[ThenWhat]

I'll go out on a limb and say that when the line opens, I'll be using it frequently, regardless of whether I'm going east on the open ROW to shop in the Golden Mile area, or west to the subway to go downtown. I don't expect there to be a big speed problem in the open section, especially since I'll only be going part of the way, and even if it is slow, the comfort level will be a big improvement over waiting 20 minutes in the cold at a bus stop, as I've had to do in living near Eglinton East for 25 years.

Not having to think about the schedule is a great benefit and can make a big difference in trip planning and deciding whether to take transit at all. It's another reason why discussing the end to end travel time is not giving the full picture of the trip experience even if it is easy to calculate your own relative fraction of the travel time. Waiting for six minutes plus a trip of 20 minutes is going to be preferable to waiting for up to 20 minutes with a trip of 15 minutes. Maybe you get lucky and wait for one minute but probably you don't.

For me also reliability is more important than speed. Speed is good to have, but reliability is essential. That's my own view, others may disagree.
That begs a question: How reliable will Line 5 be? In particular, how well will it maintain the scheduled headways. Will TTC do any better here than with streetcars.

 

[hawc]

If it's ultra reliable, I'd agree I'd trade some speed for reliability for sure. But it will likely be both slow and unreliable. Much like the current streetcars I'm sure.

I wonder of all the public transit serving Toronto, which is most reliable from best to worse?

GO Train
Subway
Streetcar
LRT
Bus

???

 

[smallspy]

If it's ultra reliable, I'd agree I'd trade some speed for reliability for sure. But it will likely be both slow and unreliable. Much like the current streetcars I'm sure.

I wonder of all the public transit serving Toronto, which is most reliable from best to worse?

GO Train
Subway
Streetcar
LRT
Bus

???

What are you defining as "reliable", here?

Because what you consider reliable, may not necessarily be the same as my version of it, or anyone else's.

Dan

 

[hawc]

I dunno. What do you define as reliable?

 

[unrealestate]

the disastrous line 6 operations have been so depressing to the point that i'm kind of checked out on caring about any future transit developments. i have no faith that the people running things will do it properly. its like they are actively trying to make transit bad.

 

[Kelson]

I dunno. What do you define as reliable?

Reliable to me = vehicles that come as predicted, are frequent, spend most of thier time "moving", they rarely bunch and are equally spaced.

 

[Thaboss]

Eglinton Crosstown will be a true game changer

You're gonna love it, but Rob Ford was right

markmcqueen.substack.com

It appears that this person was given acesses to line 5 two or three days ago along with some other journalists.

They've got some clips in there article if anyone cares to look.

 

[hw621]

For me also reliability is more important than speed. Speed is good to have, but reliability is essential. That's my own view, others may disagree.
That begs a question: How reliable will Line 5 be? In particular, how well will it maintain the scheduled headways. Will TTC do any better here than with streetcars.

Finch has neither...

 

[hw621]

the disastrous line 6 operations have been so depressing to the point that i'm kind of checked out on caring about any future transit developments. i have no faith that the people running things will do it properly. its like they are actively trying to make transit bad.

They don't need to try.

 

[pleaseLRT]

A concerning comment from a Line 5 operator:

"Line 5 op here: I’d like to point out that when they do open the line, plans are to have significantly reduced trains and operating hours. The biggest kink they haven’t been able to figure out and what made the testing run as long as it did is trains bunching up and getting bogged down. Poor station placement is a big factor; for example Ionview’s proximity to Kennedy and the fact that there’s an intersection at the portal coupled with the axle counter placement that governs train proximity - speed restrictions over crossovers - if they have to turn a train it takes forever, and plans are during bad weather to just not run the surface portion. They knew this was going to happen, as Laird is built as an end terminal complete with supervisor and operator rooms.

The underground portion moves quick though, provided there aren’t delays. However after the morning rush and trains are running in to the yard, there will be massive delays getting in and out of keelesdale / mount Dennis as this also is a slow process"

 

[Tuscani01]

I don't understand how any company, designer, engineer etc. can design a system that requires all of these slow and overly cautious turns and maneuvers and think "oh yea, this will be fine".

