RC122 JanFeb 2026 - Magazine - Page 4
EDITOR’S NOTE
IN TRANSIT
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2026
VOLUME 24, NUMBER 1
by John Tenpenny
IN THE SPACE OF A FEW DAYS, Torontonians welcomed the opening of a new transit line and news that
a second one would be in operation possibly within weeks.
The Government of Ontario said the Eglinton Crosstown LRT has now been extensively
tested to “ensure the line is prepared for safe and reliable service.” The testing included
running the line at full capacity in a variety of weather conditions (including 10 centimetres of
snow), operating the 昀氀eet more than 11,000 kilometres per week to replicate customer service,
maintaining service for 16 hours per day and ensuring proper sta昀케ng levels.
“With this rigorous testing complete and 昀椀nal preparatory works underway, it is expected
the Eglinton Crosstown LRT will open to the public in the coming weeks,” the province said
in a news release.
The Eglinton Crosstown LRT, also known as Line 5 Eglinton, is a 19-kilometre light rail line
with 25 stations and stops along Eglinton Avenue. It runs between Mount Dennis (Weston
Road) and Kennedy Station, with more than 10 kilometres of the route underground. The LRT
will link to 54 bus routes, three TTC subway stations and two GO lines.
It’s a big relief to public transit users for a project that was originally scheduled to open six
years ago and began construction 15 years ago.
Only slightly behind schedule—two years—the TTC o昀케cially began service in early
December on Line 6 Finch West, formerly known as the Finch West LRT. The brand-new line
features two stops at Humber Polytechnic on the west and Finch West Station on the east
and 16 above-ground stops in between. Line 6 Finch West is expected to move 12 million
passengers a year by 2031 and will provide direct transit connections to the TTC, GO Transit,
MiWay in Mississauga, Viva in York Region and Zum in Brampton bringing better transit
connectivity to northwest Toronto.
If our newly released Top100 Projects Report is any indication, investment in public transit
projects is de昀椀nitely on the upswing. Overall, the transit sector again leads the report with one
quarter (25) of the total projects, valued at $123 billion. Currently there are 14 LRT or subway
projects, building either brand new or additional lines in places such as Toronto, Vancouver,
Edmonton, Montreal and Ottawa.
New transit projects in 2026 include Calgary’s relaunched Green Line LRT, Toronto’s YongeNorth Subway Extension, and the federal government’s Alto High-Speed Rail Network, which
promises to signi昀椀cantly reduce travel times between major cities in the Toronto–Québec City
corridor.
While the repair and upkeep of our roads, highways and bridges is necessary, transit is the
best way to move more people around dense urban areas, certainly preferable to the building
of new mega-highways through environmentally sensitive lands. The list of proposed transit
projects continues to grow, and that growth is sure to be re昀氀ected in next year’s Top100
Projects Report.
John Tenpenny is the
editor of ReNew Canada.
john@SiteMediaGroup.com
EDITOR
John Tenpenny
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