{"id":435510,"date":"2026-01-27T02:23:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T02:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/435510\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T02:23:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T02:23:11","slug":"ttc-targeting-goal-of-opening-eglinton-crosstown-lrt-on-feb-8-ford-says-toronto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/435510\/","title":{"rendered":"TTC targeting \u2018goal\u2019 of opening Eglinton Crosstown LRT on Feb. 8, Ford says – Toronto"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\tDescrease article font size<\/p>\n

\t\t\tIncrease article font size<\/p>\n

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says Toronto\u2019s transit agency is aiming to open the years-delayed Eglinton Crosstown LRT<\/a> on Feb. 8, putting the potential opening just two weeks away.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Speaking as he left an unrelated scrum at Queen\u2019s Park on Monday, Ford said the second Sunday in February was the TTC\u2019s<\/a> \u201cgoal\u201d for opening the light rail route.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, that\u2019s the goal, Feb. 8,\u201d Ford said. \u201cI\u2019m not confirming \u2014 that\u2019s TTC.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Metrolinx accepted the Eglinton Crosstown LRT as complete and transferred it to the TTC, the Toronto agency \u2014 not the province \u2014 is leading work on the official opening date and launch.<\/p>\n

Moments earlier, Ford again expressed his relief that the line would be opening soon.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Get<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGet daily National news<\/p>\n

Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank God it\u2019s opening,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

After the news conference, a source with knowledge of the project confirmed Feb. 8 was the date the Eglinton Crosstown LRT is set to open.<\/p>\n

As Global News previously reported<\/a>, Feb. 8 was the date the TTC wanted to open the line when the heads of Metrolinx and the Toronto transit agency clashed in a tense private meeting in December.<\/p>\n

At that meeting, Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay argued the Eglinton Crosstown LRT was ready to open by Dec. 28, while TTC CEO Mandeep Lali pushed for Feb. 8 to iron out final problems.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tU.S. federal, Minnesota officials offer starkly different messages on Alex Pretti\u2019s death\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tSome Canadians will get GST credit top up to tackle grocery costs: Carney\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMore on Politics
\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n

Lali, who has worked on New York and London\u2019s transit systems, pushed back against the plan. The TTC raised concerns about repeating the mistakes of the Ottawa LRT during the December meeting.<\/p>\n

In particular, the TTC raised worries about outstanding technical issues with the line, arguing the city needed more time to ensure it had a bedding-in period to sort out the final problems.<\/p>\n

An inquiry into the launch of that system, which was plagued by technical errors and breakdowns, found the city and the Rideau Transit Group consortium lost sight of the public interest amid political pressure to rush the $2.1-billion project across the finish line.<\/p>\n

Both Metrolinx and the TTC have been dealing with the fallout of the winter opening of the Finch West LRT, which has repeatedly shut down in freezing temperatures<\/a> and faced complaints about slow travel times<\/a> when it is open.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Descrease article font size Increase article font size Ontario Premier Doug Ford says Toronto\u2019s transit agency is aiming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48,126812,13404,714,123294,10479],"class_list":["post-435510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-eglinton-crosstown-lrt","tag-ontario-politics","tag-politics","tag-toronto-politics","tag-ttc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}