182-406: [REDACTED] Line 5 Eglinton , also known as the Eglinton Crosstown LRT or the Crosstown , is a light rail transit line that is under construction in Toronto , Ontario, Canada, to expand and improve public transportation in the Greater Toronto Area . Owned by Metrolinx and operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), the line will be part of the Toronto subway system. The Crosstown
364-724: A "light rail" vehicle (it is a heavy rail vehicle), and is only included for comparison purposes. Low-floor LRVs have the advantage of a low-floor design, allowing them to load passengers directly from low-rise platforms that can be little more than raised curbs. High-floor light rail systems also exist, featuring larger stations. Historically, the track gauge has had considerable variations, with narrow gauge common in many early systems. However, most light rail systems are now standard gauge . Older standard-gauge vehicles could not negotiate sharp turns as easily as narrow-gauge ones, but modern light rail systems achieve tighter turning radii by using articulated cars . An important advantage of
546-458: A bus, there will be even more capacity when there is a combination of cars and light rail. Table 3 shows an example of peak passenger capacity. The cost of light rail construction varies widely, largely depending on the amount of tunneling and elevated structures required. A survey of North American light rail projects shows that costs of most LRT systems range from $ 15 million to over $ 100 million per mile. Seattle's new light rail system
728-403: A chaotic breakdown inflow and a dramatic drop in speed (a traffic jam ) if they exceed about 2,000 vehicles per hour per lane (each car roughly two seconds behind another). Since most people who drive to work or on business trips do so alone, studies show that the average car occupancy on many roads carrying commuters is only about 1.5 people per car during the high-demand rush hour periods of
910-1142: A common right-of-way (however, Link converted to full separation in 2019). Some systems, such as the AirTrain JFK in New York City, the DLR in London, and Kelana Jaya Line in Kuala Lumpur , have dispensed with the need for an operator. The Vancouver SkyTrain was an early adopter of driverless vehicles, while the Toronto Scarborough rapid transit operated the same trains as Vancouver, but used drivers. In most discussions and comparisons, these specialized systems are generally not considered light rail but as light metro systems. Around Karlsruhe , Kassel , and Saarbrücken in Germany, dual-voltage light rail trains partly use mainline railroad tracks, sharing these tracks with heavy rail trains. In
1092-565: A concrete road known as the Toronto–Hamilton Highway was proposed in January 1914. Construction began on November 8 of that year, following the onset of World War I . The highway was designed to run along the lake shore, instead of Dundas Street to the north, because the numerous hills encountered along Dundas would have increased costs without improving accessibility. Middle Road, a dirt lane named because of its position between
1274-467: A cost of $ 54 million. Each TBM is 10 metres (33 ft) long, 6.5 metres (21 ft) in diameter and weighs 400 tonnes (390 long tons; 440 short tons). They bore 10 metres (33 ft) per day, 16 to 20 metres (52 to 66 ft) below the surface. The TBMs were named Dennis, Lea, Humber, and Don. The names were chosen by Jason Paris, a moderator of the UrbanToronto blog and web forums. Dennis
1456-419: A final transfer allows eastbound traffic in the collector lanes to transfer to the 401 express lanes which continue past Highway 427 as the single 401 carriageway. The 401 collector lanes then become ramps to Highway 427 after a final exit at Renforth Drive. For westbound traffic, the 401's single westbound carriageway becomes the highway's express lanes. The exit ramps from Highway 427 merge to form
1638-599: A launch shaft for tunnel boring machines at Black Creek Drive began, while in October of that year, the first part of tunnel construction started. On November 9, 2011, in Keelesdale Park, Mayor Rob Ford and Premier Dalton McGuinty officially broke ground on the new project. 2012 In May 2012, TTC staff released a report saying that completion of the Eglinton Crosstown was unlikely by 2020 and that
1820-416: A light rail train may have three to four cars of much larger capacity in one train under the control of one driver, or no driver at all in fully automated systems, increasing the labor costs of BRT systems compared to LRT systems. BRT systems are also usually less fuel-efficient as they use non-electrified vehicles. The peak passenger capacity per lane per hour depends on which types of vehicles are allowed on
2002-435: A live rail. In outer areas, the trams switch to conventional overhead wires . The Bordeaux power system costs about three times as much as a conventional overhead wire system and took 24 months to achieve acceptable levels of reliability, requiring the replacement of all the main cables and power supplies. Operating and maintenance costs of the innovative power system still remain high. However, despite numerous service outages,
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#17327870838962184-543: A longer distance. Light rail cars are often coupled into multiple units of two to four cars. Light rail systems may also exhibit attributes of heavy rail systems, including having downtown subways, as in San Francisco and Seattle . Light rail is designed to address a gap in interurban transportation between heavy rail and bus services, carrying high passenger numbers more quickly than local buses and more cheaply than heavy rail. It serves corridors in which heavy rail
2366-546: A loop ramp. In the fall of 1991, alongside the widening of Highway 410 into a full freeway, construction began on the connecting ramps between Highway 403 and Highway 410, which pass under the existing bridge structures carrying Highway 401 (which would soon be designated as the collector lanes), while new overpasses were constructed for the Highway ;401 express lanes which were extended from east of Tomken Road to just east of Kennedy Road. Plans were made to extend
2548-400: A mix of agricultural land and forests, maintaining a straight course. Highway 401 passes through the north end of the towns of Port Hope and Cobourg with two interchanges each. Just east of Cobourg, the highway narrows to four lanes and the terrain becomes undulating, with the highway routed around hills and through valleys along the shores of Lake Ontario. At Trenton , the highway crosses
2730-642: A more diverse range of design characteristics than LRT, depending on the demand and constraints that exist, and BRT using dedicated lanes can have a theoretical capacity of over 30,000 passengers per hour per direction (for example, the Guangzhou Bus Rapid Transit system operates up to 350 buses per hour per direction). For the effective operation of a bus or BRT system, buses must have priority at traffic lights and have their dedicated lanes, especially as bus frequencies exceed 30 buses per hour per direction. The higher theoretical of BRT relates to
2912-674: A more realistic in-service date would be 2022–2023. The main reason given was that the project management had been transferred from the TTC to Infrastructure Ontario which uses the Alternative Finance and Procurement strategy. That strategy would use a private contractor to complete the project, effectively requiring that contractor to redo all design work already completed by the TTC. The TTC also warned that Metrolinx's aggressive timeline would lead to severe construction-related disruptions to communities and traffic because large stretches of
3094-416: A mostly grade-separated line with seven stations (four underground, two elevated, one at ground level). The decision to run trains above ground near the proposed station at Jane Street led to protests from late 2022 and the erection of a tipi and other temporary structures by local First Nations groups from early February 2023. As of that month, the coalition was asking Metrolinx to pause development until
3276-439: A new set of flyover ramps from the express lanes to Highway 403 which opened in 1984, while a basketweave transfer between the eastbound collector and express lanes near Pearson Airport was completed in mid-1985. At this time, the Highway 401 express lanes merged into the collector lanes east of Tomken Road which resulted in a temporary left-handed exit/entry for the ramps to/from the Highway 403 express lanes. After
3458-436: A plan designed to limit damage to the sensitive agricultural lands through which the highway runs. Here the highway's flat and straight route is notorious for leading to driver inattention. The section from Windsor to London (especially west of Tilbury ) has become known for deadly car accidents and pile-ups , earning it the nickname Carnage Alley . As the highway approaches London, Highway 402 merges in, resulting in
3640-640: A portion of the highway between Trenton and Toronto has been designated the Highway of Heroes , as the route is travelled by funeral convoys for fallen Canadian Forces personnel from CFB Trenton to the coroner's office. Highway 401 previously ended at Highway 3 (Talbot Road) upon entering Windsor. In 2011, construction began on a westward extension called the Rt. Hon. Herb Gray Parkway (formerly Windsor-Essex Parkway ). This extension runs parallel to Highway 3 (Talbot Road and Huron Church Road) between
3822-514: A resolution was found. The group also requested more "transparency about the project – its costs, its size, and its impact". Building a mostly grade-separated extension is expected to cost $ 4.7 billion and would have 7 stations and an estimated 37,000 daily boardings. For comparison, a surface line would have cost $ 2.9 billion and have had 10 ground-level stations and an estimated 42,500 daily boardings. Travel time savings on an underground line would have been double that for
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#17327870838964004-407: A result, has many of the operating characteristics of a metro system rather than a light rail system. A capacity of 1,350 passengers per train is more similar to the heavy rail than light rail. Bus rapid transit (BRT) is an alternative to LRT and many planning studies undertake a comparison of each mode when considering appropriate investments in transit corridor development. BRT systems can exhibit
