In what must be the most anti-climactic news on the planet, Phil Verster, Metrolinx President and CEO, has announced that the Eglinton Crosstown Line 5 will not open as planned. I will let Metrolinx speak for themselves.
Statement regarding the Eglinton Crosstown LRT
Sept. 23, 2022
Today, Metrolinx President & CEO Phil Verster issued the following statement:
We had expected the Eglinton Crosstown LRT to be fully built, thoroughly tested, and in service this fall in accordance with our project agreement with Crosslinx Transit Solutions, the construction consortium responsible for building the project.
Unfortunately, while progress has been made, Crosslinx Transit Solutions have fallen behind schedule, are unable to finalize construction and testing, and therefore the system will not be operational on this timeline.
We know construction has been difficult for commuters, communities, and businesses along the Eglinton corridor. We are doing everything to hold Crosslinx Transit Solutions accountable and to redouble efforts to meet their commitments and complete the work quickly so we can welcome riders onto a complete, tested, and fully operational Eglinton Crosstown LRT as soon as possible.
Source: Metrolinx Blog
Anyone who has followed the construction project, to the degree it is visible at street level, would have trouble believing the line would be ready in 2022. Only a week ago, the project’s Twitter account announced that they had just finished structural steel at Eglinton Station. This is nowhere near the same as putting the last touch of paint on a building.
The TTC budgeted for a first quarter 2023 startup with training in advance, but that date sounds iffy considering Verster made no mention of a handover date from the builder, let along commissioning and opening the line.
If only Metrolinx were less secretive, less inclined to give us only “good news”, there would be more trust in their breathless announcements for all projects, not just Eglinton.
The key question, however, is not “when will it open”, but “how long has Metrolinx known”.
Steve Munro 
Once construction is complete, how much time is required for testing and commissioning the line?
Steve: That depends on what is left to do. Obviously they have been running trains for months, but there will be an acceptance process by Metrolinx for structures as well as operating systems. The last time we went through this issue, the story was two or three months.
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Can we get a list of the stations that are ready for use? A list of stations that will likely be ready in how many months?
The tunnels are ready. The surface sections are ready.
Steve: I invite you to write to Metrolinx Media Relations who I am sure will be happy to answer your questions.
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Do you know what percentage is TTC ridership levels is in the past few weeks compared to pre pandemic on weekdays and weekends?
Steve: No. The most recent published figures are for July, and they do not break down by time of the week. Also, the situation varies a lot by route and area in the city, so overall averages will hide key info.
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Well you do have to give them credit: It is a nice theory.
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About a year ago, in 2021, I was predicting Line 5 would open 1st quarter of 2023…….. Now, with virtually no progress being made, I’m going to re-adjust my prediction to 2nd quarter 2024?
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Avatar 2 will actually be out before the Eglinton Line opens. Who would have thought that in 2009?
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At least they won’t make the mistake Ottawa did when they opened the LRT prematurely. That got…embarrassing.
Steve: I hope not. But one never knows what pressure there might be to do a partial opening without completing the acceptance process. That could void their ability to claim for defects later.
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Re: Metrolinx answering questions. In that regard my own experience is that they talk alot but say little. BBG: Bureaucratic Bafflegab.
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Oh please, we have wars, famines, and so many other tragedies going on as we speak but you think that the whole planet cares about this petty little line running through some obscure city called Toronto? You are very self-centred.
Steve: I said “anti-climactic”. Those tragedies certainly do not fit that term. You are taking umbrage where none is to be had. I suggest that you buy a dictionary.
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I follow your blog on daily bases and it is interesting to find some time no new articles about what metrolinx plans are or when something is progressing. No mention. However any delay or bad news is commented on the same day.
Steve: Metrolinx does a very good job publicising the work they are doing in many places, and I don’t have to duplicate that. Indeed, I do not have the resources to visit the far corners of the GTHA to see whether they dug something up recently. My focus is on policy within Toronto, the biggest part of the region from a transit demand viewpoint. Metrolinx conducts far too much of their policy discussions behind closed doors. It’s not my job to act as their media machine.