It's absolutely insane. Anyone who had any part in the decisions that lead to this should never be allowed to touch a transit project again.

 

[Chaplinurbex]

Eglinton Crosstown will be a true game changer

You're gonna love it, but Rob Ford was right

markmcqueen.substack.com

It appears that this person was given acesses to line 5 two or three days ago along with some other journalists.

They've got some clips in there article if anyone cares to look.

This was a great read, and seeing how quick the train moves in the tunnel was a relief. I'll also say I think the stations look really fantastic.

Giving my selfish use case here. I live at Chaplin, and most of the time all I need is to get to Cedarvale or Eglinton Station. On Line 5, that is only 2 stops. It should be a very fast underground trip (5-6 minutes maybe). Comparing to the current 32 bus going in either direction, it will be a game changer. A lot of folks in this thread talk about the bus being faster, and maybe that is true in Scarborough, but it is absolutely not the case in midtown. There is so much backed up traffic around Allen, Avenue, and turning into the bus terminal at Yonge, that it can take 15 minutes to move a couple blocks. Buses are ALWAYS late, so you are stuck waiting in the cold with no idea when it will come. And when/ if you do get on, you are crammed in like sardines.

This train will change my life. I'm sorry for all the people who are disappointed in the above ground east arm of this line, but as someone who lives in between both sides of line 1, this will be an enormous improvement. TTC, please open this line.

 

[Bojaxs]

the disastrous line 6 operations have been so depressing to the point that i'm kind of checked out on caring about any future transit developments. i have no faith that the people running things will do it properly. its like they are actively trying to make transit bad.

Yeah, I understand now what Reece Martin meant when he talks about obsessing over Toronto transit becomes rather depressing, and you just start looking at other cities and see what they're doing. This is part of the reason I recently went to London, England. Now I find myself more interested in London/ U.K. transit rather than Toronto's.

Going to London served to highlight everything Toronto is doing wrong.

 

[Bojaxs]

A concerning comment from a Line 5 operator:

"Line 5 op here: I’d like to point out that when they do open the line, plans are to have significantly reduced trains and operating hours. The biggest kink they haven’t been able to figure out and what made the testing run as long as it did is trains bunching up and getting bogged down. Poor station placement is a big factor; for example Ionview’s proximity to Kennedy and the fact that there’s an intersection at the portal coupled with the axle counter placement that governs train proximity - speed restrictions over crossovers - if they have to turn a train it takes forever, and plans are during bad weather to just not run the surface portion. They knew this was going to happen, as Laird is built as an end terminal complete with supervisor and operator rooms.

The underground portion moves quick though, provided there aren’t delays. However after the morning rush and trains are running in to the yard, there will be massive delays getting in and out of keelesdale / mount Dennis as this also is a slow process"

The fact that trains can fly though the underground portion while struggling at the surface level is further justification that we should have built a subway instead.

I wonder though how this won't resort in bunching of eastbound trains at Laird? At some point underground, eastbound trains will have to slow down so as to not catch up with eastbound, surface level trains that are having to stop at red lights and travel slow through intersections.

I hold onto the belief that at some point in the future, the city will simply give up on the surface portion of the line, and turn all trains around at Laird while running express buses between Laird and Kennedy. The surface portion of the line will get the same treatment as the Scarborough RT.

 

[hw621]

The fact that trains can fly though the underground portion while struggling at the surface level is further justification that we should have built a subway instead.

I wonder though how this won't resort in bunching of eastbound trains at Laird? At some point underground, eastbound trains will have to slow down so as to not catch up with eastbound, surface level trains that are having to stop at red lights and travel slow through intersections.

I hold onto the belief that at some point in the future, the city will simply give up on the surface portion of the line, and turn all trains around at Laird while running express buses between Laird and Kennedy. The surface portion of the line will get the same treatment as the Scarborough RT.

Why can't they just keep the surface portion like a streetcar line?