4186-663: A second study estimates that over 500,000 vehicles travel that section on some days. This makes it North America's busiest roadway, surpassing the Santa Monica Freeway in Los Angeles and I-75 in Atlanta. The just-in-time auto parts delivery systems of the highly integrated automotive industry of Michigan and Ontario have contributed to the highway's status as the world's busiest truck route, carrying 60 percent of vehicular trade between Canada and
4368-424: A select few interchanges. Access between the two is provided by transfers , which are strategically placed to prevent disruptions caused by closely spaced interchanges. To avoid confusion between carriageways, blue signs are used for the collector lanes and green signs for the express lanes. The overall purpose of the collector-express system is to maximize traffic flow for both local and long-distance traffic. From
4550-589: A separate line known as the Eglinton East LRT . Construction of the first phase of the line began in 2011 and was originally expected to be completed in 2020, but the opening date has been revised several times. Metrolinx expected the line to be substantially complete by September 2022 but then conceded it would not meet that date. After revising the opening date of the central section to 2023 and then, amid ongoing legal action against Crosslinx (the construction consortium), Metrolinx stated they believed there
4732-629: A six-lane cross-section. Within London, it intersects the city's two municipal expressways , Highbury Avenue and the Veterans Memorial Parkway . The section between London and Woodstock generally parallels the former Highway 2 but lies on the south side of the Thames River. This area is not as flat but the highway is generally straight. This part of Highway 401 often experiences heavy snowsqualls in early winter, sometimes extending as far east as Toronto. To
4914-640: A six-lane freeway in Brighton Beach (at the Canada–US border in Windsor) at the west end of the E. C. Row Expressway, sandwiched between the E. C. Row's opposing carriageways for a short distance. Highway 401 then changes to a southeast direction as it descends into a trench and runs alongside Highway 3 (Huron Church Road and Talbot Road). This below-grade section of the highway has 11 tunnels to cross underneath surface streets (including those carrying
5096-413: A surface line and such a line would have been fully weatherproof, but the reduction in stations was projected to have led to a lower estimated ridership, though local bus service would have been retained given the increased spacing between stations. During the 2018 Ontario provincial election , Liberal and Progressive Conservative candidates Yvan Baker and Kinga Surma supported the underground option. Of
5278-490: A survey of 375,000 drivers, asking them about their preferred route to travel to their destination. Using this information, a course was plotted from Windsor to Quebec, bypassing all towns along the way. Highway 2S (S for Scenic ) was the first completed section of new roadway. Built to connect with the Thousand Islands Bridge at Ivy Lea and opened as a gravel road in late 1941 or early 1942,
5460-534: A top speed of 55–71.5 miles per hour (88.51–115.1 km/h) depending on the system, while the trains on the all-underground Montreal Metro can only reach a top speed of 72 kilometres per hour (44.74 mph). LACMTA light rail vehicles have higher top and average speeds than Montreal Metro or New York City Subway trains. Many light rail systems—even fairly old ones—have a combination of both on- and off-road sections. In some countries (especially in Europe), only
5642-481: A tramway, a light metro, and, in a narrow sense, rapid transit. This is especially common in the United States, where there is not a popularly perceived distinction between these different types of urban rail systems. The development of technology for low-floor and catenary-free trams facilitates the construction of such mixed systems with only short and shallow underground sections below critical intersections as
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5824-470: Is a generic international English phrase for types of rail systems using modern streetcars/trams, which means more or less the same thing throughout the English-speaking world . Light rail systems can range from trams runnig in streets along with other traffic, to semi-metro systems having portions of grade separated track. People movers are even "lighter", in terms of capacity. Monorail
6006-575: Is a separate technology that has been more successful in specialized services than in a commuter transit role. The use of the generic term light rail avoids some serious incompatibilities between British and American English . The word tram , for instance, is generally used in the UK and many former British colonies to refer to what is known in North America as a streetcar , but in North America tram can instead refer to an aerial tramway , or, in
6188-602: Is a significant amount of overlap between the technologies; similar rolling stock may be used for either, and it is common to classify streetcars or trams as a subcategory of light rail rather than as a distinct type of transportation. However, some distinctions can be made, though systems may combine elements of both. Low-floor light rail lines tend to follow a reserved right-of-way and with trains receiving priority at intersections, and tend not to operate in mixed traffic, enabling higher operating speeds. Light rail lines tend to have less frequent stops than tramways, and operate over
6370-444: Is a traffic bottleneck, since the space constraints of the existing flyovers of the at the 401-427 interchange also limit the width of the 401 in this section to eight lanes (widened from the original six). Highway 401 is often congested in this section, with an average of 442,900 vehicles passing between Weston Road and Highway 400 per day as of 2008 (just east of the 401-409 merger). In spite of this congestion, it
6552-563: Is by far the most expensive in the US, at $ 179 million per mile, since it includes extensive tunneling in poor soil conditions, elevated sections, and stations as deep as 180 feet (55 m) below ground level. This results in costs more typical of subways or rapid transit systems than light rail. At the other end of the scale, four systems (Baltimore, Maryland; Camden, New Jersey; Sacramento, California; and Salt Lake City, Utah) incurred construction costs of less than $ 20 million per mile. Over
6734-426: Is especially important for wheelchair access, as narrower gauges (e.g. metre gauge) can make it challenging or impossible to pass the tram's wheels. Furthermore, standard-gauge rolling stock can be switched between networks either temporarily or permanently, and both newly built and used standard-gauge rolling stock tends to be cheaper to buy, as more companies offer such vehicles. Overhead lines supply electricity to
6916-521: Is expected to cost $ 4.7 billion and to be completed by 2031. Construction of the westward extension to Renforth station began in July 2021. Two future extensions were planned: an eastern extension to the University of Toronto Scarborough and a northwestern extension towards Toronto Pearson International Airport . In 2022, the city of Toronto converted the eastern extension into a city project and
7098-502: Is expensive. Similarly, the most expensive US highway expansion project was the " Big Dig " in Boston, Massachusetts, which cost $ 200 million per lane mile for a total cost of $ 14.6 billion. A light rail track can carry up to 20,000 people per hour as compared with 2,000–2,200 vehicles per hour for one freeway lane. For example, in Boston and San Francisco, light rail lines carry 9,600 and 13,100 passengers per hour, respectively, in
7280-577: Is flat, primarily agricultural land, that takes advantage of the fertile clay soil deposited throughout the region. The main river through the region is the Thames River , which drains the second largest watershed in southern Ontario and largely influences the land use surrounding the highway. It parallels the route to the north between Tilbury and Woodstock. Near Tilbury, Highway 401 loses its tall wall median barrier and narrows to four lanes, following lot lines laid between concession roads in
7462-575: Is hard to distinguish between what is called light rail, and other forms of urban and commuter rail. A system described as a light rail in one city may be considered to be a streetcar or tram system in another. Conversely, some lines that are called "light rail" are very similar to rapid transit ; in recent years, new terms such as light metro have been used to describe these medium-capacity systems. Some "light rail" systems, such as Sprinter , bear little similarity to urban rail, and could alternatively be classified as commuter rail or even inter-city rail. In
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7644-559: Is impractical. Light metro systems are essentially hybrids of light rail and rapid transit. Metro trains are larger and faster than light rail trains, with stops being further apart. Many systems have mixed characteristics. Indeed, with proper engineering, a rail line could run along a street, then go underground, and then run along an elevated viaduct. For example, the Los Angeles Metro Rail 's A Line "light rail" has sections that could alternatively be described as
7826-644: Is maintained by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO) and patrolled by the Ontario Provincial Police . The speed limit is 100 km/h (62 mph) throughout the majority of its length, with the remaining exceptions being the posted 80 km/h (50 mph) limit westbound in Windsor, in most construction zones, and the 110 km/h (68 mph) speed limit on the 40 km (25 mi) stretch between Windsor and Tilbury that
8008-695: Is named after Mount Dennis , Lea is named after Leaside , Humber is named after the Humber River , and Don is named after the Don River . The names Dennis and Lea combined allude to the Canadian poet Dennis Lee . When boring work was completed, enough dirt had been removed to fill the Scotiabank Arena to the height of the CN Tower . 2011 In August 2011, preparation for construction of
