Riding The Eglinton LRT (Line 5) For The First Time

 

For basically my entire adult life (and possibly a bit beforehand) any mention of the infamous "Line 5" Eglinton LRT has been made in exasperated ridicule. This was a transit project notorious for the massive disruption to local businesses along Eglinton during its construction, a negative effect made all the more worse via the project's most distinguishing attribute: the eternal delays in finally completing the damn thing. 

I'll spare you any ranting about why/how Metrolinx sucks (tempting as it is) but consider that the Eglinton LRT line was first greenlit in 2007 under then mayor David Miller (back in those carefree wonderful days before a plague of Fords descended upon Ontario)... with actual shovels-in-dirt construction beginning in 2011. 2011! Just think about that place and time for a moment. Taylor Swift was still primarily a country artist, the Toronto Blue Jays were wearing black and silver jerseys for some reason, Kyle Lowry wasn't even a Raptor yet (and the Raptors franchise was one of the biggest inept jokes in the entire NBA), an "Instagram" was gibberish to the vast majority of people while "Tik Tok" was just an annoying Ke$ha song... not to mention the countless actors, musicians and public figures that had much different reputations at the time (Bill Cosby still being a much beloved elder statesman of comedy, Kanye West a widely compelling artist or Kevin Spacey a much-sought revered actor, for example).  

Much of Mayor Miller's transit plans were scrapped after he left office (that plague of Fords I mentioned) but the Eglinton LRT managed to survive the red-faced blundering axe and was expected to be completed and operational by 2020. Yeah... obviously that didn't happen. Whether it was Metrolinx underestimating the logistical difficulty of constructing the project, the rapidly inflating costs to build the thing, the political head-butting for all those involved (the city, the province, the TTC and Metrolinx), a barrage of lawsuits and/or just general incompetence... the Eglinton line became a running punchline shared by all Torontonians. Just as surely as the Maple Leafs will choke in the playoffs, Line 5 will never be ready to open. Heck, earlier this year when I was reading announcements that the route was actually about to open honest to goodness for real... I legitimately didn't actually believe it! I'd just become so accustomed to this thing being a disaster, it was comfortable to envision some new calamity coming along to delay it yet again for another year or three.

Yet, no! On February 8th of this year 2026... Line 5 opened to the public and has been operating without extended disruption ever since. Being curious (and bored) I thought I'd take one cloudy afternoon to personally test this shiny new transit toy out and ride it straight from one end to the other. And take a zillion photos along the way, of course. Buckle up! Or don't, seeing as TTC trains don't actually have seatbelts... um... grab that metal loop grip thing! Yeah!

Starting at Kennedy station (I'm an east-ender after all) and I was pleased to see a train already waiting in the station. This was fairly late in the afternoon on a Friday, on the verge of the end-of-workweek rush hour... though the boarding crowd here at Kennedy was rather sparse/non-existent as you can see.

        

The inside of the train itself isn't quite as spacious as a TTC subway car but definitely gives off more room to breathe than your typical bus. Not to mention this thing is still so gosh darn new, there hasn't yet been time for the classic public transit stew of various unfortunate odours, scratches and stains to attach themselves onboard. 

After about five minutes idling in the station, the train closed its doors and lurched forward to life, beginning the journey eastbound. 

 

The route immediately goes above ground and its some slow going at first. There are a lot of major traffic light intersections on Eglinton throughout this stretch (especially once you get to Golden Mile between Warden and Victoria Park) and so there were a few long periods of sitting for red lights to turn green as cars finish turning. I had a feeling though, knowing what Eglinton changes into west of Victoria Park, that the travel speed would pick up once we got past Golden Mile. 

  

And I was right! The next few stops are much more stretched out than the eastern beginning of the line. Scenery-wise the open space (you're descending into a huge valley) is a nice break from the endless stretch of mini malls and big box store plazas between Warden and Victoria Park. Naturally, I picked a heavily overcast, blank grey day to do this little trip... 