If you want that, there are other transit bloggers who are more than happy to regurgitate Metrolinx press releases. Go read/listen to them if you are pining for more Metrolinx news.
The delay of Eglinton is a major embarrassment, and is symptomatic of problems with how Metrolinx has structured contracts. The provincial Auditor General had some very unkind words about this a few years ago.
I have tried to get detailed info on some Metrolinx plans so that I could write them up for my readers, but Metrolinx refuses to release anything.
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At least it was in the 1957 plan, and of course, underway a couple of decades ago. Too bad built a bit too narrow I’ve heard for easy upgrade of technology to a subway loading, oops. I’m sure Steve and others know far more about that…
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The difference between “structural steel” and “structural steel for the main entrance” is pretty big. Installing glass panels and electrical isn’t going to take more than three months. Especially after similar installs elsewhere.
The real issues are elsewhere, and I want to believe you know that…
Steve: I presented that more as a symptom. They touted the Yonge-Eglinton entrance, a station which is on the critical path, at a time they must have known the announcement of delay was coming.
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Source: CBC
Steve: Something Metrolinx badly owes everyone is a breakdown of project status. For example, at each station when will work be at a state where the surface roadway and sidewalks be restored so that it will be “business as usual” even if the line has not opened? How long do construction access shafts have to be kept open at each site? This is really basic stuff, and they should be able to provide it to give businesses and residents a sense of how much longer their neighbourhoods will be in upheaval. Much below-grade work should be able continue with materials shipped in via work train.
I get the impression that nobody has been thinking about a “Plan B” because the political imperative was to pretend we didn’t need one.
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I made a joke a while ago about the finch LRT opening first. The fact that they are now slated to be opening around the same time makes me think I might have actually been on correct.
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That criminal Phil Verster is the one who should be held accountable. Don’t let him convince you otherwise.
Steve: “Criminal” is an excessive word, but “arrogant” and “dismissive of criticism” would certainly fit the bill.
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I find it interesting that the two major critical attacks on Steve’s post, attacks that sound like “how dare anybody criticize anything Metrolinks does” (which in itself sound like “paid trolling”) were time stamped at the same time. Two different names, but the same writing style. Hmmm….
Steve: Metrolinx is a very thin-skinned organization. It is a matter of record that they have used “social influencers” in the past, but how they could expect to have any effect posting here I don’t know. After all, if I am such an unimportant person 😉 why post on my blog?
FWIW the posts came from two quite different IP addresses, one on Bell and one on Rogers, so probably two different people, albeit with a similar intent.
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Perhaps the Minister of Transportation could do her job and terminate the senior management at Metrolinx. She’s got to be one of the most useless ministers in Canadian history – and we’ve had a few.
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The CBC piece had a quote from Mr. Tory:
And so is Mr.Tory and others saying too much about the likely worse and more extensive mess in the core from the proposed Ontario Line? This is not good enough, nor is the project, as I don’t see why it can’t do a straight line on either King or Adelaide, and not be nearly so deep in to bedrock nor at all, and neither Ontario Place nor the Ex really need the full subway service as much as going much further west through old core, ideally out through the pinch point at the base of High Park to offer an option to the Gardiner/Lakeshore.
More mis-everything by suburban rulers.
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I have heard no shortage of political blather about how the new models of “P3” (public/private partnership) would bring accountability and consequences to late deliveries. Thereby providing strong incentives to the private sector to not build things late.
As far as I have been able to determine, in actual practice for the Eglinton Crosstown, that “accountability” was nothing but a load of bovine effluent. Certainly a lot of money was transferred to the private sector, corruptly enriching the usual political cronies. But accountability and responsibility? Not so much.
So I am going to put the “P3” business model into the same category as all the dubious new technologies inflicted upon Toronto transit. P3 was hyped to the skies by politicians as solving all problems, but turned out to be a failure in actual practice. Whether it is dubious new technologies or dubious new business models, it is time for Toronto to stop being the guinea pig for the latest new thing that turns out to be a failure.
