Pressure Escalates on Metrolinx to Fix Accessibility Problems at New Eglinton Crosstown Transit Line

Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance Update

United for a Barrier-Free Ontario for All People with Disabilities

Website: www.aodaalliance.org

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Pressure Escalates on Metrolinx to Fix Accessibility Problems at New Eglinton Crosstown Transit Line

 

June 12, 2026

 

SUMMARY

 

The pressure is ramping up on the Ford Government’s Metrolinx organization to explain and fix the accessibility problems at the new Eglinton Crosstown transit line stations.

 

One week ago, the AODA Alliance made public an 8-minute online video that has now been seen over 1,300 times. It shows that Metrolinx designed the new Chaplin station based on an absurd decision that transit passengers with vision loss only need to know how to reach the station’s elevators, and not the stairs or escalators, when navigating large, irregularly laid-out stations.

 

This is but one of the troubling accessibility barriers in the design of the Eglinton Crosstown transit stations that hurt transit riders with a range of disabilities. Metrolinx had committed that all these new stations would be accessible.

 

Here is how the pressure on Metrolinx is increasing:

 

 

 

  • On Thursday, June 11, 2026, the Toronto Star and CBC both made public great reports on this issue. The Star article was included in the online and print versions of the newspaper. The CBC included reports on the web and on radio. We set out the Star and CBC reports below.

 

  • On June 11, 2026, the Toronto City Council’s Infrastructure and Environment Committee passed a strong motion that calls for Metrolinx to fix the disability barrier depicted in the new AODA Alliance video. The motion, as approved, states:

 

“City Council request the Chief Executive Officer, Metrolinx, in consultation with the Chief Executive Officer, TTC, the Toronto Accessibility Advisory Committee and the Accessibility Advisory Committee on Transit, to improve tactile wayfinding for those with visual impairments in stations along Line 5 to ensure that riders can safely navigate to escalators, elevators and stairs, and to establish this as a standard approach for future stations and existing stations undergoing refurbishment.”

 

We applaud City Council member Rachel Chernos Lin for taking it upon herself to press for this motion, after she heard about this disability barrier. This motion will come before Toronto City Council on June 24, 2026 for approval. We hope and trust that it will pass.

 

 

 

On June 11, 2026, the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians AEBC wrote Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay. We set their letter out below. AEBC supported the AODA Alliances June 8, 2026 letter and asked for a meeting with Mr. Lindsay.

 

This pressure is starting to show preliminary signs of results. On June 11, 2026, Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay responded by email to AEBC and then to the AODA Alliance. They have agreed to all meet in a virtual meeting on June 23, 2026.

 

A Pattern of Poor Public Infrastructure Design

 

This is not an isolated incident. We have witnessed a pattern of extremely poor infrastructure design traceable to the Ontario Government. For example, in 2018, the AODA Alliance made public another video that reveals serious accessibility problems at earlier public transit station projects in the Toronto area.

 

As well, in 2024, the AODA Alliance released a video that shows serious accessibility problems at the huge new downtown Toronto courthouse. The AODA Alliance had pressed the Ontario Government for years to fix accessibility problems in that courthouse’s design. Much of that advice was disregarded. You can learn more about this by visiting the AODA Alliance website’s courts accessibility page.

 

What Should Happen Now

 

Metrolinx should answer the AODA Alliance’s questions in our June 8, 2026 letter to its CEO, such as:

  • Who decided that blind people should not have the option of finding escalators or stairs at Eglinton Crosstown stations?
  • What advice on this issue did Metrolinx get from any accessible design experts it consulted?

 

 

Metrolinx should fix the disability barrier that the AODA Alliance video has identified in its existing stations, and should ensure that this problem is not repeated in new stations it builds after this.

 

As well, the Ontario Government should now retain an independent accessible design consultant to conduct an accessibility audit of the Eglinton Crosstown stations. Transit riders with disabilities should be involved in that review. The audit results and recommendations should be made public.

 

When the accessibility problems at the new Toronto courthouse were revealed after the building’s doors opened, the Ford Government hired two different accessibility consultants to undertake accessibility audits of that project. AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky and a number of other disability advocates took active part in their work. That was an important action in that case. It is equally important in the case of the Eglinton Crosstown transit line.

