Latest news with #EglintonCrosstown
CBC
3 days ago
- Business
- CBC
Ford says Eglinton Crosstown LRT still on track to open in September 2025
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the Eglinton Crosstown light rail transit line is still on track to open this September. "Yes, that is what I am hearing," Ford told reporters on Tuesday at Queen's Park. He did not provide an exact date. The premier said he is hopeful that the Ontario government will hand over control of the Eglinton Crosstown to the Toronto Transit Commission in the next two weeks. "I am hearing some positive things about Eglinton track, and hopefully we will be handing it over in the next couple weeks to the TTC and they will be doing their trial runs. And thank God, that is all I got to say about that and that project." TTC spokesperson Stuart Green said the transit agency has no comment. "We have no updates at this time," he said in an email on Tuesday. CBC Toronto has reached out to Metrolinx but has not yet heard back. Former Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster previously said the transit agency would announce an opening date for the crosstown three months ahead of time. 'We'll believe it when we see it': NDP Ontario MPP Doly Begum, who represents Scarborough Southwest, said she was skeptical of the September opening date and noted the premier did not provide an exact date. "We'll believe it when we see it," Begum, who is the NDP's transit critic, said in a news release on Tuesday. "The people of Ontario are tired of getting their hopes up only for another delay, another excuse. The very least the Government can do is give them real answers about when they can finally ride the LRT," Begum said. The transit line, which has been beset by delays, is slated to have 25 stops along Eglinton Avenue, running 19 kilometres from Kennedy in the east to Mount Dennis in the west. According to Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency, the line was initially set to open in 2020, but a series of technical problems and associated cost overruns have plagued the project and repeatedly delayed its completion. Two Toronto city councillors, Josh Matlow and Mike Colle, whose wards have been impacted by the ongoing construction, have called for a public inquiry into the much-delayed line. Construction began in 2011, when the province estimated it would cost about $9.1 billion to build and maintain the crosstown. Documents obtained by CBC Toronto in 2022 showed the project costs had jumped to at least $12.8 billion.
CTV News
3 days ago
- Business
- CTV News
Eglinton LRT on track to open as soon as September, Doug Ford says
"Out of Service" signs are shown on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT in Toronto on Friday, May 5, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn Premier Doug Ford says that he expects that the long-delayed Eglinton Crosstown LRT could be open as soon as September, with plans to hand the line over to the TTC for final testing 'in the next couple of weeks.' Ford made the comment to reporters at Queen's Park on Tuesday after he was asked about the rumored September timeline. City Coun. Josh Matlow told CP24 back in April that he believed the LRT would open by September, though Metrolinx has never confirmed the timeline. 'Yes, that is what I am hearing,' Ford said of the September target date on Tuesday. 'I am hearing some positive things about Eglinton track and hopefully we will be handing it over in the next couple weeks to the TTC and they will be doing their trial runs. Thank God, that is all I can say about that and that project.' Construction on the Eglinton Crosstown began in 2011 and was initially slated to be completed in 2020 but it has been plagued by numerous delays and is now at least $1 billion overbudget. Metrolinx has previously said that the public would be given a three-month notice before the line opens and that the company was pushing towards a 2025 opening date. The LRT spans a 19-kilometre route from Mount Dennis in the west to Kennedy Road in the east. Driver training has been ongoing on the route since last September. 'I will have to get back to you on the exact date but I understand it will be handed over to the TTC in the next couple weeks,' Ford said Tuesday.
CTV News
3 days ago
- Business
- CTV News
Eglinton LRT on track to open by September, Doug Ford says
"Out of Service" signs are shown on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT in Toronto on Friday, May 5, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn Premier Doug Ford says that he expects that the long-delayed Eglinton Crosstown LRT could be open as soon as September, with plans to hand the line over to the TTC for final testing 'in the next couple of weeks.' Ford made the comment to reporters at Queen's Park on Tuesday after he was asked about the rumored September timeline. City Coun. Josh Matlow told CP24 back in April that he believed the LRT would open by September, though Metrolinx has never confirmed the timeline. 'Yes, that is what I am hearing,' Ford said of the September target date on Tuesday. 'I am hearing some positive things about Eglinton track and hopefully we will be handing it over in the next couple weeks to the TTC and they will be doing their trial runs. Thank God, that is all I can say about that and that project.' Construction on the Eglinton Crosstown began in 2011 and was initially slated to be completed in 2020 but it has been plagued by numerous delays and is now at least $1 billion overbudget. Metrolinx has previously said that the public would be given a three-month notice before the line opens and that the company was pushing towards a 2025 opening date. The LRT spans a 19-kilometre route from Mount Dennis in the west to Kennedy Road in the east. Driver training has been ongoing on the route since last September. 'I will have to get back to you on the exact date but I understand it will be handed over to the TTC in the next couple weeks,' Ford said Tuesday.