8190-484: Is one of the highest capacity ones, having been upgraded in a series of expansions to handle 40,000 passengers per hour per direction, and having carried as many as 582,989 passengers in a single day on its Line 1 . It achieves this volume by running four-car trains with a capacity of up to 1,350 passengers each at a frequency of up to 30 trains per hour. However, the Manila light rail system has full grade separation and as
8372-407: Is similar to that of a traditional tram, while operating at a higher capacity and speed, often on an exclusive right-of-way. In broader use, it includes tram-like operations mostly on streets. A few light rail networks have characteristics closer to rapid transit or even commuter rail , yet only when these systems are fully grade-separated are they referred to as light metros . The term light rail
8554-496: Is the primary commuting route in Toronto, and over 50 percent of vehicles bound for downtown Toronto use the highway. East of Highway 400 is a set of transfer ramps between the express and collectors lanes nicknamed "The Basketweave", as each direction has a pair of ramps that cross over and under each other. Near Yorkdale Shopping Centre, twelve lanes pass beneath a complicated interchange with Allen Road . Further east,
8736-755: Is the principal connection between Toronto and Montreal , becoming Autoroute 20 at the Ontario–Quebec border. Highway 401 does not yet extend across the Detroit River into Detroit. By September 2025, the Gordie Howe International Bridge will extend Highway 401 across the Canada–United States border to a connection through Delray to Interstate 75 in Michigan . At present, Highway 401 begins as
8918-517: Is the western side of Toronto's Greenbelt , a zone around Toronto protected from development. After this 10 km (6.2 mi) gap, the highway interchanges with the Highway ;407 Express Toll Route . Within the GTA, the highway passes several major shopping malls including Toronto Premium Outlets , Yorkdale Shopping Centre , Scarborough Town Centre and Pickering Town Centre . Within
9100-466: The City of Toronto released a feasibility report that found this proposal would have significant capital costs ranging from $ 3.6 billion to $ 7.7 billion. In comparison, extending the Eglinton Crosstown as approved would cost $ 1.3 billion. It was also found that a light rail transit line would attract higher ridership than a heavy rail line. The City of Toronto's chief planner recommended
9282-542: The Cádiz TramBahia , where trams share track with commuter and long-distance trains from the main terminus in the city and curve off to serve cities without a railway connection. Some of the issues involved in such schemes are: There is a history of what would now be considered light rail vehicles operating on heavy rail rapid transit tracks in the US, especially in the case of interurban streetcars . Notable examples are Lehigh Valley Transit trains running on
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#17327870838969464-758: The London Underground and the New York City Subway . Conventional rail technologies including high-speed , freight, commuter , and rapid transit urban transit systems are considered "heavy rail". The main difference between light rail and heavy rail rapid transit is the ability for a light rail vehicle to operate in mixed traffic if the routing requires it. The world's first electric tram operated in Sestroretsk near Saint Petersburg , Russia , invented and operated on an experimental basis by Fyodor Pirotsky in 1880. The first tramway
9646-594: The Minister of Tourism and Information , joined local residents to persuade the DHO to construct an inland bypass. The DHO agreed, stating that it would cost less to build a new freeway than to upgrade the parkway. Construction of the Thousand Islands Bypass began in 1965, with work proceeding east from Gananoque. The Thousand Islands Parkway was the final two-lane segment of Highway 401. A portion
9828-637: The Netherlands , this concept was first applied on the RijnGouweLijn . This allows commuters to ride directly into the city center, rather than taking a mainline train only as far as a central station and then having to change to a tram. In France, similar tram-trains are planned for Paris, Mulhouse , and Strasbourg ; further projects exist. In some cases, tram trains use previously abandoned or lightly used heavy rail lines in addition to or instead of still in use mainline tracks. In 2022, Spain opened
10010-874: The O-Train Trillium Line in Ottawa, Ontario , Canada, the River Line in New Jersey , United States, and the Sprinter in California , United States, which use diesel multiple unit (DMU) cars. Light rail is different from the British English term light railway , long-used to distinguish railway operations carried out under a less rigorous set of regulations using lighter equipment at lower speeds from mainline railways. Light rail
10192-703: The Philadelphia and Western Railroad high-speed third rail line (now the Norristown High-Speed Line ). Such arrangements are almost impossible now, due to the Federal Railroad Administration refusing (for crash safety reasons) to allow non-FRA compliant railcars (i.e., subway and light rail vehicles) to run on the same tracks at the same times as compliant railcars, which includes locomotives and standard railroad passenger and freight equipment. Notable exceptions in
10374-696: The St. Lawrence River to Gananoque , where it splits with the Thousand Islands Parkway , one of the original sections of the highway designated in 1952. The highway runs parallel to the parkway several kilometres inland from the river. The Canadian Shield , an ancient geological formation, appears through this heavily forested section of the highway. Highway 401 rejoins the Thousand Islands Parkway immediately southwest of Brockville , now heading northeast. The remainder of
10556-621: The Trent Canal and returns to an agricultural setting. It then crosses the Moira River as it goes through Belleville before heading eastward to Kingston . The Kingston portion of the highway, originally named the Kingston-Bypass , was one of the first sections of the highway to be completed; it is now mostly three lanes each way. East of Kingston , the highway continues through a predominantly agricultural area alongside
10738-530: The medians of roads . If run in streets , trains are usually limited by city block lengths to about four 180-passenger vehicles (720 passengers). Operating on two-minute headways using traffic signal progression, a well-designed two-track system can handle up to 30 trains per hour per track, achieving peak rates of over 20,000 passengers per hour in each direction. More advanced systems with separate rights-of-way using moving block signaling can exceed 25,000 passengers per hour per track. Most light rail systems in
10920-472: The 14-lane cross-section to 10, divided only at the centre. It remains this width as it passes into Ajax , before narrowing to six lanes at Salem Road. Planned expansions east of Salem to improve flow leading into the Highway 412 and Lakeridge Road interchanges will see the highway widened to ten lanes as far as Brock Street in Whitby, where the existing interchange will be reconfigured. East of Ajax,
11102-795: The 15 underground stations costing $ 80–$ 100 million to build and the ten street-level stops $ 3–$ 5 million each. The remainder will be for financing, lifecycle and maintenance costs. In July 2015, the Crosslinx Transit Solutions Maintenance General Partnership consortium awarded Bombardier Transportation a 30-year contract to maintain Line 5's light-rail vehicles. The contract was worth $ 403 million. Bombardier will also maintain wayside systems (track and overhead catenary) for Line 5. 2010 On July 28, 2010, Metrolinx ordered four tunnel boring machines (TBMs) from Caterpillar at
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#173278708389611284-624: The 1970s was proven to have been a technical failure by the following decade. After World War II, the Germans retained many of their streetcar networks and evolved them into model light rail systems ( Stadtbahnen ). With the exception of Hamburg , all large and most medium-sized German cities maintain light rail networks. The concept of a "limited tramway" was proposed by American transport planner H. Dean Quinby in 1962. Quinby distinguished this new concept in rail transportation from historic streetcar or tram systems as: The term light rail transit
11466-562: The 1985 Network 2011 plan conceived by the Metropolitan Toronto government as the TTC and Metro began to install the busway along Eglinton. It was to be completed by 2003. In 1986, a coalition of City of York and Etobicoke Metro councillors and the Regional Municipality of Peel persuaded Metro Council to include an Eglinton West line in a new Transit Network Plan. Work on the subway line began in 1994 and
11648-738: The Crosstown West as a light-rail component of his SmartTrack plan. In June 2016, the estimated completion date was 2023. The estimated cost to build the Eglinton West LRT was $ 2.47 billion of which the City of Toronto would contribute $ 1.18 billion, the federal government would contribute $ 822.9 million, and the City of Mississauga and the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) would be asked to contribute $ 470 million for
11830-482: The Crosstown construction contract to Crosslinx, a consortium led by SNC Lavalin. It will take about four years to build the stations, 15 of which will be underground. Light rail Light rail (or light rail transit , abbreviated to LRT ) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology while also having some features from heavy rapid transit . The term
12012-597: The Department of Highways began construction on a new bridge over the large valley, bypassing the former alignment around West Hill . From here the highway was constructed on a new alignment to Oshawa, avoiding construction on the congested Highway 2. As grading and bridge construction neared completion on the new highway between West Hill and Oshawa in September 1939, World War II broke out and gradually tax revenues were re-allocated from highway construction to
12194-576: The Eglinton Avenue would have to be torn up concurrently to meet deadlines. 2013 In January 2013, Infrastructure Ontario issued a request for qualifications to shortlist companies to construct the line. A request for proposal was expected in mid-2013. On February 22, 2013, TBMs Dennis and Lea arrived in Keelesdale Park. In June 2013, the TBMs Dennis and Lea began tunnelling on the line. Traffic on Eglinton Avenue near Keele Street
