It’s an age-old question: When will the Eglinton Crosstown LRT be completed? Well, people in Toronto may have an answer sometime soon!
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster said an announcement on the completion of the Eglinton line will be coming by the end of the summer adding that the company has made “excellent progress in many aspects” of the LRT system.
Verster shared that one of his concerns was the condition of the track and the fact that some of the trains weren’t running smoothly.
“We had a derailment because of the track condition. That has been remedied to our satisfaction. There are some long term fixes that must come in. A whole host of things have been done on scope systems and the like,” Verster explained, adding that there has been a lot of work put into figuring out a credible schedule.
“As we get closer to the end of summer, we’ll be announcing what we think is the range of dates when we will have in service,” Verster said, adding that it’s not possible to provide an exact date while the project is in the testing and commissioning process.
“This is when technical, complex issues are found, fixed, rectified,” Verster said.
“It’s not really clear before you have found the problem how long it’s going to take to rectify it.”
“It’s going to be a game changer for Toronto and we’re very excited about that.”
MPP Stan Cho, Ontario’s associate minister of transportation, also told reporters at the conference that construction on the line is 98 per cent complete.
Earlier this year, officials said that the line would not be operational until at least 2024.
The infamous Eglinton LRT project is both over budget and way behind schedule. Work on the LRT began in 2011 and was initially meant to wrap up in 2020. That deadline was pushed to 2021, and then 2022. Those delays have become an inside joke for people living in the city.
The Eglinton LRT, A.K.A. Line 5, includes 25 stops and spans 19 kilometres across Eglinton Avenue, from Kennedy in the east end to Mount Dennis in the west end.
According to reports, the budget for the project has increased to nearly $13 billion. However, back in 2015, the estimated value of the contract for the project between Crosslinx, Metrolinx and Infrastructure Ontario was around $9.1 billion (adjusted for inflation). According to Infrastructure Ontario, the budget includes payments during construction, a substantial completion payment and the monthly service payments during the concession period.
