Eglinton Avenue

Eglinton Avenue is a major east–west arterial thoroughfare in Toronto and Mississauga in the Canadian province of Ontario. The street begins at Highway 407 (but does not interchange with the tollway) at the western limits of Mississauga, as a continuation of Lower Baseline in Milton. It traverses the midsection of both cities and ends at Kingston Road. Eglinton Avenue is the only street to cross all six former cities and boroughs of Metropolitan Toronto.

The Toronto section was surveyed in the 19th century as the Fourth Concession Road (with the first being Queen Street). It was historically known as Richview Sideroad in Etobicoke and Lower Baseline in Mississauga. It was also designated Highway 5A (and later Highway 109) in Scarborough.

There are two sources for the naming of Eglinton Avenue.

The wagon trail connecting to Yonge Street between the third and fifth concessions (St. Clair and Lawrence Avenues respectively) soon adopted the name of the village and was gradually improved over the years near Yonge Street. In 1890, the area was incorporated as North Toronto, and in 1912, it was annexed to Toronto itself. In 1953, Metropolitan Toronto (commonly known as Metro) was formed. Seeking to build new connections to the rapidly developing suburbs, Metro widened and interconnected Eglinton Avenue to its current form through the decade.

The eastern segment through Scarborough was known as Highway 5A between 1937 and 1953; this number also appeared on St. Clair Avenue West until 1952 when the Toronto Bypass, (the precursor to

In the west, the street ended at the Humber River until 1970. On the opposite side in Etobicoke, the Richview Sideroad followed the same alignment as far as the Metro Toronto–Peel boundary. That year, the river was bridged to connect the Richview Sideroad segment as an extension of Eglinton Avenue. At about the same time, when the Highways 401 and 427 interchange was reconstructed, the street was connected to Lower Base Line, extending the street even further west into Mississauga. West of Mississauga, in the Regional Municipality of Halton, it is a rural road and is still named Lower Base Line (the corresponding Upper Base Line being present-day Steeles Avenue).^[3]

The structure over the Richmond Hill line and East Don River is known as the Harvey C. Rose Bridge, and honours the chief engineer of the Toronto and York Roads Commission, later the Metropolitan Toronto Commission of Roads.^[4]

In 1943, city planner Norman Wilson indicated the possible future need for a new urban highway to connect Eglinton Avenue with the Richview Sideroad. These plans would mature into the Richview Expressway with the formation of Metropolitan Toronto in 1954. Part of the requirements for the Richview Expressway was a staged construction of a parallel arterial road. This was approved in 1963, and construction began on Eglinton Avenue from west of Weston Road to Royal York Road. With its completion in 1970, the four-lane Richview Sideroad was renamed Eglinton Avenue West.^[5]

In Toronto, the right-of-way to construct the Richview Expressway remains but in the face of Local opposition the project has never come to fruition. The only built part of the proposed Expressway are high-speed ramps from Eglinton Avenue to Highways 401 and 427 at a massive interchange near Renforth station. At a signalized intersection this results in westbound Eglinton traffic defaulting to the on-ramps for 401 and 427 as drivers wishing to continue on the Eglinton routing have to make a left-turn.

Eglinton Avenue runs through a number of neighbourhoods and is residential, for the most part, though it becomes a major commercial area from

There are many notable sites and landmarks along Eglinton Avenue; from west to east, they include the Erin Mills Town Centre, Centennial Park, Planet Bowl, the Eglinton Flats sports park,^[6] Eglinton Park,^[7] Little Jamaica and Reggae Lane, Yonge Eglinton Centre, the Canada Square Complex and the TVO Headquarters, Sunnybrook Park, the Ontario Science Centre, the Eglinton Square Shopping Centre, The Golden Mile, and Toronto East Detention Centre.

