Tunnelling is complete on a transit line expansion from Toronto to Mississauga.
The Ontario government announced the completion of tunnelling for the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension, which will extend Line 5 Eglinton by 9.2 kilometres and create a continuous rapid transit line from Scarborough to Mississauga.
“The Eglinton Crosstown West Extension will make it faster and easier for thousands of commuters to get where they’re going each day, improve connectivity across the GTA and support thousands of good-paying jobs during construction,” Prabmeet Sarkaria, minister of transportation, said today.
The extension of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT will run 9.2 kilometres from Mount Dennis Station to Renforth Drive and will operate mainly underground, according to Metrolinx, the government agency that is building the extension.
Crews have completed excavating twin 500-metre tunnels from Mount Dennis Station to Jane Street for the eastern underground segment of the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension, the province said.
Tunnelling for the western underground segment, running 6.3 kilometres from Scarlett Road to Renforth Drive, was completed in June 2024.
At Jane Street, trains on the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension will run above ground on an elevated guideway to Scarlett Road before transitioning to the western underground portion of the line, which finished tunnelling in 2024.
Once complete, the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension will extend Line 5 Eglinton farther west, creating nearly 30 kilometres of rapid transit along Eglinton Avenue, linking Scarborough, Midtown Toronto and Mississauga into a single continuous transit line.
The extension will connect with local and regional transit options including UP Express and GO Transit rail services, TTC bus services, and MiWay and GO Transit bus services along the 18-km Mississauga Transitway, Metrolinx says.
Plans are also being explored with the Greater Toronto Airports Authority to extend the line to Pearson International Airport.
The province estimates that the extension will save passengers up to 24 minutes travelling from Toronto’s Yonge and Eglinton to Mississauga’s Square One.
The extension project began in 2021, and the earliest possible opening was estimated to be 2031.
Lead photo: Metrolinx
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