Advertisement

News

Here’s exactly how much the city will pay to not build the Scarborough LRT

Almost $75 million. Thats how much Toronto has agreed to spend to cancel the Scarborough LRT.

According to a report going before the budget committee on Friday, the city and Metrolinx have reached a deal that will see Toronto pay $74.8 million in sunk costs on the light rail project. The figure doesn’t include the potential bill for scrapping the purchase order for light rail vehicles to run along the line.

When council voted in October 2013 to abandon the LRT and replace the Scarborough RT with a subway extension instead, the cost was originally estimated at $85 million. But the city hired an outside auditor who determined the actual figure was lower. The money will be deducted from the $2 billion the province has pledged for Scarborough transit.

The report will be debated at the budget committee tomorrow, but with the council having already voted to build the subway and authorized the city manager to negotiate the deal, council has few options but to pony up.

The $74.8 million breaks down as follows:

The report also warns that more costs could be coming. It should be noted that the sunk costs dealt with in this report do not include any potential costs associated with the cancellation of the LRT vehicle supply contract, it says. These costs, if any, are the subject of separate negotiations which have not been concluded.

According to a Metrolinx spokesperson however, there is a real possibility Toronto will avoid paying for the cancelled vehicles, if they can be transferred to another Ontario city with an LRT project in the works.

bens@nowtoronto.com | @BenSpurr

Advertisement

Exclusive content and events straight to your inbox

Subscribe to our Newsletter

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

By signing up, I agree to receive emails from Now Toronto and to the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.