There is a growing rift between Metrolinx and the Toronto transit agency over Eglinton Crosstown LRTas provincial officials push for the years-delayed line to open in the final days of 2025.
Multiple sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to Global News that Metrolinx and the Department of Transportation planned to open the line in the last week of December.
The Toronto Transit Commission resisted this, setting a date in early February, saying there were still issues that needed to be resolved.
The two competing opening dates came to a head at a Dec. 5 meeting involving Metrolinx, the TTC, Premier Doug Ford, Mayor Olivia Chow and Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria.
The meeting, according to multiple sources, was tense as both sides discussed their strategies regarding the opening date. The event took place shortly before city and provincial officials unveiled a plaque at the opening of the Finch West LRT train, which began carrying passengers on Sunday.
Sources said Metrolinx, which announced the completion of Crosstown the same day, was pushing for the line to open on Sunday, December 28. The provincial agency and its CEO Michael Lindsay were adamant that remaining problems with the line could be fixed by then.
TTC CEO Mandeep Lali, who worked on transit systems in New York and London, opposed the plan. Sources said he would like the line to open around Feb. 8, citing concerns about how quickly remaining technical problems could be resolved.
The meeting appeared to end with Ford agreeing with Toronto's position that the line could not open this year.
“There are a few things that we need to adjust,” the prime minister soon told reporters. “I'd rather wait and do it properly. God knows, we've only waited 15 years for this. We might as well wait until they're ready.”
The province itself has repeatedly delayed the line's opening and refused to set a date after raising concerns about the safety implications if it crosses the finish line.
Concerns about a repeat of the Ottawa LRT
At the heart of the concerns raised by the TTC at the meeting were fears about repeating the mistakes of the Ottawa LRT, sources said.
An investigation into the system's launch, which was plagued by technical errors and glitches, found that the city and the Rideau Transit Group consortium had lost sight of the public interest amid political pressure to speed up completion of the $2.1 billion project.
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It's a fate the provincial government has desperately tried to avoid on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT line, repeatedly citing the need to avoid a similar situation as the reason for delays in recent years.
However, during a meeting between Chow, Ford, the TTC and Metrolinx, it was the local transit agency that pointed to the investigation as the reason for the delay, and the provincial side that resisted. Sources said Lali expressed concern about unresolved technical problems with the line, saying the city needed more time to give it a run-in period and resolve recent issues.
Toronto wanted to open Eglinton Crosstown using a similar approach to the Finch West LRT, which was substantially completed in November but did not open until December 7th.
Lindsay, sources said, rejected the request, citing how Metrolinx was able to quickly resolve technical issues and why the Eglinton Crosstown LRT would not suffer the same fate as Ottawa.
Sources also said the provincial government specifically consulted with the Ottawa LRT investigation and its technical experts, asking them to review the line and approve its maiden service. The meeting, held back in August, brought together employees from Metrolinx, the TTC and Ottawa to discuss how to apply lessons from the capital system.
Thousands of kilometers of training
On Dec. 5, the same day as the tense meeting, the provincial government announced it had achieved significant completion of the Eglinton-Crosstown LRT line, which it said would be ready to open “in the coming weeks.”
Sources said the Crosstown project was signed off by the same technical experts behind the Finch West LRT.
The government said it was driven more than 11,000 kilometers a week during testing, including during a snowstorm, and kept operational for 16 hours a day.
The provincial government is also disappointed by the comparison between the Finch West LRT and the Eglinton Crosstown LRT. Sources said training on the Eglinton line lasted longer and there were more hours of driver experience.
Lindsay has publicly stated that the Eglinton Crosstown LRT has undergone the most stringent testing and evaluation of any transit system in North America. The control of trains running along the line is located at: TTC facility in Hillcrest since June.
During the meeting, Metrolinx supported this commitment, suggesting that the line could be safely operated for several weeks, targeting a Dec. 28 date.
However, the TTC and its more cautious approach appear to have won the prime minister's approval, at least initially.
The agency has proposed Feb. 8 as the date for the line to be ready for operation, avoiding opening it in the first month of next year.
If the line opens in early February, that would mean roughly two months between significant completion of construction and Crosstown carrying its first passengers.
Shortly after the meeting, when Ford spoke to reporters, he appeared to rule out a date that Metrolinx had privately advocated.
“I would confidently say it would be 2026, but very soon after 2026,” Ford said.
The delayed line will open next year
Construction on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT began in 2011 but has been plagued by delays.
It began final testing in October, completed it in early December, and was accepted by Metrolinx as ready on December 5th.
Toronto Mayor spokeswoman Olivia Chow said the mayor and prime minister agreed to the same schedule, which they said was necessary to ensure the system's reliability.
“The mayor and prime minister are working together and have agreed on a timeline – both have said it will open early next year,” they said in a statement.
“Any suggestions that the TTC is slowing its reopening are rooted in a lack of understanding of the remaining technical and operational issues that will be addressed in the coming weeks by Metrolinx and the TTC.”