12376-495: The French city of Bordeaux , the tramway network is powered by a third rail in the city center, where the tracks are not always segregated from pedestrians and cars. The third rail (actually two closely spaced rails) is placed in the middle of the track and divided into eight-metre sections, each of which is powered only while it is completely covered by a tram. This minimizes the risk of a person or animal coming into contact with
12558-416: The GTA, three separate segments of Highway 401 employ a collector-express system , a concept inspired by the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chicago. The system divides each direction of travel into segregated collector and express lanes, giving the highway a wide span and four carriageways . Unlike the collector lanes, which provide access to every interchange, the express lanes only provide direct access to
12740-440: The Highway 3 routing). After passing under Howard Avenue and the ramps to Talbot Road, the highway then curves northeast and ascends back to the surface. At the split with Dougall Parkway (former Highway 3B) which links to the Detroit–Windsor tunnel , the highway turns east and exits Windsor. From here, Highway 401 mostly parallels the former route of Highway 98 from Windsor to Tilbury. Southwestern Ontario
12922-407: The Highway 410 interchange was a better connection point than the original suggested terminus at the Highway 401-427 interchange, but would also require the widening of Highway 401 from six lanes to twelve. Plans were submitted and approved in December 1977 by Mississauga city council, and construction began. The first section of Highway 403 between Cawthra Road and Highway 401
13104-537: The Kennedy Road overpass was replaced, cast-in-place concrete flyover ramps were constructed from 1988 to late 1990 to link up Highway 401 and Highway 410, notably the 11-span flyover ramp from Highway 401 eastbound to Highway 410 northbound which remains the longest in the Greater Toronto Area, while the Highway 410 southbound to Highway 401 eastbound flyover replaced
13286-518: The LRT tunnel from Laird station to Science Centre station and eliminating the planned Sunnybrook Park surface stop. It did not want to build an underground station at the Sunnybrook location as it would cost $ 80 to $ 100 million (as compared to about $ 3 million for a surface stop). Metrolinx considered the cost of an underground station to be unjustified given its low projected ridership (650 passengers at
13468-602: The TBMs Don and Humber arrived for assembly in the shaft at Brentcliffe Road before starting to drill the 3.25-kilometre (2.02 mi) section west to Yonge Street. On September 24, 2015, Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca issued a statement saying the Crosstown would not operate until September 2021, in order "to mitigate disruption to the local community and infrastructure as much as possible." The earlier plan had been to open in 2020 with tunnelling and station construction to start in 2012. Infrastructure Ontario has awarded
13650-725: The TBMs had arrived at Caledonia station . In April 2014, The Globe and Mail reported that the two western tunnel boring machines were excavating "approximately 1,000 cubic yards [760 m] of spoil", per day. For the year prior to May 2014, the two TBMs Dennis and Lea had been excavating and installing concrete tunnel liners at a rate of approximately 10 metres (33 ft) per day. The tunnels are lined with precast concrete liner segments. Six 2.5-tonne (2.8-ton) segments form each ring. In early December 2014, Dennis and Lea arrived at Eglinton West station. Dennis stopped to allow Lea to catch up so that they would arrive at Eglinton West station at
13832-662: The US are the NJ Transit River Line from Camden to Trenton and Austin's Capital MetroRail , which have received exemptions to the provision that light rail operations occur only during daytime hours and Conrail freight service only at night, with several hours separating one operation from the other. The O-Train Trillium Line in Ottawa also has freight service at certain hours. With its mix of right-of-way types and train control technologies, LRT offers
14014-455: The US as a whole, excluding Seattle, new light rail construction costs average about $ 35 million per mile. By comparison, a freeway lane expansion typically costs $ 1.0 million to $ 8.5 million per lane mile for two directions, with an average of $ 2.3 million. However, freeways are frequently built in suburbs or rural areas, whereas light rail tends to be concentrated in urban areas, where right of way and property acquisition
14196-523: The US. Highway 401 also features North America's busiest multi-structure bridge at Hogg's Hollow in Toronto. The four bridges, two for each direction with the collector and express lanes, carried an average of 360,300 vehicles daily in 2019. The highway is one of the major backbones of a network in the Great Lakes region , connecting the populous Quebec City –Windsor corridor with Michigan, New York and central Ontario's cottage country . It
14378-666: The United States and in North America . In Britain, modern light rail systems began to appear in the 1980s, starting with the Tyne and Wear Metro from 1980 and followed by the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) in London in 1987, continuing into the 1990s including the establishment of the Manchester Metrolink in 1992 and the Sheffield Supertram from 1994. Due to varying definitions, it
14560-590: The United States are limited by demand rather than capacity (by and large, most American LRT systems carry fewer than 4,000 persons per hour per direction), but Boston's and San Francisco's light rail lines carry 9,600 and 13,100 passengers per hour per track during rush hour. Elsewhere in North America, the Calgary C-Train and Monterrey Metro have higher light rail ridership than Boston or San Francisco. Systems outside North America often have much higher passenger volumes. The Manila Light Rail Transit System
14742-472: The United States, "light rail" has become a catch-all term to describe a wide variety of passenger rail systems. Light rail corridors may constitute a fully segregated corridor, a dedicated right-of-way on a street, an on-street corridor shared with other traffic, a corridor shared with other public transport, or a corridor shared with pedestrians. The most difficult distinction to draw is that between low-floor light rail and streetcar or tram systems. There
14924-415: The ability of buses to travel closer to each other than rail vehicles and their ability to overtake each other at designated locations allowing express services to bypass those that have stopped at stations. However, to achieve capacities this high, BRT station footprints need to be significantly larger than a typical LRT station. In terms of cost of operation, each bus vehicle requires a single driver, whereas
15106-517: The at-grade option would use signal coordination; however, grade separation would require fewer restrictions on left turns. There would be no difference in development potential with either option. However, because of feedback from the public and local politicians, Mayor John Tory recommended more study on grade separation. A fully at-grade extension was estimated to cost $ 1.5 to $ 2.1 billion. Grade separation would add an extra $ 881.9 million to $ 1.32 billion to that cost. In April 2019,
15288-497: The brother of Rob Ford, Ontario premier Doug Ford , announced a plan for transit in the Greater Toronto Area. This included the planned extension of Line 5 Eglinton west to Pearson Airport with a section of the line built underground from Royal York to Martin Grove. In February 2020, Metrolinx released an initial business case analysis of the project with four options, including three which were below-grade. Metrolinx ultimately decided on
15470-402: The busiest hour). Local residents objected to the elimination of their stop, and by mid-2013, Metrolinx had relented and the surface stop was restored. Members of the public asked Metrolinx why it was proposing a centre-of-road alignment instead of running the tracks on the south side of Eglinton Avenue through the valley at Leslie Street. The south-side alignment would have avoided going through
15652-866: The case of the Disney amusement parks , even a land train . (The usual British term for an aerial tramway is cable car , which in the US usually refers to a ground-level car pulled along by subterranean cables .) The word trolley is often used as a synonym for streetcar in the United States but is usually taken to mean a cart, particularly a shopping cart, in the UK and elsewhere. Many North American transportation planners reserve streetcar for traditional vehicles that operate exclusively in mixed traffic on city streets, while they use light rail to refer to more modern vehicles operating mostly in exclusive rights of way, since they may operate both side-by-side targeted at different passenger groups. The difference between British English and American English terminology arose in
15834-480: The centennial celebrations. The remainder of the bypass was opened to traffic on October 11, 1968 Finally, on October 11, 1968, the Thousand Islands Bypass opened. This final piece was commemorated with a plaque to signify the completion of Highway 401. In Toronto, engineers and surveyors were examining the four-lane bypass, while planners set about designing a way to handle the commuter highway. In 1963, transportation minister Charles MacNaughton announced
16016-573: The city was considering grade separation using fly-overs and fly-unders at six intersections: Martin Grove Road, Kipling Avenue, Islington Avenue, Royal York Road, Scarlett Road, and Jane Street, with surface running between stations. On November 21, 2017, city staff recommended just 10 stops along Eglinton West between Mount Dennis station and Renforth station on the Mississauga Transitway . The most recent recommendation dropped
16198-421: The closure of Glasgow Corporation Tramways (one of the largest in Europe) in 1962. Although some traditional trolley or tram systems continued to exist in San Francisco and elsewhere, the term "light rail" has come to mean a different type of rail system as modern light rail technology has primarily post-WWII West German origins. An attempt by Boeing Vertol to introduce a new American light rail vehicle in
