Metrolinx shows off impressive half-kilometre-long LRT station that you still can't use
Metrolinx is offering a glimpse inside a cavernous station on the upcoming Eglinton Crosstown LRT as the public impatiently awaits the arrival of the long-overdue transit line rumoured to be gunning for an opening later in 2024.
Metrolinx has been featuring previews of the line's 25 stops and stations in an apparent effort to tide over an increasingly antsy public as commuters still await the announcement of an official opening date — years after it should have happened.
The latest video from the transit agency covers the enormous void below the streets of Leaside known as Laird Station.
But this station isn't like any of the others. It's hella long.
Maybe not as long as the time needed to build this ever-delayed line or long enough to distract us from the fact that the project has sailed well beyond its projected budget and timeline, but still really, stupidly, long.
Take a look in the tunnels at Laird station - one of the longest Eglinton Crosstown LRT stations.
— Crosstown (@CrosstownTO) March 28, 2024
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Jetez un coup d’œil dans les tunnels de la station Laird - l’une des plus longues stations du TLR d'Eglinton Crosstown. pic.twitter.com/5XOsMdG1EO
The gargantuan Laird Station spans approximately 500 metres, or half a kilometre in length.
For reference, that is just 53 metres shy of the CN Tower's height if it were — for some inexplicable reason — turned on its side and buried under Eglinton.
It would take TEN Niagara Falls stacked on top of each other to reach a height equal to this station's length.
So what was Metrolinx's reason to construct such an expansive (and, let's be real, also very expensive) station in an area with no planned connections to existing or future transit lines aside from some TTC surface routes?
Is it a bunker for the supposed gravy train halted by the Ford family? Or perhaps space for the next ServiceOntario expansion?
While Laird is not an interchange or even a super-high-volume station compared to others on the Crosstown, the station's impressive length is necessary to keep things moving on the line.
Laird hosts a turnback area featuring special maneuvering tracks that allow light rail vehicles, or LRVs, to switch directions, as well as temporary storage space for disabled LRVs to keep the line flowing and avoid service disruptions.
Work on Laird Station began in 2016, being one of just three stations on the line that were mined laterally rather than the traditional methods of being dug vertically from above in a trench or excavated using tunnel boring machines.
Now, eight years later, a brief hype video to promote a still-unopened station does little to appease the commuters on the surface braving the elements to wait for an overcrowded Eglinton bus.
Metrolinx