Anyhow, this really is where the route picks up its efficiency, feeling much more like an offshoot of the subway line and less like a surface streetcar tethered to the chaotic whims of traffic.

 

It's around this point we reach the first (westward) underground station, Don Valley. I have to say that so far the aesthetic of these full-on stations on Line 5 are not exactly impressing me with their style. In fact I'm certain Kennedy and Don Valley are using the exact same colour scheme. No matter, I'm sure there will something design-wise to shake up the monotony as we get further, right? 

  

After Don Valley we re-emerge outdoors for a brief moment through the Sunnybrook Park stop, an area that always reminds me of a now-departed buddy I used to practice baseball with. Miss those days... 

There still isn't much on Eglinton here that's particularly notable: lots of open space, high rises and nasty hills if you're travelling on two wheels. Not long after this stop the train descends again underground and...

...ah nice, they swapped the generic red tiling for plain old grey concrete. Such inspired vision. 

And this one has letters in the design! Oh my...

Yep. Another underground station, looking 99.9 percent identical to the other ones...

...sheesh even the major junction that connects to the Yonge/University line doesn't have anything remotely distinguishing about it. 

Yep. It's just like the Leaside one. 

And this is just like the Laird one. 

Oh my goodness! A 'wet floor' sign! This is one station that's really breaking out of the mould here.

I know it probably seems like I'm making a big deal out of something extremely unimportant (which I am) but it is just crazy how unbelievably similar all these stations are. It's like they had four different colour templates, which were already the exact same design, and decided to randomly alternate them. 

Practical I suppose... I mean this entire transit line was an overdue mess that went insanely over budget as is... but it sure leaves the route itself with very little in the way of personality. You think of the Bloor line or especially Yonge/University... you can pretty much tell exactly which station you're at by the colour scheme of the platform (and a lot of those stations are legitimately beautiful to look at). 

 

Here? They're all the exact same bland, generic underground cavern that completely blend together in anyone's recollection. Hell, taking these pictures I tried to alternate the angles I was taking them just to make these just a tiny bit different. Maybe in the future the TTC will make some kind of effort to spruce up the atmosphere of these stations (at least some kind of little touch to differentiate them from each other... seriously) but at the moment... it doesn't get much more monotonous than this. 

 

Thankfully near the western end of the line we're released from the endless run of identically boring underground stops and emerge outside again... rolling through the Weston neighbourhood towards the Mount Dennis terminus. 

Also quite handy that this final station easily connects with the Brampton GO line and the UP Express, if that's your type of thing. 

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I suppose my final thoughts on first riding this much anticipated transit line would be thus: the biggest surprise was how much of it is completely underground and thus feels very much like a miniaturized subway ride. Almost the entire route west of Yonge (and about a third of it east) is a journey through a tunnel, which makes the ride far less scenic than I'd imagined it would be. Adding to that lack of scenery, as I mentioned/ranted about earlier, is how ridiculously identical (dull) all of those underground stops are. Better pay close attention for your stop because Mount Pleasant and Oakwood come from the exact same cookie cutter. 

Those aesthetic negatives aside, Line 5 is actually a very smooth crosstown trip that really covers some distance once it gets going. Going end to end (Kennedy to Mount Dennis) took me just under an hour, which isn't bad at all when you consider a Bloor subway trip from Kennedy to Runnymede-ish (the rough southern equivalent of where Mount Dennis would be on Bloor) probably comes in only ten or so minutes less than that. Not bad at all. 

The Eglinton line is actually not even yet totally complete, as there are plans to further extend it westbound from Mount Dennis towards Centennial Park/Pearson Airport (Renforth to be exact) by 2031. Not sure I'd be making any wagers on that being completed in half a decade (fool us all once) but in the meantime, Line 5 does seem to at least (and at last) be an excellent option for getting across the upper core of Toronto. It may have taken almost twenty goddamn years... but holy moly is it an upgrade over the downright awful experience that were the Eglinton buses. If you like cramped trips that bounce and shake over extremely bumpy roads and take forever... boy did we have something for you! Yeah, don't think anybody is crying any tears over those retirements.