Many of you know that I am a long time transit enthusiast even a geek or to use current terminology, a “foamer”. There is a robust international community of transit enthusiasts with strong Canadian and Greater Toronto Area representation.

After many years of delay and disruption, Line 5, the Eglinton Crosstown Light Rapid Transit opened in February. A great deal has been written about the years of delays and disruption and, I have many opinions on the topic as well; but, Toronto finally has an integrated cross town transit line and that is cause for celebration. Unlike Line 6 which opened 2 months earlier with great fanfare and generally negative reviews, the governments and TTC, intentionally lowered expectations for Line 5 and it was greeted by riders with great joy and celebration.

One week after opening, I traveled to Toronto via Go Transit to ride Line 5. It was very exciting for me, I grew up on Eglinton Avenue at Dufferin Street, now the location of Fairbank Station.

My tour began at Union Station to Eglinton Station to experience the transfer to Line 5. I traveled eastbound to Kennedy Station then turned around and traveled the entire length of the line westbound to Mount Dennis. Then I traveled eastbound again to exit at Fairbank Station and stroll my old neighbourhood. I walked to Oakwood station where I reboarded for the one stop trip to Cedarvale where I transferred to Line 1 back to Union Station.

I’m trying something new, click here for a slide show of photos taken during this adventure.

I was impressed with Line 5, even the above ground segments. As I write this the break in period for the line is over and the speed on the subway segment has been increased to 80km per hour and the signal software has been rewritten to improve speeds on the above ground segments.

For transit geeks, click here for all the video that I shot, I removed the sound and there is no commentary or background music. It doesn’t show, but there were many people riding the line for fun on a Sunday, an echo of the celebration a week prior but still great to see in the middle of a dreary winter.