Steve: Years ago, I was at a presentation by folks from London, UK, who were just starting to work on what we now know as the Oyster card. They talked about managing private contractors, and how it was essential that a contractor know without any doubt that the government would hold them to the contract and invoke penalties.
In another case, again London, there was a consortium who had an operations/maintenance agreement, and they defaulted, eating half a billion UK pounds in penalties, because it was cheaper than honouring the contract. Bombardier was part of the consortium.
The whole idea of risk transfer is meaningless if the public sector is not willing to force contractors to do what they agreed. Obviously writing tight contracts is essential, and bidders do not like contracts they know are air-tight on that score. The TTC was not exactly popular going after some companies for non-performance on the TYSSE.
On the new streetcar order, recall that Bombardier was so late that they burned through all of the liquidated damages provisions in the contract. Sure, we could increase the scope for damages, in effect telling bidders that we don’t believe a word they say, but bid prices will go up accordingly. The same applies to warranties which are paid for in the contract price. In both cases, the parties are betting that they will be on the “winning” side of any problems.
In the case of a big P3 like Crosstown, sure, Metrolinx could force the contractor to default, but they would still have a lien on the unfinished work, and Metrolinx would not be able to just hand the half-finished line to someone else who would take a big risk assuming a project that they did not design or build. It’s a catch-22. The real question is what this would mean for the credibility of consortium members’ bids on future projects.
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It’s a Design-build, not DBOM, right? So once the line is delivered, the skimming company takes their money and runs, yes?
It seems like this is another nail in the coffin of this type of arrangement since a private, for-profit company is no better at herding the cats to get the service running than the province (d/b/a Metrolinx) or the city (d/b/a TTC).
But it will be hailed as a triumph of PPP regardless since that’s what people of that ilk do.
Steve: No it is a DBOM, although part of the “O” is subcontracted to the TTC for at least 10 years.
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I remember in ~2013 when many people (me) wanted a south side alignment through Leslie and an elevated portion through Scarborough – and said all this could be redesigned because the Yonge-Eglinton station was the critical path.
I also remember Metrolinx saying the LRT Portal was not possible on the west rim of the Don Valley (where it currently is) and they had to tunnel under the West Don all the way to Don Mills.
So Yonge-Eg taking too long and Metrolinx lying and hiding info are not that much of a surprise.
Steve: Whoever said they had to tunnel under the Don was full of crap. The line had always been intended to run at grade east of Brentcliffe. As for Eglinton East, I’m not sure an el would have exactly endeared the project to the neighbourhoods as much as using the full width of the right-of-way. It has been particularly bad during construction with long periods of, effectively, single lane operation. An el would almost certainly have reduced the number of stations and increased their physical presence when you take into account vertical access.
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Supposedly they have learned something about big projects. Or, so they have said. The project is so massive it has resulted in many problems and delays. For the future (Ontarion Line?) they intend to break it up into several smaller projects.
One benefit of that would be more outfits and people to blame for a screwup.
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Yes Canadian know how at its best. Bring in engineers from Taiwan for the next project? They just get things done. Smart people. Otherwise expect more bungling, delays and cost-over runs for the two subway expansion projects. Absolutely guaranteed.
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So I am a former Torontonian now living in Edmonton. We’re going through a similar experience with our Valley Line LRT. It’s been constantly delayed, for myriad reasons, the most recent of which is cracks in the concrete pillars holding up an elevated section.
Anyway, I too have made a similar crack to Aidan: which will open first, the Valley Line or Eglinton? For a long time I kept saying Eglinton. It looks like I’ll be wrong.
What is it with this country and long-delayed transit projects? I understand delays happen, but this is getting ridiculous.
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At least the ontario line are being made by Chinese dudes so I’m guessing it could be done faster although I could be completely wrong and we get another 13 year old construction site.
