The day of the Ontario general election is as good of a time as any to assess the failures that have taken place under various provincial leaders, one of the most glaring of which is the bungling of some of the province’s largest transit projects.
Now five years past due and in an unbelievable 14th year of construction is, of course, the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, a line that promises to shuttle thousands of passengers per hour across 19 kilometres of the city, but which has become a blight known far and wide for never actually reaching completion.
And, while the Finch West LRT — a line that started construction an entire eight years later — at first appeared to be progressing much better, it has also run into its share of delays. Though the province announced Line 6’s completion back in September, an actual opening date has yet to be announced, as is still also the case with the even more beleaguered Line 5.
But, there have been multiple hints that both are shaping up to finally open this summer, including some new literal signs that residents have been spotting around the city this past week.
While Metrolinx has refused to confirm, the TTC Board chair and the TTC budget itself cite summer 2025 debut dates for Line 5 and Line 6. And, it seems Toronto’s Transit Commission has remained pretty confident in this timeline, and has started making the last of its necessary preparations along both routes.
At the end of last year, bus riders along the Crosstown’s corridor began noticing new posters advising them that stops had been “updated in preparation for the opening of Line 5 Eglinton,” and that service at some was slated to change.
Now, TTC staff are making similar signage updates at bus stops along Finch Ave. W., where Line 6 will run. One rider this week noticed that their local bus stop post had a new sticker marking it as a future shuttle stop if and when LRT service on the line was impacted.
“TTC already ready for those sweet shuttle bus replacements on Line 6. That’s what I call planning ahead,” they wrote in the Toronto subreddit.
TTC already ready for those sweet shuttle bus replacements on Line 6
byu/Real_Engineer_5172 intoronto
About the decals, TTC spokesperson Stuart Green told blogTO that “in preparation for the opening of the new lines, we are installing new poles and updating signage. On Line 6, this includes installing 32 new poles and updating graphics on 217 existing stop markers to reflect a simple route change.”
He added that the updates “are expected to take approximately 6-8 months to complete,” which will extend past the June 2025 date suggested by TTC Board Chair Jamaal Myers back in December, but could be in line with the August 2025 date cited for Line 6 in the board’s 2025 operating budget last month.
New TTC budget suggests Toronto’s long-overdue LRT lines will finally open this summer👀https://t.co/8XY65ELdMp
— blogTO (@blogTO) January 7, 2025
The $2.8 billion budget stated that “opening Line 5 Eglinton and Line 6 Finch West, as well as implementing changes to the bus network to connect customers to these lines” were key goals for the year, with operating costs for these routes designated for July and August, respectively.
