A 30-day test meant to simulate full operation of the long-delayed Eglinton Crosstown LRT is set to begin, without actual passengers.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
The head of Metrolinx, Ontario’s regional public-transit agency, has said Toronto’s long-delayed Eglinton Crosstown light-rail transit line could begin a final, 30-day dress-rehearsal test this week – but he still would not commit to a concrete opening date.
In an interview with The Globe and Mail on Monday, Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay said his agency and the Toronto Transit Commission, which will operate the 19-kilometre line, are finalizing plans to start what they call a “revenue-service demonstration” as early as this week – five years after the troubled line, hampered by technical glitches and litigation, was supposed to open.
The 30-day test, meant to simulate full operation but without actual passengers, is the final hurdle before the $13.08-billion project, which broke ground in 2011, can finally start carrying paying customers.
Training vehicles run the route along Eglinton Avenue at the site of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT in November, 2024.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
That would appear to mean the Crosstown could be ready by Halloween. But Mr. Lindsay would only say the line must first pass its revenue-service demonstration and that more planning and discussions need to take place on gradually phasing in full service.
Less exhaustive test runs have been conducted on the line for months. On Monday, Mr. Lindsay said officials were finalizing a schedule for the demonstration and making crewing arrangements with the TTC.
“We aspire to start revenue-service demonstration on Eglinton this week,” he said. “That’s the 30-day final test of system performance before we start to think about ramping up passenger service.”
But he also said much more needs to be done before any ribbons are cut.
“We’ve got to define what the ramp-up of the service plan looks like, right, with TTC and government,” he said. “That has to happen. But we can now start to think about precisely that. I would stress as I always do that [the] revenue-service demonstration is a test. It has to be passed, right?”
Toronto’s light trail transit line still under construction in May, 2023.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
The exhaustive testing is a direct result of the inquiry into Ottawa’s LRT, Mr. Lindsay said. That report said the city’s Confederation Line, which opened in 2019 and was built by a consortium similar to the Crosstown’s, had been rushed into operation after construction delays, resulting in malfunctions, derailments and shutdowns.
The Eglinton Crosstown’s sister line, on Toronto’s Finch Avenue West, began construction in 2019 and was supposed to be finished in 2023. It is now on the 11th day of its own 30-day test, Mr. Lindsay said Monday, adding that discussions were under way on how to ramp up service on that line as well.
On Sept. 5, Mr. Lindsay told reporters that testing on the Eglinton line’s vehicles – some of which are almost a decade old but have never carried a paying passenger – had revealed reliability issues, including problems with ventilation and communication systems and brake-pad wear. He said then that a revenue-service test could start within weeks – dashing hopes for a September opening date that had been floated in the summer.
Editorial: What’s missing above Toronto’s Eglinton line
On Monday, he said the line has since seen “a major improvement in vehicle availability and reliability.”
Toronto City Council and the Ontario NDP have called for a public inquiry into the Crosstown, which has cost billions more than first pledged.
In April, 2023, then-Ontario Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney announced that the consortium had “no credible schedule” for the completion of the project. Then-Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster said the system had 260 “quality issues,” including mislaid tracks that could have caused a derailment. Mr. Verster left his post late last year and was replaced by Mr. Lindsay.