Eglinton Avenue

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A curved Eglinton Avenue West street sign.
A curved Eglinton Avenue West street sign.

Eglinton Avenue is an east-west thoroughfare in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and in Mississauga to the west. The Toronto portion of the road runs from Kingston Road in the east to the western city limits of Mississauga, west of Highway 427.

The road name originates from the Castle Eglinton in Scotland. While the correct name is spelled with one "g", Torontonians generally pronounce it as if it was spelled "Eglington."

The road west of Yonge is Eglinton Avenue West and east of Yonge is Eglinton Avenue East. When Eglinton passes into Mississauga, it reverts to Eglinton Avenue East until west of Hurontario Street where it becomes Eglinton Avenue West, becoming Lower Baseline Road as it enters Milton just west of Mississauga.

The road runs through a number of neighbourhoods and is for the most part residential, though it becomes a major commercial area around the centre of the city. The Eglinton West area near Oakwood Avenue to Keele Street is home to a number of multi-cultural stores.

Eglinton Avenue is one of the few east-west routes north of Bloor Street that crosses Toronto uninterrupted in a more or less straight line across the entire city. Eglinton is also one of the few east-west routes that has the distinction of being continuous from Toronto/York Region to Peel Region (the others are Dundas Street, Steeles Avenue, Highway 7, and Castlemore Road/Rutherford Road/Carrville Road/16th Avenue). For example, Lawrence Avenue to its north and St. Clair Avenue to its south are both interrupted by the Don Valley, and neither reaches the western boundary of the city at Etobicoke Creek. Eglinton was also the only street to cross through all six municipalities that made up Metro Toronto: East York, Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough, Toronto, and York

In Toronto, the right-of-way to construct the Richview Expressway remains but the project has never come to fruition, save for high-speed ramps from Eglinton to Highway 401 and Highway 427 at that complicated interchange. Local opposition has made the proposed expressway unlikely, though the lands remain owned by the city.

The provincial government of Bob Rae started the Eglinton West subway in 1994, as a way of appeasing politicians in Etobicoke and York (as North York would receive the Sheppard Subway), even though the official transit plan only recommended an Eglinton busway for the near future. The Eglinton subway was abandoned by Rae's successor Mike Harris, after a tunnel had been started from Eglinton West station.

Transportation plans for the corridor include new rapid transit lines, announced as part of the TTC's Transit City light rail expansion programme in 2007,[1] including the Eglinton Crosstown line and the Scarborough Malvern lines. Although questions arose early on regarding the availability of funding for the line, the provincial government's MoveOntario 2020 capital funding announcement in June 2007, as well as subsequent budgetary commitments, have all but solidified its future. Plans for the Eglinton Crosstown line involve operating new low-floor streetcars in a dedicated right of way between Kennedy Station in Scarborough and Pearson International Airport in Mississauga, with underground operation between Brentcliffe Road in the east and Keele Street in the west, and on-street operation (as on Spadina and St Clair) elsewhere along the line. The Scarborough Malvern line would operate east of Kennedy station. The project has been officially approved, and engineering work is set to begin in early 2008[2].

[edit] Sites along Eglinton

Eglinton Avenue on a rainy day, with Canada Square and the Yonge Eglinton Centre
Eglinton Avenue on a rainy day, with Canada Square and the Yonge Eglinton Centre

The Eglinton West (at Allen Road), Eglinton (at Yonge Street), and Kennedy Toronto Transit Commission stations are located on Eglinton. The street is currently served by the 32 Eglinton West and 34 Eglinton East TTC bus routes.

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.transitcity.ca Official project website for the TTC's 'Transit City' programme
  2. ^ Commission Report Macro

[edit] See also

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