Build the Eglinton East LRT! Letter to Council

RE: EX33.2 Advancing City Priority Transit Expansion Projects

Dear Mayor John Tory and Toronto City Councillors,

TTCriders is a membership-based organization of transit users in Toronto that supports affordable, accessible, and frequent public transit service for all neighbourhoods. 

Thank you for continuing to advance the Eglinton East LRT. This is a needed project and TTCriders and the undersigned groups support the new alignment that connects Sheppard East. The EELRT will create new connections to GO Transit, serve equity-deserving Neighbourhood Improvement Areas, and provide connections to Malvern and other areas of Scarborough long underserved by rapid transit. This serves the majority of residents who travel within Scarborough, and not just those going downtown.

As 10% design work gets advanced, we encourage you to consider the following measures to increase the speed and capacity of the Eglinton East LRT: 

• Signal priority and other measures to speed up service

The Business Case notes that there are some segments where the EELRT will be slower than current bus service in RapidTO lanes. Overall, the report indicates that EELRT trips along the entire corridor will be slower than it is today. Signal priority and other measures should be explored during the design phase so that the EELRT travels faster than buses. A clear explanation of the capabilities of the EELRT transit signal priority system should be provided, indicating whether it is an active or limited system.

• Convenient, fast connections between Bloor-Danforth, EERLT, and Crosstown

The report says that riders’ transfer time at Kennedy Station will only be 1.3 minutes, but this does not factor in waiting up to 5 minutes or more for an EELRT vehicle to arrive. We understand the design, cost, and time limitations created by the contracts signed by Metrolinx to advance tunnelling for the Scarborough Subway Extension, but we encourage you to look at all possible transfer options during design. Improving connections does not only mean designing stations that minimize transfer times, but also providing frequent service to minimize wait times.  

• A high-capacity line with frequent service

We are concerned that the cost-cutting measures and constraints proposed in the report could result in a line with lower capacity and frequency. More information is appended. The ability to increase frequency may also be limited without measures to prioritize EELRT, such as signal priority. We estimate that the LRT will only have 10% more capacity over pre-pandemic bus service along the Eglinton East route, and the demand on the corridor in 2031 may be greater than the capacity of the LRT line. It is also important to know the service pattern of the line, to determine whether frequency and capacity will be even lower on the branches to Malvern and on Sheppard East.

We urge you to plan and budget for a line with high frequency and capacity, to improve commutes and provide room to grow for the future. Today’s report proposes a new design that would save $2.1 billion, but does not contain an explicit cost savings breakdown of various design elements such as the bridge, tunnelling at Kingston/Lawrence/Morningside, etc.

While the report clearly states the technical limitations preventing through-running service, other infrastructure should be costed separately and considered for their potential benefits to capacity and travel times.

It is critical that Eglinton East is constructed as a high-capacity light rail line. This needed project can only be built once, and it is important that we get it right the first time.

Sincerely,

Shelagh Pizey-Allen Director, TTCriders	Thai Dillon Higashihara VP External, Scarborough Campus Students’ Union	Tima Shah, VP of Progress Campus at Centennial College Student Association Inc	Paulette Joseph, 42 Voices

“Politicians have been giving excuse after excuse for transit in Scarborough. It’s time we stop and settle on an efficient, affordable, and accessible solution that will benefit all residents.” 

• Jennifer Robinson, community leader, 42 Voices and Scarborough Civic Action Network

“The Eglinton East LRT focuses on the entirety of Scarborough and serves a lot more residents.”

• Joy Robertson, president of Scarborough Residents Unite

“It currently takes too long to get anywhere in Scarborough. It is physically taxing and requires a lot of energy for my daily commute. If we play our cards right, the Eglinton East LRT can be an amazing transit line,” but measures like transit signal priority are key to speeding up service because they can give trains priority over traffic to cross intersections faster.

• Michael Smith, Scarborough North resident 

EELRT Initial Business Case: https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2022/ex/bgrd/backgroundfile-226595.pdf

Advancing City Priority Transit Expansion Projects – Eglinton East LRT & Waterfront East LRT: 

https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2022/ex/bgrd/backgroundfile-226594.pdf 

More information on capacity 

Proposed cost-saving measures that may impact capacity of EELRT

• A new, dedicated LRT bridge over Highland Creek will not be needed with smaller vehicles (as they can handle the incline)
• Savings on Highway 401 overpass rehabilitation with smaller vehicles and trains
• Shorter platforms for shorter vehicles and trains will cost less to build
• Limited space at the Conlins Maintenance and Storage Facility site
• Savings on Kingston/Lawrence/Morningside Tunnel

What will the capacity & frequency of EELRT be? 

Based on the limited information in the report, it is possible that capacity could be between 3,000-6,000 riders per direction per hour. Demand along the Eglinton East corridor is projected to be 12,000 passengers per direction per hour according to the business case. This indicates that the EELRT may not have enough capacity to serve demand, and significant parallel bus service will continue to be required to support this corridor. In contrast, the Eglinton Crosstown LRT hourly capacity will be 15,000. Here are the assumptions that we made to calculate potential capacity: 

The report states: 

• “The distinct-service can effectively meet EELRT peak demand over the long term using trains of 50 metres or less, operating at approximately 5 minute frequencies.… The distinct-service concept will allow for the selection of LRVs that are tailored specifically for the EELRT, in terms of length and car parts (e.g. 2-car trains).” (p. 9)
• Later, there is a reference to "greater operational flexibility to improve level of service cost effectively (e.g., mixed 1-car/2- car service).” (p. 12)

Based on this information, TTCriders has assumed that 1-car trains would measure approximately 25 metres. It is also possible that the EELRT will begin service with 1-car trains. 

TTC Flexity Streetcar: 

• 30.2 metres/vehicle 
• 251 person capacity (70 seated, 181 standing).

Eglinton Crosstown vehicle

• ~32 metres/vehicle
• Each train will have 2-3 vehicles (meaning each train would be 60 or 90 metres long, with a capacity of 326-489 people)
• Capacity of 15,000 riders per hour

If we assume that the 25 metre vehicles have a similar capacity to a Flexity 30.2 metre streetcar (251 people), then the capacity per hour for the EELRT would be 3,000 for a 1-car train, or 6,000 for a 2-car train, at 5-minute frequencies (which is the frequency referenced in the report).