The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) operates bus routes 32 Eglinton West (between Eglinton subway station and Renforth MiWay Terminal), 34 Eglinton East (between Eglinton and Kennedy stations), 51 Leslie, 54 Lawrence East and 56 Leaside (between Eglinton station and Leslie Street). East of Kennedy station, routes 86 Scarborough, 116 Morningside, 905 Eglinton East Express, and 986 Scarborough Express provide regular all-day service (until 2014, 34 Eglinton East provided service east of Kennedy station). Overnight service is supplied by 332 Eglinton West Blue Night (between Eglinton Station and Pearson Airport) and 334 Eglinton East Blue Night (between Eglinton Station and the intersection of Finch Avenue and Neilson).

In Mississauga, MiWay route 35 Eglinton serves most of the street corridor within the city, while routes 7 Airport, 9 Rathburn, 68 Terry Fox, and 74 Explorer also serve some sections of the road.

Eglinton West (at Allen Road), Eglinton (at Yonge Street), and Kennedy (at the eastern terminus of Line 2 Bloor–Danforth) stations of the Toronto subway system are located on Eglinton, where the respective lines cross it.

In Mississauga, a portion of the Mississauga Transitway, a grade-separated bus rapid transit line, follows Eglinton Avenue stopping at: Etobicoke Creek, Spectrum, Orbitor and Renforth stations, with Renforth being the transitway's eastern terminus. All of these stations are located at the Airport Corporate Centre at the east end of Mississauga, just south of Toronto Pearson International Airport. Renforth Station is a terminal hub for TTC, GO Transit, and MiWay buses; while the other three are exclusively served by MiWay.

The provincial government of Bob Rae started work on the Eglinton West line of the Toronto subway in 1994 as a way of appeasing politicians in Etobicoke and York who demanded rapid transit expansion in their constituencies after the city of North York successfully lobbied for the Sheppard line. The underground subway line was approved despite the official transit plan only recommended a bus rapid transit line for the road in the near future. The Eglinton line was abandoned by Rae's successor Mike Harris after construction had started at Eglinton West station and underground excavation was filled in.

The Eglinton Crosstown LRT was unveiled as part of the TTC's Transit City light rail expansion program in 2007, which proposed an underground line to run from Jane Street to Laird Drive, with above ground sections running to Pearson International Airport in the west and to Kennedy station in Scarborough in the east. The provincial government's MoveOntario 2020 capital funding announcement in June 2007 funded the line.

Toronto mayor Rob Ford announced the cancellation of Transit City on the day that he took office.^[8] The redesigned Eglinton–Scarborough Crosstown line along with a Line 4 Sheppard extension was announced four months later, with the support of Metrolinx and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty.^[9]

The redesign put the 19 kilometres (12 mi) Eglinton portion completely underground, integrated the Line 3 Scarborough portion (which has since been decommissioned due to age and the unavailability of new rolling stock), and would run contiguously from Black Creek Drive in the west to McCowan Road in the east. The redesign has since been shelved with construction plans reverting to the original design.

Once the first phase of Line 5 Eglinton is completed by Metrolinx in 2025, the existing bus lanes on Eglinton between Black Creek Drive and Kennedy Road will be significantly reduced, providing an opportunity to redesign the street. In 2014, the municipal government of Toronto released a report proposing a redesign of the street to provide generally a four lane roadway over the underground LRT, with a three lanes (two traffic and centre turning lane) between Avenue Road and Mount Pleasant Road. The variation in number of lanes is based on lower car traffic volumes near Yonge Street. The redesign would also provide wider sidewalks and a continuous raised bicycle lane that would be the longest bike lane in the city.

The initial implementation of the redesign would be carried out with the reconstruction at Crosstown line station locations that would be funded as part of the Crosstown line project. Reconstruction between stations will be funded by the city and is proposed to be carried out after completion of the Crosstown line so that it does not interfere with the Metrolinx construction activity.^[10][11]

A planning process called Eglinton Connects drew on public consultation to evaluate options for the redesign.^[12]

• Yonge–Eglinton