16380-542: The construction of the Eglinton Avenue portion of the line as planned but to exclude the Scarborough RT. In July 2013, plans for an "Eglinton-Scarborough Crosstown" line were abandoned, thereby reverting the entire line back to the plan that had been conceived under Transit City. The environmental assessment evaluated the line running in the middle of Eglinton Avenue through the valley at Leslie Street. However, in late 2012 and early 2013, there were proposals to locate
16562-486: The course of a new dual highway mostly parallel to Highway 2, with precedence given to areas most hampered by congestion. Unlike the QEW, this highway would not be built along an existing road, but rather on a new right-of-way, avoiding the need to provide access to properties. Along with immense improvements to machinery and construction techniques over its six-year course, the war provided planners an opportunity to conduct
16744-406: The day he took office. He proposed an alternative titled the "Eglinton–Scarborough Crosstown line", which put the 19-kilometre (12 mi) line along Eglinton Avenue completely underground. The line would have then followed the route of Line 3 Scarborough, thus forming a single line continuously from Black Creek Drive to McCowan . The cost would almost double to $ 8.2 billion and, compared to
16926-415: The day. This combination of factors limits roads carrying only automobile commuters to a maximum observed capacity of about 3,000 passengers per hour per lane. The problem can be mitigated by introducing high-occupancy vehicle ( HOV ) lanes and ride-sharing programs, but in most cases, policymakers have chosen to add more lanes to the roads, despite a small risk that in unfavorable situations an extension of
17108-755: The direct translation, which is city rail (the Norwegian term, by bane , means the same). However, UMTA finally adopted the term light rail instead. Light in this context is used in the sense of "intended for light loads and fast movement", rather than referring to physical weight. The infrastructure investment is also usually lighter than would be found for a heavy rail system. The American Public Transportation Association (APTA), in its Glossary of Transit Terminology, defines light rail as: ...a mode of transit service (also called streetcar, tramway, or trolley) operating passenger rail cars singly (or in short, usually two-car or three-car, trains) on fixed rails in
17290-471: The early 1990s. It was extended westward in stages during the 2010s to include the interchanges with Hurontario Street, Mavis Road, and Mississauga Road; with the final extension to Winston Churchill being completed in 2022. The east end of this section, running south of Toronto Pearson International Airport , reaches the Highway's widest point, at 18 lanes. Approaching the City of Toronto's western border,
17472-514: The eastern launch shaft. For two and a half years, traffic around the excavation site will be reduced from two to one lane in each direction. West of the site, more lane restrictions would go into effect to construct head walls (below-ground walls that form the ends of each subway station) at the future Laird , Bayview (later renamed Leaside) and Mount Pleasant stations. There will also be lane restrictions for two years near Hanna Road to build an emergency exit near Leaside High School . By April 2014,
17654-459: The eastern section through Scarborough, that it "winds smoothly through pastures across streams and rivers, and beside green thickets. It seems a long way from the big city." By 1959 however, the bypass was a lineup of cars, as 85,000 drivers crowded the roadway, designed to handle a maximum of 48,000 vehicles, on a daily basis. Motorists found the new road to be a convenient way of travelling across Toronto; this convenience helped influence
17836-459: The eastern system from Neilson Road to Brock Road in Pickering in the late 1980s, but took over a decade to reach fruition by 1997. This was followed shortly thereafter by the widening of the highway through Ajax and a new interchange at Pickering Beach Road (renamed Salem Road) and Stevenson Road. The 1990s also saw the first step in widening the highway from Toronto to London, by replacing
18018-576: The end of 1960, the Toronto section of the highway was extended both eastwards and westwards: first east from Newcastle to Port Hope on June 30; then later west from Highway 25 in Milton to Highway 8 south of Kitchener on November 17. By mid-1961, the section between Brighton and Marysville had opened. The gap to the east, from Highway 28 in Port Hope to Highway 30 in Brighton
18200-502: The entire length of Highway 401. Signs designating the freeway and shields with the letters 'M-C' were installed, but these had been removed by 1997. In 2003, 38 years after Robarts' naming of the highway, a Member of Provincial Parliament attempted to get the Macdonald-Cartier Freeway highway name enshrined into law; the bill only passed first reading and was not enacted. In the 1970s, Highway 401
18382-405: The extension of the Eglinton Crosstown line (referred to as Crosstown West) to Pearson Airport in lieu of establishing SmartTrack on Eglinton Avenue, based upon negative community impacts, higher costs, and lower projected ridership associated with a heavy rail corridor. On January 19, 2016, Tory agreed with the analysis and supported Metrolinx's original plan of extending the Crosstown. Tory included
18564-599: The former end of the freeway and the E. C. Row Expressway , at which point the extension turns and runs alongside the E.C. Row towards the future Gordie Howe International Bridge . An 8-kilometre (5.0 mi) section of the parkway, east of the E. C. Row interchange, opened on June 28, 2015, with the remaining section completed and opened on November 21. The widening of the highway between Highway/Regional Road 8 in Kitchener to Townline Road in Cambridge to at least ten lanes
18746-408: The future expansion of the highway, the transportation ministry purchased a 91.4-metre-wide (300 ft) right-of-way along the entire length. Generally, the highway occupies only a portion of this allotment. It is one of the world's busiest highways; a 2019 analysis stated the annual average daily traffic (AADT) count between Renforth Drive and Highway 427 in Toronto was at 450,300, while
18928-600: The grass median with the addition of a third traffic lane per direction separated by a tall-wall concrete median barrier. The segment from London to Woodstock received this upgrade first, with the expansion shortly east of the split for Highway 403's newly constructed western segment. A project in the mid-1990s brought the highway up to a minimum of six lanes between Highway 8 in Kitchener and Highway 35 / 115 in Newcastle. Other projects prepared sections for eventual widening. In its 2007 plan for southern Ontario,
19110-462: The highway ascends as it crosses the Grand River followed by interchanges with King Street (Waterloo Regional Road 8) and Highway 8 before returning to its eastward orientation. Between Highway/Regional Road 8 and Highway/Regional Road 24 in Cambridge, the highway was widened in 2020 to twelve lanes to accommodate the growing traffic using that segment. Beyond Highway/Regional Road 24,
19292-560: The highway could be completed, Thomas McQuesten was appointed the new minister of the Department of Highways, with Robert Melville Smith as deputy minister, following the 1934 provincial elections . Smith, inspired by the German autobahns —new "dual-lane divided highways "—modified the design for Ontario roads, and McQuesten ordered the Middle Road be converted into this new form of highway. A 40 m (130 ft) right-of-way
19474-675: The highway crosses Hogg's Hollow over the West Don River on what is the busiest multi-span bridge crossing in North America, followed immediately by an interchange with Yonge Street which is also the centre of Toronto. Eastward the highway descends as it crosses Oriole GO Station , Leslie Street, and the East Don River in succession. It then climbs toward an interchange with the Don Valley Parkway and Highway 404 , which provides access to downtown Toronto and
19656-565: The highway except at infrequent controlled-access points. It was announced in the days thereafter this concept would be applied to a new "trans-provincial expressway", running from Windsor to the Ontario–Quebec border. Highway engineers evaluated factors such as grading, curve radius, and the narrow median used along the Middle Road—which was inaugurated on August 23, 1940, as the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) —and began to plan
19838-460: The highway passes through the second 3.5 km (2.2 mi) rural gap, and enters Whitby . The stretch of Highway 401 through Whitby and Oshawa features several structures completed during the initial construction of the highway in the 1940s. Several of these structures are to be demolished, either due to their age, or to prepare for the planned widening of Highway 401 through this area. A former Canadian National Railway overpass, which
20020-552: The highway returns to a six-lane cross section and meanders towards Milton , passing through hills and rock cuts along the way. As Highway 401 approaches the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) from the west, it rounds Rattlesnake Point (part of the ecologically protected Niagara Escarpment ) to the west of Milton. Upon entering the town, it enters the first urbanized section of the GTA, passing through two rural areas between there and Oshawa. Part of this rural gap
20202-500: The highway runs parallel to the former Highway 2 along the shore of the St. Lawrence River within the St. Lawrence Valley . Northeast of Brockville is the interchange with Highway 416, which heads north to Ottawa . At the Ontario–Quebec border, Highway 401 becomes Autoroute 20 and continues to Montreal. The MTO publishes yearly traffic volume data for provincial highways, expressed as an average daily vehicle count over
20384-583: The highway that were raised on July 12, 2024. By the end of 1952, three individual highways were numbered "Highway 401": the partially completed Toronto Bypass between Weston Road and Highway 11 (Yonge Street); Highway 2A between West Hill and Newcastle ; and the Scenic Highway between Gananoque and Brockville , now known as the Thousand Islands Parkway . These three sections of highway were 11.8, 54.7, and 41.2 km (7.3, 34.0, and 25.6 mi), respectively. In 1964,
