnybrook Park), Don Mills (Science Centre), Victoria Park (O'Connor) and Warden (Golden Mile). Despite its unique name, Eglinton West station will be renamed to Cedarvale to avoid confusion with Eglinton station.
Route
Right-of-way
Line 5 Eglinton will run underground for 10 km (6.2 mi) from Mount Dennis to just east of Brentcliffe Road before rising to the surface to continue another 9 km (5.6 mi) to end at Kennedy station. A short portion of the line across the Black Creek valley will be elevated, between Mount Dennis and Keelesdale stations.
Parts of the surface route will use "green track", that is, track with vegetation growing beside and between the rails. Green track will be used between the Brentcliffe Road tunnel portal (western end of the surface route) and Birchmont Road (Birchmount stop in Scarborough) with paved gaps at intersections, surface stops and the underground Science Centre station.
Stations
The following is the list of stops proposed as of 2018.
Public art
As part of the Crosstown project, six stations along Line 5 Eglinton will feature eight artworks. The six stations to have a major artwork will be (from west to east) Mount Dennis, Caledonia, Cedarvale (Eglinton West), Eglinton, Science Centre and Kennedy. These six stations were chosen because they are all interchange stations having higher passenger volumes.
All artworks will be integrated into station design and construction rather than being stand-alone pieces. Because of the controversy over the artwork LightSpell at Pioneer Village station, in which commuters can display messages, none of the Line 5 artworks will be interactive. The art budget is about $10 million. About $1 million of that budget will be used for digital art to appear on screens at stations along the line.
Operations
Operating characteristics of the line include:
- Usage of automatic train control on the underground section of Line 5 Eglinton.
- On the surface, usage of dedicated right-of-way transit lanes separate from regular traffic and usage of priority signalling at intersections to ensure certainty in travel times.
- Light rail vehicles and subways can both travel as fast as 80 kilometres per hour (50 mph). However, actual speed is determined by the spacing of the stops and the dwell times at stops. Crosstown vehicles will have an average speed of 28 kilometres per hour (17 mph). As a comparison, the average speed of the subway Line 2 Bloor-Danforth is 32 kilometres per hour (20 mph).
- The projected ridership of the line is 5,400 passengers per hour in the peak direction by 2031, but the capacity of the vehicles is 15,000 passengers per hour per direction.
- The Presto card will be available for use across the line.
- Metrolinx requires 76 Flexity Freedom LRVs to operate the line.
- After feeling unsure if the Bombardier vehicle order could be relied upon for timely delivery, Metrolinx made a contingency order with Alstom for 61 Citadis Spirit vehicles, of which 44 would be for Line 5 and the remaining 17 for Line 6 Finch West. Should the Flexity order arrive after all, surplus Alstom vehicles will be used on other Metrolinx projects (most likely the Hurontario LRT).
- Annual operating and maintenance costs are estimated to be $80 million upon opening of the line. However, fare revenue and the costs saved by eliminating Eglinton bus service would result in a net annual cost of $39 million.
- There will a total of 12 turnbacks along the line to reverse LRT trains--seven at underground stations and five on the surface section. Avenue Station and Laird Station will be turnback stations that also have a storage track that trains can enter and exit in either direction. The storage tracks will accommodate a train in case of an emergency or change in service as well as allowing for a change of direction.
Eglinton Maintenance and Storage Facility
A maintenance and storage facility will be required, and this is planned. The Eglinton maintenance and storage facility will have storage for 162 Flexity Freedom LRT vehicles and have extensive maintenance facilities to keep them running smoothly. The facility is planned to be built near the line's western terminus at Mount Dennis station, on lands formerly occupied by Kodak's Toronto campus.
See also
- Line 6 Finch West
- Sheppard East LRT
- Light rail in Canada
References
External links
- Official Crosstown project website
- Official Eglinton West LRT Project website
- Official Eglinton East LRT Project website
- Toronto Light Rail Transit projects (Metrolinx)
- Videos published by the Eglinton Crosstown LRT Project:
- Tunnelling for The Crosstown on YouTube - Video with animation published on June 29, 2012.
- End to End - Eglinton Crosstown on YouTube - Video with animation published on July 13, 2015 (several stations mentioned in the video have since been renamed)
- Flyover video - Eglinton Crosstown Stations on YouTube - Video with animation published on December 3, 2015 (several stations mentioned in the video have since been renamed)
- Eglinton Crosstown Station Flyover on YouTube - Video published on May 2, 2017, showing aerial views of construction in progress along the line.
- TTC report that contains proposed re-routes after the Eglinton Crosstown opens
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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