Sean Marshall
After an embarrassing start to Line 6 Finch West, the long-delayed Line 5 Eglinton-Crosstown quietly opened to great relief. The new LRT offers much-needed optimism for Toronto’s transit future.
The Sunday, February 8 opening of the Eglinton-Crosstown is confirmed, along with some major changes to the bus network. But there will be no public celebration for this long-delayed transit project.
The Eglinton-Crosstown LRT will soon open, finally, and it should be significantly faster than the local buses it replaces. There are reasons to be hopeful that this project will be more successful than the Finch West LRT, but it also has a lot more riding on its performance.
There’s not one easy fix for the Finch West LRT. Not only does it need transit signal priority, but it needs tighter schedules and better operations to live up to early promises.
Can a brand-new light rail line outrun the local bus it will soon replace? I went out to Finch Avenue West to see for myself.
Toronto’s newest transit hub is only half-opened, but it provides a preview of the region’s upcoming new transit links. Despite a decent layout and good incorporation of local heritage, some tweaks for improved wayfinding are necessary.
While slip lanes facilitate vehicle movement, they have a significant impact on the safety and comfort of pedestrians. Though the City of Toronto has been proactive in removing or modifying slip lanes, there is still much more work to do.
St. Clair-Old Weston Road, while a worthwhile idea, needs to be rethought to attract the most ridership
Though a visit to Montreal can make one jealous, Toronto has shown it can do great things too. We just have to follow through.
Toronto can, and should, do better than the ugly and intrusive new barriers that are being installed around Union Station.
Sean Marshall