Eglinton Crosstown LRT won’t be ready until ‘well into 2022,’ Metrolinx says

Transit users in Toronto will have to wait until “well into 2022” before they can ride the Eglinton Crosstown, Metrolinx says.

The 19-km light rail line was previously scheduled to open to the public in September 2021.

In a statement released Tuesday, Metrolinx president and CEO Phil Verster attributed much of the delay to the group of private companies building the $5.3-billion project in partnership with the province, Crosslinx Transit Solutions (CTS).

Verster says that CTS has “faced a number of challenges,” including starting construction nine months later than initially planned. Further, he says, the consortium was “slow to finalize” design elements.

While the pace of construction has sped up since 2018, CTS “has only achieved 84 per cent of its target, meaning the project will be delayed,” Verster continues.

The statement also points to defective concrete discovered beneath Eglinton-Yonge Station that is expected to delay the opening of the LRT part of the station even further.

“It is expected that the LRT will open well into 2022,” Verster says.

He declines to be any more specific, saying that “CTS must prove to us that they can achieve the new production rates they say they can achieve.”

The first phase of the Eglinton Crosstown will have 25 stations, and run from the future Mount Dennis Station in the west to Kennedy Station in the east, where it will connect with TTC lines 2 and 3. More than 10 km of the line — from Keele Street to Laird Avenue — will run underground.

Construction began in 2011 and its completion dates has been delayed once before, from 2020 to 2021, by the previous Liberal government.

The project is owned by Metrolinx but will be operated by the TTC.

CBC