Ontario PC leader Doug Ford made a string of transportation and infrastructure announcements on Friday as part of his campaign to re-take Queen’s Park in this month’s election, including a promise that the embattled Eglinton Crosstown LRT would finally open in 2025.
It’s a promise the public has every right to be suspicious about, given the many broken promises, missed timelines, legal challenges, and other embarrassments that have plagued the 14-year construction debacle.
The 19-kilometre, 25-stop first phase of the Crosstown began construction in 2011 and was due to open in 2020, but approaching five years later, the public is still relying on bus service to navigate Eglinton Avenue.
Ford’s campaign promise that the Crosstown would finally open in 2025 follows the installation of change-of-service signage and convincing evidence in the TTC’s annual budget that the transit line could enter service this summer.
However, people are rightly skeptical about the latest promise after several years of repeated disappointments.
Transit advocacy group TTCriders issued a statement in response to Ford’s promise, arguing that vague timelines and a lack of transparency have clouded public faith in the project.
“Promised opening dates have come and gone before. Transit riders are looking for answers and credible opening dates for the long-delayed Eglinton Crosstown and Finch West LRTs,” said TTCriders spokesperson Nigel Morton.
“After nearly 14 years of construction, billions spent, and hundreds of millions in extra payouts to private companies, the Eglinton Crosstown LRT is still not open. And if you think that’s bad, when the LRT is finally open to the public, those same private companies will be responsible for maintaining it for the next 30 years.”
“Transit costs have skyrocketed under Metrolinx and the public can’t get basic answers about why long-overdue LRTs aren’t open. That’s why we are asking all provincial parties to give the TTC back control over running Toronto transit, to keep costs down and increase accountability.”
TTCriders points to a new study from the University of Toronto School of Cities, which found that “agencies that rely more on external consultants for design, planning, engineering, and management experience higher soft costs than those that rely on in-house staff for the same services.”
The advocacy group plans to take their grievances to a public setting on February 19, when TTCriders will host a rally urging the prince to open the Crosstown at the corner of Yonge and Eglinton from 5 to 6 p.m.
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