20566-528: The highway was opened between Weston and Highway 27 in September 1955. The entire bypass, including the widening of Highway 27 into an expressway south of Highway 401, was completed in August 1956. Upon its opening, the bypass was described by one reporter as "a motorist's dream" providing "some of the most soothing scenery in the Metropolitan area". The reporter continued, with regard to
20748-409: The implementation of six other light rail lines across Toronto. The original version of the line would have run from Pearson Airport along Silver Dart Drive to Convair Drive. The line would have then turned southwest to a bridge over Highway 401 to reach Commerce Boulevard on the other side, where it would run south to reach Eglinton Avenue and the east end of the Mississauga Transitway . The rest of
20930-488: The large reconstruction project, which included complex new interchanges at Highway 27, Highway 400, the planned Spadina Expressway and the Don Valley Parkway. The system was completed in 1972, along with the Highway 27 (renamed Highway 427) bypass between the QEW and Pearson Airport. Most of the interchanges in Toronto were reconstructed as partial cloverleafs and a continuous lighting system
21112-458: The late 19th century when Americans adopted the term "street railway", rather than "tramway", with the vehicles being called "streetcars" rather than "trams". Some have suggested that the Americans' preference for the term "street railway" at that time was influenced by German emigrants to the United States (who were more numerous than British immigrants in the industrialized Northeast), as it is
21294-524: The latter is described as light rail. In those places, trams running on mixed rights-of-way are not regarded as a light rail but considered distinctly as streetcars or trams. However, the requirement for saying that a rail line is "separated" can be quite low—sometimes just with concrete "buttons" to discourage automobile drivers from getting onto the tracks. Some systems such as Seattle's Link had on-road mixed sections but were closed to regular road traffic, with light rail vehicles and buses both operating along
21476-462: The light rail concept was the "Shaker Heights Rapid Transit" which started in the 1920s, was renovated in 1980-81 and is now part of RTA Rapid Transit . Many original tram and streetcar systems in the United Kingdom , United States , and elsewhere were decommissioned starting in the 1950s as subsidies for the car increased. Britain abandoned its tram systems, except for Blackpool , with
21658-521: The line would run east along Eglinton Avenue, including a portion along which the cancelled Eglinton West subway line would have been built. The line would then traverse the city, connecting with Line 1 Yonge–University , Line 2 Bloor–Danforth , and Line 3 Scarborough . There were 43 stops planned for the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, 13 of which would be underground. Surface stops would be spaced on average 500 metres (550 yd) apart and
21840-531: The most direct path from Detroit to Buffalo. By 1956, construction had begun on a segment between Highway 4 in London and Highway 2 in Woodstock, as well as on the section between Windsor and Tilbury. In 1958, a section bypassing Morrisburg was opened to accommodate traffic displaced from a portion of Highway 2 through The Lost Villages of the Saint Lawrence Seaway . By
22022-465: The old and new systems. Since the 1980s, Portland, Oregon , has built all three types of system: a high-capacity light rail system in dedicated lanes and rights-of-way, a low-capacity streetcar system integrated with street traffic, and an aerial tram system . The opposite phrase heavy rail , used for higher-capacity, higher-speed systems, also avoids some incompatibilities in terminology between British and American English, for instance in comparing
22204-419: The original plan, 18 fewer stops were planned, including the elimination of the connection to Pearson Airport. Most of the additional cost would have come from putting 12 additional stations underground and for converting the Scarborough RT. On February 8, 2012, in a special meeting, Toronto City Council, led by Karen Stintz , voted 25–18 to override Mayor Ford's modifications to the project. The vote reinstated
22386-551: The original proposal to only construct the portion between Laird Drive and Keele Street underground while the remainder of the line is built along the surface. On November 30, 2012, the environmental assessment was revised, such that the east tunnel portal location would be moved from east of Brentcliffe to east of Don Mills; however, this was reversed in May 2013 after receiving community feedback. In January 2013, city councillors from Scarborough put forward an alternative plan to proceed with
22568-440: The other two were not completed until July 31, 1964. The last segment, to the Ontario–Quebec border, was opened on November 10, 1964. As originally envisioned by McQuesten, Highway 401 had been routed along the Thousand Islands Parkway since 1952. However, by then numerous properties and a tourist industry were established, which had not been present when the parkway originally opened in 1938. James Auld , MPP for Leeds and
22750-524: The peak direction during rush hour. Ontario Highway 401 King's Highway 401 , commonly referred to as Highway 401 and also known by its official name as the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway or colloquially referred to as the four-oh-one , is a controlled-access 400-series highway in the Canadian province of Ontario . It stretches 828 kilometres (514 mi) from Windsor in
22932-463: The portion of the line in Mississauga. Approvals for the financing were still to be secured as of November 2, 2016. Public meetings for the extension, renamed the Eglinton West LRT, began November 13, 2017. The 2010 Environmental Assessment for Transit City originally considered an entirely at-grade light rail line running west from Weston Road and Mount Dennis station. However, by October 2017,
23114-489: The proposed Scarborough Malvern LRT and the Stouffville GO train line . The expected cost was CA$ 4.6 billion . As a result of provincial funding cuts, construction of the line was divided into two phases: phase one would end at Jane Street , and phase two would terminate as had been planned at Pearson Airport . Miller's successor, Rob Ford , announced the cancellation of Transit City on December 1, 2010,
23296-503: The province to the municipality in 1998) merges into it, followed immediately by an interchange with Kingston Road and Port Union Road/ Sheppard Avenue , then crossing the Rouge Valley into Pickering. West of Pickering, Highway 401 again meets former Highway 2, which thereafter parallels it to the Ontario–Quebec border. As the highway approaches Brock Road in Pickering, the collector and express lanes converge, narrowing
23478-556: The required clearance height can be reduced significantly compared to conventional light rail vehicles. Reference speed from major light rail systems, including station stop time, is shown below. However, low top speed is not always a differentiating characteristic between light rail and other systems. For example, the Siemens S70 LRVs used in the Houston METRORail and other North American LRT systems have
23660-432: The right-of-way that is often separated from other traffic for part or much of the way. Light rail vehicles are typically driven electrically with power being drawn from an overhead electric line via a trolley [pole] or a pantograph ; driven by an operator onboard the vehicle; and may have either high platform loading or low-level boarding using steps." However, some diesel-powered transit is designated light rail, such as
23842-626: The road followed the shore of the Saint Lawrence River and connected with the western end of the twinned Highway 2 near Brockville. In addition, the highway between Highland Creek and Oshawa was opened as a gravel-surfaced road in May 1942. Following the war, construction resumed on roadways throughout Ontario. The expressway between Highland Creek and Oshawa was completed in December 1947 and designated as Highway 2A, while other sections languished. The Toronto–Barrie Highway
24024-415: The road network might lead to increased travel times ( Downs–Thomson paradox , Braess's paradox ). By contrast, light rail vehicles can travel in multi-car trains carrying a theoretical ridership up to 20,000 passengers per hour in much narrower rights-of-way , not much more than two car lanes wide for a double track system. They can often be run through existing city streets and parks , or placed in
24206-401: The roads. Typically roadways have 1,900 passenger cars per lane per hour (pcplph). If only cars are allowed, the capacity will be less and will not increase when the traffic volume increases. When there is a bus driving on this route, the capacity of the lane will be higher and will increase when the traffic level increases. And because the capacity of a light rail system is higher than that of
24388-550: The route became fully navigable from Windsor to the Ontario–Quebec border. In 1965 it was given a second designation, the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway, in honour of two Fathers of Confederation . At the end of 1968, the Gananoque–Brockville section was bypassed and the final intersection grade-separated near Kingston, making Highway 401 a freeway for its entire 817.9 km (508.2 mi) length. Since 2007,
24570-618: The same as the German term for the mode, Straßenbahn (meaning "street railway"). A further difference arose because, while Britain abandoned all of its trams after World War II except in Blackpool , eight major North American cities ( Toronto , Boston , Philadelphia , San Francisco , Pittsburgh , Newark , Cleveland , and New Orleans ) continued to operate large streetcar systems. When these cities upgraded to new technology, they called it light rail to differentiate it from their existing streetcars since some continued to operate both
24752-748: The same day Highway 400 was numbered), the Highland Creek to Oshawa expressway (Highway 2A) and Highway 2S were designated Controlled-Access Highway No 401 , a move scorned by one critic because of the lack of thought given to the numbered name. Construction was completed for several sections of the Toronto Bypass: between Highway 400 and Dufferin Street in August, west to Weston Road in September, east to Bathurst Street in October and finally to Yonge Street in December. A 3.4 km (2.1 mi) stub of Highway 2A which