Globe and Mail
3 days ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Build, baby, build: Canada used to know how to do that
The Last Spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway was driven on Nov. 7, 1885, at Craigellachie, British Columbia. It was the fulfillment of the National Dream – we used to do things in all caps – of a ribbon of steel binding the country together, and securing our independence from the United States. It was the world's longest rail line at that time, and an exceptional engineering feat, driven across the forbidding Canadian Shield and through a wall of mountains in B.C. And building it took just three and a half years. The first spike was driven in Bonfield, Ont., 3,500 kilometres east of Craigellachie, in the spring of 1882. Three and a half years to make a National Dream. Are we still able to dream big? And make big things happen? With the nation's first ministers meeting on Monday to talk about Prime Minister Mark Carney's goal of 'build, baby, build,' it's worth remembering that, until not so long ago, Canada knew how to do that. We could build big, we could built quickly and we could build at reasonable cost. Sometimes all three. Here are a few examples. Construction on Canada's first subway began on Sept. 8, 1949. Toronto's 7.4-km, 12-station line was opened to passengers on March 30, 1954. That's four and a half years from start to finish. Even if we date the start to when the citizens of Toronto agreed to the project in a plebiscite, in January, 1946, it was just eight years from idea to execution. Fast forward to the present, and the Eglinton Crosstown. It's been under construction since 2011. It's light rail – not the heavy rail of a subway – and much of the route is on the surface, as a scaled-up streetcar. It's still not open. Or consider the creation of the Montreal Metro. In November, 1961, the city decided to build a subway system, all underground. Construction started in the spring of 1962 and three lines, with 26 stations, were fully open by the spring of 1967. That's five years from decision to completion, or four and a half years from first shovel to first passenger. And then there was Expo 67. The 1967 world's fair was originally awarded to Moscow, but late in the game it pulled out. Montreal submitted a last-minute bid and was awarded the fair on Nov. 13, 1962. Construction started on Aug. 13, 1963. Here's what that entailed: Enlarging an island in the middle of the Saint Lawrence River. Creating another from landfill. Building a three-station, 4-kilometre Metro line, running under the river. Building the Expo Express, a five-station, 7.5-km rail line – a surface subway, with rolling stock similar to the Toronto subway – which was also North America's first computer-controlled, driverless transit line. Building the Pont de la Concorde bridge. Building a 25,000-seat stadium, the Autostade. Building mass transit within the Expo site, known as the Minirail, an elevated, driverless monorail. Building 90 exposition pavilions, some of which were large and architecturally advanced, including the 20-storey tall U.S. geodesic dome, which the Minirail passed through, and Canada's giant inverted pyramid, Katimavik. And building Habitat 67, a futuristic experimental housing development. Expo 67 opened on April 27, 1967. That's four and half years from conception to completion, or just 44 months from the start of construction the big reveal. The fair expected 12 million visitors. It got 55 million. Earlier this year, researchers at the University of Toronto's School of Cities published a report on the massive cost escalation in one of the things we must build more of – public transit. Current projects in the Toronto area, which are overseen by the provincial agency Metrolinx, have a price tag seven to ten times higher per kilometre than the original Yonge subway, even after adjusting for inflation. The researchers found that, from the 1950s to the 1990s, the cost of new high-capacity transit lines in Toronto was stable at around $100-million per kilometre, after adjusting for inflation. Thereafter, costs exploded. The extension of the subway into Vaughan a decade ago cost nearly $400-million per kilometre. Planned subway extensions to Scarborough and York region are budgeted at almost $800-million a kilometre. The under-construction Ontario Line is expected to clock in at over $1-billion per kilometre. Even the Finch West LRT – it's light rail running at street level, which is supposed to be cheap and easy – is expected to cost twice as much per kilometre as a tunnelled subway did a generation ago. Many advanced countries – South Korea, Finland, France, Spain and others – build the same or better transit at lower cost, and often much lower cost. Canada tends to tie itself in knots in various ways, so that we end up spending more but getting less. It happens in transit, and beyond. Build, baby, build? It's not impossible. Others do it. We used to. The first scheduled passenger train on what was then the world's longest transcontinental railway journey left Montreal's Dalhousie Station on June 28, 1886. It arrived at Port Moody, outside Vancouver, 136 hours and one minute later. It was one minute behind schedule.
