The outgoing head of Toronto’s transit agency is casting doubt over the tentative September opening date for the years-delayed Eglinton Crosstown LRT.
At a Toronto Transit Commission meeting Thursday, outgoing CEO Greg Percy said it would be “a reach” to open the new transit line by September.
“We’re looking still at this fall to get something happening,” he said in response to questions from Coun. Josh Matlow.
“I think September’s a reach but this fall is plausible and certainly by year-end. There’s lots and lots of stuff going on that we need to fix to open safely.”
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Transportation said September remained the target for the project.
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“As our CEO Michael Lindsay has said, we are making major progress on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT. All civil infrastructure for the project is now complete, operator driver training is now complete and in June we formally transferred operations of the line to the TTC’s command centre at Hillcrest,” Metrolinx said in a statement.
“We are currently relentlessly stress testing the system to ensure it is safe and reliable on the day it opens.”
The Eglinton Crosstown LRT has been without an opening date for years as it has encountered construction issues, software problems and legal battles involving the consortium building it.
Phil Verster, the former CEO of provincial transit agency Metrolinx, previously said the public would be given a three-month heads-up that the line was due to open.
“It’s an enormous stretch to have it open by September,” Toronto Coun. Dianne Saxe said on Thursday. “There are several testing phases that are meant to take place…. I haven’t seen any sign they’re within 90 days of being able to open and we haven’t got the notice they promised.”
It’s unclear if that is still Metrolinx’s plan. It has not been mentioned in recent statements. To meet September, it would need to have been made in June.
“As we have said, we are targeting September for substantial completion,” the agency said in its statement.
As recently as early June, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he believed the project was on track to open in September.
Roughly one month ago, the TTC took control of trains on the line as final tests stepped up towards opening day.
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