 

How You Can Help

 

  • Write members of Toronto City Council, and Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow. Urge them to vote on June 24, 2026 in support of the Infrastructure and Environment Committee motion regarding inaccessibility at Eglinton Crosstown transit stations.
  • Write Premier Doug Ford at premier@ontario.ca to tell him what you think of Metrolinx using public money to design and build new public transit stations with accessibility barriers.
  • Make your own video of accessibility barriers in public transit stations around Ontario. Post them online. Let the AODA Alliance know about them. Share them on social media, and with the conventional media.

MORE DETAILS

 

CBC News June 11, 2026

 

Originally posted at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/accessibility-eglinton-crosstown-9.7230717

 

Accessibility gaps at Eglinton Crosstown stations are limiting some riders, advocates say

Council to consider motion calling on Metrolinx to improve tactile wayfinding next month

 

Tyler Cheese CBC News

 

Accessibility advocates are pointing to what they say are significant gaps in Metrolinx’s design of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT’s underground stations, arguing they create unnecessary barriers for people with disabilities.

David Lepofsky, a blind transit advocate and chair of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) Alliance, is highlighting what he calls a key flaw in the stations’ wayfinding floor markers – ridged tiles that direct visually impaired riders where to go.

He told CBC Toronto the markers in all the stations show riders the way to get to the elevators but leave them unable to find other means of entering or exiting the system.

“In the end, somebody at Metrolinx decided that blind people should use elevators, but not stairs or escalators,” Lepofsky said. “I don’t know what planet they’re living on, but not the one that we blind people live in.”

The design limits independence and creates additional barriers when elevators are unavailable, he said.

Lepofsky recently released a video demonstrating the issue at Chaplin Station and sent a letter to Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay, calling for answers about the installation of tactile walking surface indicators, or TWSIs, throughout the underground stations along Line 5.

WATCH Visual tour of accessibility barriers inside Eglinton Crosstown station:

In a statement to CBC Toronto, Metrolinx did not directly address Lepofsky’s concerns but said it is committed to building “a transit system that is safe, accessible, and inclusive for all customers.”

Lyndsay Miller, Metrolinx’s senior manager of media relations and issues management, said the provincial transit agency works with people with disabilities through public consultation and that it continues to work closely with the TTC to ensure customers have safe and accessible access at all Line 5 stations.

On Wednesday, the city’s infrastructure and environment committee voted to call on Metrolinx, in consultation with the TTC and accessibility advisory committees, to improve tactile wayfinding in Line 5 stations. The motion will be considered by city council later this month.

Ontario was supposed to be accessible by 2025. Some advocates say it’s not even close

Adam Cohoon, co-chair of the Accessibility Committee with transit advocacy group TTC Riders, told CBC Toronto the concerns raised point to broader issues in how accessibility is implemented across Toronto’s transit network.

Wayfinding features like TWSIs can have unintended effects when they become the primary path through a station, rather than one of several accessible options, he said.

“Not everybody wants to use those elevators,” Cohoon said, adding the station design’s reliance causes even more barriers when the elevators are not working, he said.

Cohoon pointed to an ongoing issue at Don Valley Station, where an out-of-service elevator has made it more difficult for wheelchair users to reach a nearby repair centre.

“There are individuals that, even though they want to use conventional transit, they’re having issues getting to the main repair centre,” he said.

Disruptions like that can force riders into longer, more complicated routes that are difficult to navigate independently, Cohoon said.

In Lepofsky’s letter to Metrolinx, he also questioned how the design decisions were made and whether accessibility consultants advised on the placement of the tactile indicators. He has asked the agency to identify who approved the approach and whether changes will be made.

Lepofsky’s video highlights the stations tactile warning surface indicators marking the stairs, but he notes there are no wayfinding markers that would lead a visually impaired rider to the stairs. (AODA Alliance/YouTube)

“Who made this decision? Why did they do it? Why did they do it when it’s so obviously wrong?” he said.

Line 5, which opened after years of delays and cost overruns, has been billed as a fully accessible rapid transit line.

But the station layouts also vary significantly, Lepofsky noted, requiring riders with vision loss to learn a new navigation route in every new station they encounter, rather than following a consistent system.

He wants Metrolinx to review the station designs and make changes to ensure more consistent, independent routes throughout the network.

Meanwhile, Cohoon said the transit agency needs to course correct and ensure fully accessible designs are carried into future projects, including the city’s currently under-construction subway line.

“We don’t want to have a repeat of some of these issues when the Ontario Line opens,” he said.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tyler Cheese is a reporter with CBC Toronto, telling stories focused on local and provincial issues, public accountability, and life in the GTA.

