'We're not there yet': Metrolinx CEO won't provide opening date for troubled Eglinton Crosstown LRT
CBC
Metrolinx is refusing to provide an update on an opening date for the long-delayed Eglinton Crosstown LRT line, citing technical issues in the testing and commissioning phase that are continuously pushing the finish date further down the road.
"Any prediction of an the opening date in the project will just be an estimate, and I'm not comfortable giving that," said Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster.
"When I give you a date it must be something I believe in and we're not there yet."
Philip Taberner, the project's vice president, says construction is "pretty much" complete except for a small section near Eglinton-Yonge.
He said testing and commissioning is considered a "high-risk" part of the project, and that they're anticipating "faults and issues" that will take an "unpredictable" amount of time to rectify.
"We want the tests to be rigorous, and we want to identify these issues," he said. "This then gives us the assurance that we've got a robust, safe and reliable railway."
Verster says Metrolinx intends to give an update every two months, with the next one slated for November.
The 25-stop, 19-kilometre line was last slated to be up and running in the fall of 2022, but construction has stretched on long past that.
Work began on the Crosstown in 2011 and Metrolinx previously announced completion dates of 2020 and 2021.
The repeatedly delayed and over-budget project has been stymied amid reports of some 260 quality control issues including improperly laid track, as well as legal threats from the consortium of companies building it.
The transit line, also known as Line 5, is expected to run along Eglinton Avenue from Mount Dennis in the west to Kennedy in the east.
MPP Stan Cho — speaking as associate minister of transportation before a recent move to minister of long-term care — said last month that construction on the project was 98 per cent complete.
Internal Metrolinx documents obtained by CBC Toronto last year show that the budget for the project has ballooned to nearly $13 billion, a figure that includes 30-year maintenance costs. That's more than double the initial estimates.
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