24934-506: The same time. 2015 On the weekend of April 18 and 19, 2015, the boring machines, Dennis and Lea, were lifted out of a shaft west of Allen Road and moved about 100 metres (330 ft) to a shaft just east of Allen Road. In April 2015, merchants along Eglinton Avenue West were complaining of lost revenue (up to a 35 percent dip in sales), because construction was discouraging customers with snarled traffic, limited parking options, reduced foot traffic and dusty sidewalks. By September 2015,
25116-453: The signaled intersection at Leslie Street. Metrolinx explained that the alternate alignment "was more expensive and [would have] required an EA amendment. Due to project implementation timelines the project is proceeding with the EA option". They also stated, "It is very difficult (if not impossible) to relocate the portal from the centre of Eglinton (as proposed in the current design) and shift it to
25298-565: The single carriageway of Highway 401 curves northeast and follows a power transmission corridor to the east end of Highway 409 where the highways merge and the 401 returns to its east–west route through Toronto. This is also the west end of the third and longest express-collector segment (43.7 km (27.2 mi)) which crosses the rest of the city to Brock Road in Pickering in the east. The 5 km (3.1 mi) gap with no express/collector split between Highways 427 and 409
25480-544: The south of Woodstock, Highway 401 curves northeast as Highway 403 splits off. The freeway then meets the former Highway 2 at an interchange, reconfigured from a cloverleaf to a five-ramp parclo in the late 2000s, near the Toyota West Plant . From here the highway heads towards Kitchener and Cambridge , substantially north of the route of the former Highway 2 which has been bypassed by Highway 403's western leg. Heading towards Kitchener,
25662-482: The south side of the right-of-way and continue to use the existing bridge." In a later phase, Metrolinx had planned for the Eglinton Crosstown to be extended westwards from Mount Dennis along Eglinton Avenue West to Toronto Pearson International Airport. However, during his successful campaign in the 2014 Toronto mayoral election , John Tory proposed SmartTrack , which would have included a heavy rail transit line established along this section of Eglinton Avenue. In 2016,
25844-464: The span of a year (AADT). The table below compares the AADT at several locations along Highway 401 using data from 1969, 1988, 2008 and 2016. Highway 401's history predates its designation by over two decades. As automobile use in southern Ontario grew in the early 20th century, road design and construction advanced significantly. Following frequent erosion of Lake Shore Road, then macadamized ,
26026-408: The standard gauge is that standard railway maintenance equipment can be used on it, rather than custom-built machinery. Using standard gauges also allows light rail vehicles to be conveniently moved around using the same tracks as freight railways. Additionally, wider gauges (e.g. standard gauge) provide more floor clearance on low-floor trams that have constricted pedestrian areas at the wheels, which
26208-420: The start of Highway 401's westbound collectors lanes in this section. This system was originally designed to accommodate and organize various traffic movements from the Highway 403 / 410 and Highway 427 interchanges along Highway 401, replacing an earlier plan that would have run Highway 403 directly to Eglinton Avenue and the never-built Richview Expressway . East of Highway 427,
26390-404: The stops at Rangoon, East Mall, and Russell / Eden Valley. At a city executive committee meeting on November 28, 2017, city staff recommended building the extension without any grade separation. City staff had concluded that a fully at-grade extension would provide better access for transit users and have fewer environmental impacts. Grade separation would have little improvement on traffic because
26572-569: The street's median to Kennedy station , where it will connect underground with Line 2 Bloor–Danforth . This first phase has an estimated cost of CA$ 12.82 billion ; the cost when the contract was awarded was pegged at $ 9.1 billion, although the cost was originally estimated at $ 11 billion. This phase is incomplete and has no scheduled opening date. A second phase, a 9.2-kilometre (5.7 mi) westward extension from Mount Dennis, will run mostly underground or elevated to Renforth station , with seven new stations. The second phase
26754-726: The suburban shift in the city and continues to be a driving force of urban sprawl today. Meanwhile, beyond Toronto, the highway was being built in a patchwork fashion, focusing on congested areas first. Construction west from Highway 27 began in late 1954, as did the Kingston Bypass in Eastern Ontario. Work began to connect the latter with the Scenic Highway in 1955. After the 1954 New York State Thruway opened from Buffalo to New York City , Michigan officials encouraged Ontario to bypass Highway 3 as
26936-570: The suburbs to the north, respectively. Between Birchmount Road and Midland Avenue, the freeway is elevated on a berm as it crosses three surface streets and two railway lines. Progressing eastward in Scarborough, the Highway 401 continues through mostly residential areas and Scarborough City Centre including the shopping mall . The highway eventually reaching the city's eastern edge where at Meadowvale Road it turns southeast briefly before it swings northeast as Highway 2A (downloaded from
27118-551: The system was a success with the public, gaining up to 190,000 passengers per day. Automatic train operation is employed on light rail networks, tracking the position and speed of a train and hence adjusting its movement for safety and efficiency. One line of light rail (requires 7.6 m, 25' right of way) has a theoretical capacity of up to 8 times more than one 3.7 m (12 foot) lane on a freeway, excluding busses, during peak times. Roads have ultimate capacity limits that can be determined by traffic engineering , and usually experience
27300-406: The three major parties, only NDP candidate Erica Kelly supported the surface option. Doug Ford, campaigning to become the premier of Ontario, preferred underground construction. Crosslinx Transit Solutions (CTS), a consortium of more than 26 companies, was awarded the contract to design, build and finance the Eglinton Crosstown line and to maintain it for 30 years. The contract, which excludes boring
27482-603: The tracks elsewhere. In 2012, Metrolinx discovered that there would be minimal cost differential between tunnelling under the West Don River at Leslie Street (the proposed location of the Sunnybrook Park stop) versus laying the track on the surface. Also, tunnelling through that section would have provided "significant improvements to construction staging, schedule and traffic impacts", according to Metrolinx. Thus, in December 2012, Metrolinx proposed continuing
27664-503: The trams, making it safe on city streets. Several systems in Europe and a few recently opened systems in North America use diesel -powered trains. When electric streetcars were introduced in the late 19th century, conduit current collection was one of the first ways of supplying power, but it proved to be much more expensive, complicated, and trouble-prone than overhead wires . When electric street railways became ubiquitous, conduit power
27846-460: The tunnels, is for completing all other remaining work, including the stations and the finishing work within the tunnels. Some of the members of the consortium are SNC-Lavalin , Aecon , EllisDon , ACS Infrastructure Canada, Dragados, IBI Group and Scotiabank . The contract defines a public–private partnership . The 30-year contract to build and maintain the line will total $ 9.1 billion. Capital costs will be $ 5.3 billion, with each of
28028-513: The two, was not considered since Lake Shore and Dundas were both overcrowded and in need of serious repairs. The road was formally opened on November 24, 1917, 5.5 m (18 ft) wide and nearly 64 km (40 mi) long. It was the first concrete road in Ontario, as well as one of the longest stretches of concrete road between two cities in the world. Over the next decade, vehicle usage increased substantially, and by 1920, Lakeshore Road
28210-502: The underground stations would be 850 m (930 yd) apart on average, as constructing numerous underground stops would be costly. The average speed would be 28 kilometres per hour (17 mph), compared with the existing bus routes along Eglinton that have an average speed of 16 to 18 km/h (9.9 to 11.2 mph). The line would terminate at Kennedy station to the east in Scarborough where it would meet Line 2 Bloor–Danforth,
28392-460: The vast majority of light rail systems. This avoids the danger potentially presented by an electrified third rail . The Docklands Light Railway uses an inverted third rail for its electrical power, which allows the electrified rail to be covered and the power drawn from the underside. Trams in Bordeaux , France, use a special third-rail configuration where the power is only switched on beneath
28574-612: The war effort. At the same time, between September 6 and 8, 1939, the Ontario Good Roads Association Conference was held at Bigwin Inn, near Huntsville , drawing highway engineers from across North America to discuss the new concept of "Dual Highways". On the first day of the convention, McQuesten announced his vision of the freeway: an uninterrupted drive through the scenic regions of Ontario, discouraging local business and local traffic from accessing
28756-629: The west to the Ontario– Quebec border in the east. The part of Highway 401 that passes through Toronto is North America's busiest highway, and one of the widest. Together with Quebec Autoroute 20 , it forms the road transportation backbone of the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor , along which over half of Canada's population resides. It is also a Core Route in the National Highway System of Canada. The route