Steve: I think that if you check the announcement of the consortia members, China is not building the line.
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Steve Munro, just shut up. Now you resort to name calling.
How do you like it if someone called you a flaming idiot.
Steve: I have been called far worse.
For the benefit of readers, this refers to a tweet in which I slagged an operator who blew past three riders waiting at a stop outside Broadview Station. After a siesta at the station including a chat with other operators, the car in question whisked out of the loop and left three of us standing in the street as the car rolled by. “idiot” was a substitute term when Twitter wouldn’t let me use something earthier. This is not the first time this has happened. TTC complaint procedures produce no results.
I at least use my real name.
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I think it’s a little rich for Metrolinx to show concern for the communities and businesses along Eglinton when they never showed any concern for them before. Stealing money from the fund to support Eglinton businesses and using it to subsidize construction costs even more really shows where their heart is. They only care about themselves. I think we must have imported leaders and PR hacks from the Boris Johnston school of government, where instead of actually doing the hard work of supporting the people, they just try to gaslight people into thinking they did.
And John Tory is just blindly going along with it. Doesn’t he know they’re going to do the same thing for the Ontario Line? Queen Street, one of the most interesting streets in Canada, won’t even exist any more after Metrolinx destroys it. Toronto Downtown will be set back several decades. Eatons Centre will be gone. Financial district will be gone. Arts venues? Gone. What’s the point of downtown if no one can get there? Like, I understand that Doug Ford hates Toronto and downtown especially, but John Tory is supposed to fight for it. Instead of phasing construction in such a way that downtown can survive, Metrolinx will just block up all of downtown for a decade, utterly destroying it and hollowing it out. If John Tory is too old to perform his mayor duties and stick up for the city, he should bow out of the race.
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ToTheSlapster: A flaming idiot is an ex TTC driver who successfully avoided picking up riders until he lost his job in the resulting cutbacks.
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If Slappy Squirrel thinks they are a Metrolinx Influencer then they live up to that oxymoron.
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Yes, what is going on these days? The same thing happened to me last Friday. At 2:15 PM, I was waiting at the bus stop on Bathurst at Rockford Road when a 160 bus comes along. When the bus started to come close, I noticed that the driver had not put on his signals and was not slowing down to stop. So I start waving. To no avail. The driver blew right past me.
I was wondering if perhaps the bus was out of service but the operator had neglected to put up the “Out of Service” notice. However, the bus then pulled into the next stop down the street. Then I was wondering if perhaps this stop was not serviced by the 160 bus. But it was clearly marked on the bus stop that it was.
How can the driver not see someone that is 6′ 8″ tall who is madly waving?
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I grew up in Toronto and visit a couple of times per year. I’ve been following the Crosstown project with interest. I was in Toronto in July and drove along Eglinton for a large stretch of the Crosstown route. The road surface was a mess from the construction, and it was obvious that many stations were nowhere near completion. I was honestly quite surprised at the state of the stations because at that point the story from Metrolinx was still “substantial completion” some time in 2022.
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My comment: For the last 8.5 years, Canada could not double track a few kilometres of the Stoufville line from a little north of Steeles to a little south of Eglinton. Contrast this to India and China where they build vast state of the art subway networks and high speed rail lines in just a few years. I actually wish that China was building this line and every other line for us. It will have taken Canada at least 12 years to build a half-baked partially underground Eglinton line when China could have built literally 10 fully underground lines in about 3 years and the Chinese have actually done this in many Chinese cities. I am not Chinese but I cannot help admiring the extreme competence exhibited by China in every field and arena in contrast to the extreme incompetence here in Canada.
Steve: You are claiming the ills of Metrolinx project planning and management as being a Canadian problem, and that’s a stretch. There are many reasons for delays in Metrolinx projects, including for Eglinton the complexity of building a tunnel and stations deep underground, and a project contracting structure that even the Provincial Auditor has flagged as adding time and complexity to the process. It would be interesting to contrast the lines in China you think of as comparators in terms of their construction complexity.
