{"id":608227,"date":"2026-04-16T15:23:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T15:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/608227\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T15:23:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T15:23:12","slug":"ontario-line-tunnelling-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/608227\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario Line tunnelling begins"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ford government says tunnelling has officially begun for the downtown segment of the Ontario Line, a 15.6-kilometre subway project meant to take pressure off the city\u2019s transit system. <\/p>\n

Premier Doug Ford made the announcement Thursday, noting it will be the first subway tunnels dug under the downtown core in over 60 years. <\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, two tunnel boring machines are about to begin digging twin tunnels which will run six kilometres from the launch shaft near Exhibition Station to just west of the lower Don River,\u201d Ford said, calling it \u201chistoric.\u201d<\/p>\n

He made the announcement near the planned final stop for the project at Exhibition Place, along with Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria, Toronto MP Evan Solomon, Mayor Olivia Chow, and other dignitaries. <\/p>\n

Solomon called the milestone \u201ca major step forward\u201d for the project. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of those moments when a project moves from promise to proof,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Announced by the Ford government back in 2019, the Ontario Line was last given a revised target date of 2031 for completion, though Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay recently said the agency is aiming for the early 2030s.<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"\"Ontario Line A map of the Ontario Line released by the province in April 2026 is pictured. (Handout) <\/p>\n

When complete, the 15-stop line will stretch from Eglinton and Don Mills to Exhibition Place in the west, connecting with TTC Lines 1, 2 and 5, as well as Lakeshore West, Lakeshore East, and Stouffville GO train services.<\/p>\n

The line is expected to carry close to 400,000 riders per day, taking pressure off overcrowded parts of the TTC, particularly Line 1. <\/p>\n

Excavation work for the stations has been underway for several years. Lindsay recently said station construction is now underway on all stations south of Bloor Street. <\/p>\n

With files from Jermaine Wilson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ford government says tunnelling has officially begun for the downtown segment of the Ontario Line, a 15.6-kilometre…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[712,49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-608227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608227","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=608227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}