28938-427: The west, the first collector-express section through the GTA is 4.6 km (2.9 mi) long and runs from James Snow Parkway to Highway 407 . Beyond Highway 407, the freeway briefly narrows to 10 lanes east to Winston Churchill Boulevard , where the second section begins and runs 16.7 km (10.4 mi) to Highway 427 . The west end of this section initially terminated just west of Highway 410 in
29120-563: The widening of Highway 401 in Toronto from four to a minimum of 12 lanes between Islington Avenue and Markham Road . The design was taken from the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chicago, which was widened into a similar configuration around the same time. Construction began immediately. While the plan initially called for construction to end in 1967, it continued for nearly a decade. At least four lanes were always open during
29302-434: The widest range of latitude of any rail system in the design, engineering, and operating practices. The challenge in designing light rail systems is to realize the potential of LRT to provide fast, comfortable service while avoiding the tendency to overdesign that results in excessive capital costs beyond what is necessary to meet the public's needs. The BART railcar in the following chart is not generally considered to be
29484-491: Was again congested, particularly during weekends. In response, the Department of Highways examined improving another road between Toronto and Hamilton. The road was to be more than twice the width of Lakeshore Road at 12 m (39 ft) and would carry two lanes of traffic in either direction. Construction on what was then known as the Queen Street Extension west of Toronto began in early 1931. Before
29666-543: Was coined in 1972 by the U.S. Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA; the precursor to the Federal Transit Administration ) to describe new streetcar transformations that were taking place in Europe and the United States. In Germany, the term Stadtbahn (to be distinguished from S-Bahn , which stands for Stadtschnellbahn ) was used to describe the concept, and many in UMTA wanted to adopt
29848-502: Was coined in 1972 in the United States as an English equivalent for the German word Stadtbahn , meaning "city railway". Different definitions exist in some countries, but in the United States, light rail operates primarily along exclusive rights-of-way and uses either individual tramcars or multiple units coupled together, with a lower capacity and speed than a long heavy rail passenger train or rapid transit system. Narrowly defined, light rail transit uses rolling stock that
30030-504: Was completed by December 22, 2023. There are plans underway to widen the remaining four-lane sections between Windsor and London to six lanes and to widen the route between Cambridge and Milton as well as through Oshawa . The expansive twelve-plus-lane collector–express system through Toronto and Pickering , and partially across Mississauga , was extended west to Milton in December 2022. Highway 401 extends across Southwestern , Central and Eastern Ontario . In anticipation of
30212-413: Was conceived in 2007 during the administration of Toronto mayor David Miller as part of Transit City , a large-scale transit expansion plan. The line is being constructed in two phases. The first phase of the 19-kilometre (12 mi) line will include 25 stops along Eglinton Avenue , from Mount Dennis station mostly underground to Laird station , after which it will run predominantly at-grade within
30394-594: Was fenced off but commonly used by pedestrians during Highway of Heroes repatriations, was demolished on the night of June 11, 2011. A second structure in Bowmanville was demolished during two overnight closures on July 9 and 16. At Harmony Road, the suburban surroundings quickly transition to agricultural land. The highway curves around the south side of Bowmanville and travels towards Highway 35 and Highway 115 . From east of Highway 35 and Highway 115 to Cobourg , Highway 401 passes through
30576-555: Was halted following the election in 1995 , which saw Mike Harris taking power and led to the cancellation of the Eglinton West line, with the existing tunnel quickly filled in. Line 5 Eglinton was originally conceived as the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, a partially underground light rail line, announced in 2007 by Toronto mayor David Miller and TTC chair Adam Giambrone . It was part of the Transit City plan, which included
30758-456: Was installed. On January 11, 1965, at the dinner celebration of Sir John A. Macdonald 's 150th birthday, the Premier of Ontario John Robarts designated Highway 401 the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway to honour Macdonald and George-Étienne Cartier , two of Canada's Fathers of Confederation . Unlike other names later applied to the highway, the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway designation covers
30940-621: Was introduced in North America in 1972 to describe this new concept of rail transportation. Prior to that time the abbreviation "LRT" was used for " Light Rapid Transit " and " Light Rail Rapid Transit ". The first of the new light rail systems in North America began operation in 1978 when the Canadian city of Edmonton, Alberta , adopted the German Siemens-Duewag U2 system, followed three years later by Calgary, Alberta , and San Diego, California . The concept proved popular, with there now being numerous light rail systems in
31122-403: Was no credible schedule to complete the project. While the central section was estimated to be 97 percent complete in September 2023, Metrolinx refused to provide an estimated completion date, although they did indicate they would provide notice three months before opening. In early October 2024, Metrolinx stated that the line would not open in 2024. The origins of Line 5 Eglinton can be traced to
31304-481: Was not incorporated into Highway 401 remained a provincial route as a connector to Kingston Road . Extensions east and west began in 1953; the eastern extension to Bayview Avenue opened in April 1955, but the western extension was delayed by the damage caused by Hurricane Hazel on October 15, 1954, which nearly destroyed the new bridge over the Humber River . The reconstruction would take until July 8, 1955, and
31486-475: Was opened August 18, 1980; the original connecting ramps were built on the outer perimeter of the interchange to serve what would later be designated as the collector lanes of both routes, leaving sufficient right-of-way between for future ramps linking the express lanes of both routes. The 1980s saw more sections of Highway 401 widened. Most significant was the new collector-express system between Highway 403 / 410 and Highway 427, including
31668-474: Was opened on July 20 of that year. The gap between Woodstock and Kitchener was completed on November 9, 1961, while the gap between Tilbury and London was completed two lanes at a time; the westbound lanes on October 22, 1963, the eastbound on July 20, 1965. The gap between Marysville and Kingston was opened by 1962. The final sections, from west of Cornwall to Lancaster, were opened between 1962 and 1964; two lanes opened to Lancaster on September 11, 1962, but
31850-485: Was opened on September 1, 1967, from Gananoque to Highway 137, which was itself built south to the parkway at the same time. The Highway 401 designation was applied along this new route, while the bypassed portion of the parkway was redesignated as Highway 2S. Despite the expected influx of traffic from the United States for Expo 67 in Montreal, the DHO opted to build the portion east of Ivy Lea after
32032-559: Was purchased along the Middle Road and construction began to convert the existing sections to a divided highway. Work also began on Canada's first interchange at Highway 10. Beginning in 1935, McQuesten applied the concept of a dual-highway to several projects along Highway 2, including along Kingston Road in Scarborough Township. When widening in Scarborough reached the Highland Creek ravine in 1936,
32214-400: Was raised on April 22, 2022, the 7 km (4.3 mi) extension east of the aforementioned, the 35 km (22 mi) stretch between Highway 35 / 115 and Cobourg , the 44 km (27 mi) stretch between Colborne and Belleville , the 66 km (41 mi) stretch between Belleville and Kingston , and the 107 km (66 mi) stretch between Highway 16 and the east end of
32396-399: Was reduced to one lane in each direction. On November 12, 2013, Metrolinx awarded a contract to a joint venture between Aecon Group and ACS Dragados Canada to construct the tunnel for the eastern portion of the line between Yonge Street and Laird Drive. 2014 In March 2014, work began to clear utilities and trees on the south side of Eglinton Avenue just east of Brentcliffe Road to set up
32578-632: Was the Gross-Lichterfelde tramway in Lichterfelde near Berlin in Germany, which opened in 1881. It was built by Werner von Siemens who contacted Pirotsky. It initially drew current from the rails, with overhead wire being installed in 1883. The first interurban to emerge in the United States was the Newark and Granville Street Railway in Ohio, which opened in 1889. An early example of
32760-502: Was the primary focus of the Department of Highways at the time, and the onset of the Korean War in 1950 stalled construction again. Despite the delays, highway minister George Doucett officially announced the plans for construction of the new trans-provincial expressway that year, with the Toronto to Oshawa expressway serving as a model for the design. Work on the most important link, the Toronto Bypass , began in 1951, but it would not open with that name. In July 1952 (possibly July 1,
32942-417: Was used in those cities that did not permit overhead wires. In Europe, it was used in London, Paris, Berlin, Marseille, Budapest, and Prague. In the United States, it was used in parts of New York City and Washington, D.C. Third rail technology was investigated for use on the Gold Coast of Australia for the G:link light rail, though power from overhead lines was ultimately utilized for that system. In
33124-451: Was widened to six lanes in Durham. Between 1977 and 1982, Highway 401 was widened from four to six lanes between Hurontario Street (Highway 10) to Highway 25, with the Jersey median barrier making its debut in Ontario in that segment. Plans had been completely modified to connect the under-construction Mississauga leg of Highway 403 from QEW to Highway 401 at the new Highway 410 interchange. For Highway 403,
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