One other important point is that China does not have to deal with pesky neighbourhood groups or labour unions, and when they draw lines on a map, there is no dissent. This alone explains some of the time saving. I am sure China is capable of some technical marvels, but will do without the political environment in which these occur, nor with the obvious desire to show how much the government accomplishes for the people.
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When you were madly waving, you did not appear to be throwing a basketball, did you? Because there is an NBA player named Kevin Love who is 6′ 8″ tall with a net worth of $300 million. Also remember that when you are that BIG and madly waving, there is a small chance that the driver might be afraid to pick you up.
Steve: (a) He is not that Kevin Love, and (b) in the incident that started this thread, none of the three of us were remotely threatening. Finally (c) even 6’8″ tall would be riders deserve to be carried on the TTC, millionaires or not.
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For all his faults, I wouldn’t trade John Tory for any dictator in any country.
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What a farce this all is, with Metrostinx fouling things up again. Not like our dear leader, John Tory. In just seven years from the time of his election, John Tory has, through charisma, intelligence and force of will, has made SmartTrack a reality. Stretching across the city and bringing fast, frequent, and affordable transit to all, SmartTrack is an example of how to do transit right. Too many just talk and draw lines on maps and then throw billions of dollars into dubious holes in the ground. Not John Tory! John Tory gets shit done!
You can bet John Tory has had his eye on things, his ear to the ground, and his nose to the grindstone. That’s how he made SmartTrack a reality in just seven years. If they try to mess around on the Ontario Line, he will not stand for it! More people to blame? No! More asses to kick! John Tory gets shit done! He’s not going to stand around like an ineffectual milquetoast, wringing his hands and clucking while the city is again screwed.
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Prashant has been misquoted on empty Chinese cities.
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Steve wrote,
Not that this is any proof of the two posts being from the same poster. Along with David Cavlovic pointing out the similar posting time and writing style, it strikes me that if I wanted to create two postings with a similar IP address trail just using my phone, I would simply create on post while on my home WiFi (Bell) and then switch off the WiFi to use my mobile data (Fido/Rogers) to do the other. 😉
Steve: I have various ways of identifying and filtering posts from trolls, but won’t give away my secrets.
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Edward Keenan has a delightful parody of the Waiting for Godot sequence but it’s waiting for Eglinton in Tuesday’s Star, plus a tart letter implying ‘national disgrace’ about the time lag, though in terms of federal level they only deserve a set of brickbats or pelting for almost everything else they’re shoveling huge sums out for, especially the latest Metrolinx/Ford ideas, where again, it’s being suggested only every other billion isn’t good value, so the feds are being blind in helping Mr. Ford finance the 413 as one odious project, not just bad transit.
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I’m not convinced that the problem is a “lack of Canadian know-how”. I think it’s North America wide, or at least east of the Mississippi R/Great Lakes. Look at the REM fiasco in Montreal (also a DBOM or at least DB). Ottawa can’t figure out what to do with Light Rail (Diesel? Do they not cover the climate emergency in the papers up there?). Toronto has multiple messes, of course (did they finally stop inhaling H and decide that GO trains will be electrified properly?). Boston’s Green Line Extension is a mess – billions for a mostly-surface extension of their 150-year old streetcar network while next door in Cambridge, they plan to dewire the ETB routes in favor of some future magic buses that may not need power at all. Same agency that runs Diesel trains under wire from Boston to beyond Providence, so it fits. NYC is in a boondoggle class of its own and not worth exploring (ESA, 2nd Ave subway, 7 extension, billion dollar station/malls, pending IBX, etc, etc).
With the exception of REM, none of these projects seem *unnecessary* but they have been pulled in all kinds of ways by people that seem to have no idea what the end goal is and they end up costing extra billions and take *decades* to complete.
I think the MBA/bankster types now see transit projects as a way to line their pockets in the same way that they’ve always seen highway projects.
A pox on all their houses.
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We need Queen’s Park to pass a “Building Transit Even Faster” act.
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