Laird station
Laird station platform | |||||||||||
| General information | |||||||||||
| Location | 811 Eglinton Avenue East Toronto, Ontario Canada | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 43°42′48″N 79°21′54″W / 43.71333°N 79.36500°W | ||||||||||
| Platforms | Centre platform | ||||||||||
| Tracks | 2 | ||||||||||
| Connections |
| ||||||||||
| Construction | |||||||||||
| Structure type | Underground | ||||||||||
| Accessible | Yes | ||||||||||
| Architect | Arcadis | ||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||
| Opened | February 8, 2026[1] | ||||||||||
| Services | |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
Laird is an underground Toronto subway station on Line 5 Eglinton in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.[2] It is located in the Leaside neighbourhood in East York at the intersection of Laird Drive and Eglinton Avenue.
Description
This station's entrances are both on the south side of Eglinton Avenue. The main entrance is at the southwest corner of the Laird Drive intersection replacing a small strip mall and the secondary one is east of that in the Leaside Centre parking lot, just beyond the Pier 1 Imports store.[3]
On the east side of the station, there is a third track between the eastbound and westbound tracks, either to store a train or to allow a train to change direction due to an emergency or a change in service. On the west side of the station, there is a diamond crossover.[4][5] Laird station is the easternmost underground station in the main tunnel; the line emerges onto Eglinton about 250 metres (820 ft) east of Brentcliffe Drive and changes to predominantly on-street operation in a dedicated right-of-way in the centre of the street east to Kennedy station.
Destinations include the many commercial establishments to the southeast: Leaside Centre, the SmartCentres on Laird, and the Leaside Business Park on Eglinton.
Architecture
The station was designed by Arcadis, following an architectural concept designed by architects gh3* from Toronto and Daoust Lestage Lizotte Stecker from Montreal.[6][7] As with other stations on Line 5, architectural feature includes natural light from large windows and skylights, steel structures painted white, and orange accents (the colour of the line).[6]
Construction
Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne officiated at the ground-breaking for the station on June 30, 2016.[8]
The station was constructed using the sequential excavation method (SEM), referred to as "mining".[9] Laird, Avenue and Oakwood stations were all constructed by this method, while the other underground Line 5 stations were built by cut-and-cover. According to Crosslinx, SEM is more common in Europe and the Crosstown is the first project to use the technique in Toronto.[10]
Two shafts were built on the south side of Eglinton Avenue on both the east and west sides of Laird Drive. From the vertical shafts, workers mined horizontally towards and above the twin tunnels created by the tunnel boring machines. Large pipe-like sections are used to support the roof of the excavation. Then, workers gradually excavated down to the liners of the twin tunnels, which were removed. When the excavation was finished, there was a multi-storey cavern with an arched ceiling, which provides enough strength to support the ground above. The tunnel walls were then sprayed with shotcrete. Excavation was done slowly, about 1.5 metres per day; mining work proceeded on a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week basis.
The station's mined cavern is 489 metres (1,604 ft) long because it contains a crossover and a storage track in addition to the train platform. Both the platform and the adjacent trackworks are contained within a single circular tube, and there are no support columns between the tracks. Using cut-and-cover would have disrupted approximately 500 metres (1,600 ft) of Eglinton Avenue.[10]
Surface connections
The following bus routes serve Laird station:[11]
| Route | Name | Additional information |
|---|---|---|
| 34 | Eglinton | Westbound to Mount Dennis station and eastbound to Kennedy station |
| 51A | Leslie | Northbound to Leslie station and southbound to Donlands station |
| 51B | Northbound to Don Mills Road and Lawrence Avenue East and southbound to Donlands station | |
| 88 | South Leaside | Westbound to St. Clair station |
| 334A | Eglinton | Blue Night service; eastbound to Kennedy station and westbound to Renforth Drive and Pearson Airport |
| 334B | Blue Night service; eastbound to Finch Avenue East and Neilson Road via Morningside Avenue and westbound to Mount Dennis station |
References
- ^ Thayaparan, Arrthy (February 8, 2026). "Beautiful, wonderful, or Toronto transit's black eye? Whatever it is, the Eglinton Crosstown is finally open". CBC News. Archived from the original on February 9, 2026. Retrieved February 9, 2026.
- ^ "Laird Station". Eglinton Crosstown. Retrieved June 24, 2017.
- ^ "Laird LRT stop will replace long-time Bagel maker". The South Bayview Bulldog. November 20, 2013. Retrieved June 24, 2017.
The main entrance will be built on the site of the strip mall on the southwest corner. Across Laird to the east, a second entrance will be built on the parking lot of the RioCan-owned Laird Centre on the southeast corner.
- ^ "Vehicle Ride: Laird Station to EMSF". Metrolinx. November 30, 2021. p. 0:25.
- ^ "Eglinton Crosstown LRT Updates – July 2017". Metrolinx. July 14, 2017. Retrieved November 1, 2017.
- ^ a b Bozikovic, Alex (February 8, 2026). "Will the Eglinton Crosstown carry Toronto forward?". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved February 16, 2026.
- ^ Lestage, Daoust. "Eglinton Crosstown LRT – Design excellence – Daoust Lestage". Retrieved February 22, 2026.
Daoust Lestage inc. (Fairbank Station)
DIALOG and Arcadis (Forest Hill, Chaplin and Avenue Stations)
Arcadis (Mount Dennis, Keelesdale, Oakwood, Eglinton, Leaside, Laird, Science Centre and Kennedy Stations and At-grade Stops)
NORR (Caledonia, Cedarvale and Mount Pleasant Stations) - ^
"Ontario Breaks Ground on Laird Station on Eglinton Crosstown LRT". Government of Ontario. June 30, 2016. Retrieved June 30, 2016.
Work is beginning on Laird Station, located near the midpoint of the 19-kilometre Light Rail Transit (LRT) line. Construction began in March on Keelesdale, the first underground station. By the end of the summer, more than half of the underground stations on the 25-station line will be under construction.
- ^ "Crosstown's Laird Station sees all structural work on the cavern completed–Take a look inside". Metrolinx. February 22, 2021. Retrieved December 3, 2021.
- ^ a b Spurr, Ben (April 29, 2018). "Underground Eglinton Crosstown LRT stations take shape with unique mining technique". Toronto Star. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
- ^ "2024 Annual Service Plan" (PDF). Toronto Transit Commission. November 17, 2023. p. 106.
External links
- Official station page
- Exclusive Tour of Laird Station (being mined) on YouTube; published by the Toronto Star on April 27, 2018
- A Look at Mining for the Crosstown on YouTube; published by the Crosstown project on June 7, 2018