It looks like the Eglinton Crosstown LRT may not make its long-awaited debut before summer’s end after all.
At the TTC board meeting on Thursday, Coun. Josh Matlow asked outgoing TTC CEO Greg Percy whether a September opening date for the beleaguered light-rail line is still feasible.
“It’s still Metrolinx’s decision ... we’re still looking at this fall,” Percy responded. “I think September’s a reach, but this fall is plausible and certainly by year’s end.”
Though Percy left the door open to a fall opening date, that means the LRT could technically start operations any time between Sept. 22 and Dec. 20.
Percy, who is leaving the TTC after having served as interim CEO for nearly a year, will be replaced by Mandeep Lali.Â
“Our CEO Mandeep Lali and Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay spoke last week and are committed to working together to open Line 5 as soon as it is ready for safe and reliable operations,” TTC spokesperson Stuart Green said.
“We have several phases of testing and commissioning to complete in advance of that, as has been previously outlined,” Green added.
Metrolinx is still targeting September for “substantial completion,” spokesperson Andrea Ernesaks said. “We are currently relentlessly stress testing the system to ensure it is safe and reliable on the day it opens.”
The Star initially reported that a September opening was being eyed for the long-delayed Crosstown LRT. But recent signs have pointed to a delay of that timeline.
Confidential documents seen by the Star in June showed that LRT may make its long-awaited public debut with a “soft-opening” with the TTC and Metrolinx exploring the possibility of opening it to the public “in phases,†without clarifying what that would look like.
The documents also suggest that continued testing of the line could extend beyond the expected opening date this fall.
With 25 stops stretching from Mount Dennis in the west to Kennedy in the east, the 19-kilometre Eglinton Crosstown LRT was initially meant to be ready by 2020.
A pandemic and several lawsuits, as well as software glitches, have delayed the line’s opening, even after the Star received an exclusive tour in May 2023. The completion of the LRT had been promised, then pushed back, for three years, until the transit agency declined to give a projected opening in 2023.
Recent hints of a September opening for the line, first reported by the Star, have been commented on by Premier Doug Ford and the head of Metrolinx.
Ford, who has been premier for seven years of the LRT’s 14 years of construction, said in early June that a September opening date was “what I’m hearing.â€
Metrolinx has not confirmed an official opening date.
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