TORONTO – As of today, the long-awaited “Eglinton Crosstown West Extension,” or Line 5 of the subway, is operational. The Ontario government officially opened one of Toronto’s most significant new public transit projects: Line 5 “Eglinton” has entered service under the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), offering free rides to all passengers on its inaugural day.
Line 5 stretches 19 kilometres between Kennedy Station and Mount Dennis, with over 10 kilometres underground and 25 stations and stops. Estimates indicate that it will carry more than 123,000 passengers per weekday, cutting travel times along the city’s east-west corridor by nearly an hour.
The line integrates with 68 surface routes, three TTC subway stations, and two GO Transit lines, allowing passengers to use the provincial One Fare program to transfer with a single ticket or a single monthly pass, such as the TTC monthly pass.
The opening, fifteen years after construction began in 2010 and almost six years behind the original schedule, is part of a broader provincial plan to invest in public transit, totaling around $70 billion for network expansion. This includes new subway projects as well as the westward extension of the “Eglinton Crosstown”, currently under construction. According to the 2022 study “Connecting the GGH: A Transportation Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe” (you can download it clicking here), Line 5 is also planned to eventually connect to Toronto Pearson International Airport, effectively serving the tens of thousands of passengers who – living North of downtown – currently rely on Bus 52 to reach the airport.
The service inaugurated today, currently linking Kennedy and Mount Dennis, will be rolled out gradually: frequencies will increase progressively over the first six months to ensure a stable and reliable launch. Once fully operational, trains will run at shorter intervals during peak hours.
Now it’s up to the riders, who can provide feedback on the new line directly to the TTC through an online survey at https://www.ttc.ca/riding-the-ttc/line-5-eglinton.
