The Eglinton Crosstown LRT has long been a subject of debate—in Rob Ford's mind, it still is—but construction has begun and the somewhat peculiar hybrid of underground rapid transit and road median light rail transit will be built in a few years. There are some issues, however, that need to be fixed if this expensive project is to live up to its billing as rapid transit. Foremost among them is the spacing of the stops on the surface section. As of now, stops are planned as close together as every block in some sections. That's excessive in a dense downtown core, but ludicrous amid Scarborough strip malls. In order to justify its high cost, the Eglinton LRT needs to be able to attract people who are currently riding south to the Bloor-Danforth line on north-south bus routes. Nobody is going to switch to the Eglinton LRT if it doesn't offer a significantly faster trip than an existing bus on the surface section east of Don Mills. That's why ensuring that stop spacing is kept at rapid transit levels is so essential.

Eglinton Crosstown LRT Route Map (source: Metrolinx)

For example, the Pharmacy stop is only 350 metres from the Victoria Park stop. This compares with 600 metres between Pape and Chester on the Bloor-Danforth subway, which is generally considered to be close for rapid transit and which is in a much more densely populated area. At most, one stop on the east side of Pharmacy between Victoria Park and Warden is sufficient. The Lebovic stop could be eliminated, meaning a walk of at most 350 metres to Warden. The Ferrand stop is also only about 425 metres from the Don Mills station. Minimizing walking distance is great, but there's a tradeoff between stop spacing and travel time and the current plans for the Eglinton surface section skew too far in favour of the former.

The TTC is planning to run a substantial proportion of trains only on the underground section between Black Creek and Laird because of the lower capacity and reliability on the surface section. This means that many trains will turn back before Don Mills, one of the most densely developed parts of the whole line and a major transfer point to buses. This doesn't have to happen. The surface section between Laird and the underground station at Don Mills has only one stop and one traffic light at Leslie. If that intersection could be eliminated by running along the south side of Eglinton and modifying the ramps to the Celestica factory, the route between Laird and Don Mills would function effectively as grade-separated rapid transit without interference from cars and other traffic. With the addition of crossover tracks west of Don Mills (a minimal cost on the surface), full frequency service could run all the way to the major density node at Don Mills. The recently added Leslie station itself is of minimal value at the moment, serving little more than a single car dealership. Don Mills is clearly the best place to turn back trains running on the western section of the line, and it's entirely feasible to connect it to the underground section without any traffic interference.

Surface Light Rail Transit (source: Metrolinx Functional Design Presentation At-Grade Section)

Rapid transit on Eglinton is about speeding people's crosstown trips and relieving congestion on the Bloor-Danforth subway. It won't entice people away from existing routes without competitive travel times. For that reason, there needs to be a reasonable stop spacing that is at least as great as the Bloor-Danforth subway downtown. Don Mills also should be part of the highest frequency part of the line. With some simple improvements, Metrolinx could improve the value of the city's biggest infrastructure project.

Jonathan English is a doctoral student in Urban Planning at Columbia University. His blog is Transit Futures.