 

Toronto Star June 11, 2026

 

Originally posted at https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/vision-disability-advocate-slams-eglinton-crosstown-station-wayfinding-in-video-shocking-bungle/article_dc5f3c29-71b0-48cb-94e0-4dbd80d23a5f.html

 

 

Blind advocate flags wayfinding flaws at new LRT station

Metrolinx defends its design process

 

Femi Dawodu Toronto Star

 

A new video released by a Toronto-based disability advocate is raising serious concerns about the transit planning and accessibility for visually impaired commuters on the long-delayed Eglinton Crosstown light rail transit line.

The video, released by Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance chair David Lepofsky on Friday, details what he calls a “shocking bungle” by Metrolinx in the design of way-finding systems at the new Chaplin station in the city’s Forest Hill neighbourhood.

The eight-minute video follows Lepofsky as he tries to navigate the station on his own, from the perspective of a visually impaired transit user.

Lepofsky, who is blind, demonstrates in the video how current tactile way-finding floor markings intended to help visually impaired commuters navigate the station fall short, an issue, he says, is widespread across what’s also known as TTC Line 5.

“Unfortunately, while it’s shocking, it’s not unusual,” Lepofsky told the Star. “The same problem I identify in Chaplin station is replicated in at least of some, or possibly all the other stations. I certainly know it’s a problem at the very important Eglinton and Yonge station, which is terribly confusing to figure out,” he said.

Lepofsky says Metrolinx installed cane-detectable floor way-finding tactiles only to the elevators, not at the stairs or escalators, a decision he calls “radically disconnected from the real world of blind people.”

As someone who has been fully blind since 1978 and has used the TTC for decades, Lepofsky says, “For a blind person, the TTC is like our car. It’s our way to get around. And I’ve travelled all over the world, and I’ve never encountered such an absurdity.”

Lepofsky recounted a trip to Cedarvale station where the elevator was out of service for two days in a row, leaving the station inaccessible for anyone unable to use the stairs or escalators. “This is emblematic of what a disastrous design this is and what people with disabilities have to put up with,” he said.

He argues the design was not an accidental oversight, but a deliberate choice. “They decided only to put (the way-finding markers) through one route, to the elevators, not stairs or escalators,” Lepofsky said. “That’s absurd. They could have put in both while they were building it. There’s no other way to describe it but incompetence.”

Adding to the confusion, according to Lepofsky, is the presence of tactile warning bumps at the top of the staircases but there are none that lead you to those staircases.

When contacted for comment, the TTC, which operates Line 5, deferred all questions regarding the station’s layout and accessibility concerns to Metrolinx. In a statement, Metrolinx defended its design process, saying it uses “public consultations with people with disability” to ensure infrastructure and service meets “the needs of the broadest range of users possible.”

The provincial transit agency added that it is working alongside the TTC to ensure commuters have “safe, convenient, and accessible access” across all Line 5 stations.

 

June 11, 2026 Letter from the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians and Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay

 

 

June 11, 2026

 

Michael Lindsay, President & CEO

Metrolinx Corporation

97 Front Street West

Toronto, Ontario M5J 1E6 Canada

Via email:  Michael.Lindsay@metrolinx.com

 

 

RE: Accessibility Problems Facing Passengers with Disabilities on the New Eglinton Crosstown Transit Line

 

Dear Mr. Lindsay:

 

I am writing on behalf of the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians / l’Égalité des Personnes Aveugles du Canada (AEBC) to support the letter from the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance which you received on June 8, 2026.

 

AEBC is a national charitable organization that works to empower blind, Deafblind, and partially sighted Canadians to drive change, influence systems, and live with dignity—by combining lived experience with focused advocacy and peer leadership. To learn more about us, please visit our website.

 

As eloquently stated in the June 8 AODA Alliance letter, blind, Deafblind, and partially sighted people deeply appreciate the installation of TWSIs in the new transit stations. However, limiting their installation to routes to and from elevators fails to increase ease of wayfinding, since it only provides one safe route out of a myriad of possibilities. We should not have to follow someone else’s idea of a preferred route, especially when it is not the most convenient.

 

I look forward to hearing what Metrolinx will do to mitigate this error in judgment.

 

Yours truly,

 

 

Marcia Yale

National President, Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians

 

N.B.: We would ask that any response be provided in text format, i.e.: Word (.docx, rtf, txt). Please avoid sending a pdf as they are not always accessible.