Eglinton Avenue in 2026 and realizing that this isn’t the first time a train has stopped.

There’s something poetic about standing on Eglinton Avenue in 2026 and realizing that this isn’t the first time a train has stopped here.

Long before the bright lights, glass walls, and sleek new platforms of Line 5, there was another subway rumbling into Eglinton Station. The original Line 1 Yonge subway reached Eglinton back in 1954. That was the northern edge of Toronto’s rapid transit world. For a while, this was the end of the line.

And now?

Eglinton is no longer the end. It’s the centre of the Crosstown.

The Old Guard – Line 1 at Eglinton

When Bob stepped on the platform classic stainless-steel subway train, car number 5575 glowing red on the side, he felt that familiar TTC hum. Yellow safety strip. Concrete walls. Posters lined up like a gallery of everyday life.

This station has history in its tiles. Generations have stood on that same platform waiting for a train downtown. Students. Office workers. Dreamers. Photographers.

Bob remembers when this was the connection north. No fancy cross-city LRT. Just Line 1 heading south and buses fanning out across midtown.

You could almost hear the echoes of the 1950s in the tunnel.

The New Arrival – Line 5 Crosstown

Then Bob walked into the future.

White walls. Clean lines. LED strips running like light trails overhead. Signs glowing: Eglinton Avenue – Line 5. Elevators, glass railings, wide corridors. It feels like Toronto finally caught up to the drawings we saw 15 years ago.

Fifteen years.

Bob bought his Sony NEX-3 back in 2011 when construction started. He joked he’d probably upgrade cameras before the Crosstown opened. Instead, here he is — still shooting with a camera older than the project itself.

And now Line 5 stops here too.

People crowd the platform, bundled up in winter coats. The sleek Metrolinx train slides in quietly, almost politely. No heavy steel clatter like the old subway. It feels modern. Smooth. Connected.

Eglinton is no longer just north-south.

Now it runs east-west across the city.

One Station, Two Eras

That’s what Bob loves about Toronto.

At Eglinton, you can stand in one place and see two different generations of transit thinking:

1954: “Let’s build a subway north.”

2011–2026: “Let’s connect the whole midtown.”

The old subway feels industrial and honest. The Crosstown feels clean and optimistic.

Both stop at Eglinton Avenue.

Both move Toronto forward.

A Photographer’s Reflection

Bob stood between the old Line 1 platform and the new Line 5 corridor and realized something:

Transit isn’t just about trains.

It’s about time.

The first subway stopped at Eglinton and changed the city forever. Now Line 5 stops at the same station and changes it again.

Same avenue.

Different era.

Same Bob.

Different camera batteries.

And if you look closely, both trains are carrying the same thing:

Toronto.