Though the City of Toronto and Metrolinx were supposed to learn from the disastrous, delay- and litigation-plagued Eglinton Crosstown LRT construction, it looks like a few of the many new transit projects on the go in the city are already hitting snags in their very early stages.
The lines in question are the Scarborough Subway Extension, which will extend three stops from the existing Kennedy Station north to Sheppard Ave., and the Eglinton East LRT, which is proposed to loop further east into Scarborough via Kingston Road and Morningside, also ending at Sheppard.
While crews working on the former, from Metrolinx, are in the early works stages of prepping the area for the line, the EELRT, from the City, is still only in the planning phase.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t already disagreements between the two parties, ironically, about the link between the two lines.
……and Metrolinx says there will be no delays with the new Ontario Line.
— TR Lord (@TRLord14) May 17, 2023
While Mayor Olivia Chow is pushing for Metrolinx to take on building and funding the link at Kennedy Station — which the Crown corporation of the Province of Ontario is already revamping for the new subway extension — Metrolinx insists it’s the City’s task to worry about.
Chow fretted to the CBC this week that if the station is built “without considering” the LRT, then the eventual connection will be more costly, will take longer and could necessitate some backtracking on already completed work — something that seems is far too common among Toronto’s public transportation initiatives.
I think that’s the point tho, I doubt the province under this government is going to contribute funding to this project in general so from their stand point it’s probably “if you want it so badly you can pay for it”
— Vincent (@VincentBaik) August 11, 2024
Just last week, it was revealed that parts of Pioneer Village Station, built as part of the Line 1 subway extension in 2017, were demolished mid-construction and redone due to ever-changing blueprints. This obviously led to avoidable delays, an unnecessarily soaring price tag, frustrated construction crews and a lawsuit.
The Eglinton Crosstown LRT has also had its fair share of “two steps forward, one step back” work processes, along with legal back-and-forth between construction consortium Crosslinx Transit Solutions and the Province.
Redesigning Kennedy again is costly. Also IIRC Scarborough-Malvern LRT had one of the lowest scores among the Transit City LRT lines and the additional challenge of not interlining with the Crosstown so passengers would have to change trains at Kennedy to get onto the Crosstown.
— Moaz Ahmad (@yyzMYA) August 11, 2024
Metrolinx was pressuring the City to commit to paying for the link by the end of last month, but it seems neither party has taken on the burden as of yet.
Some believe the transit authority’s stance is due to the Province’s lack of faith in the EELRT project, which is projected to cost a staggering $250 million per kilometre at last estimate, for a total of $4.65 billion.