TTC Chair hints which month Toronto’s overdue LRT lines may open

We may know that the Crosstown Eglinton LRT is definitively not going to be ready to ride anytime this year, but as residents await any news on the opening of the ill-fated transit line — which Metrolinx insists on remaining tight-lipped about until just three months prior to opening day — the TTC has just provided the first clue we’ve had in many weeks.

After a meeting of the TTC Board on Tuesday, while taking media questions about the fast-approaching end of TTC tokens and other legacy fares, Board Chair Jamaal Myers explained why he pushed for these older payment types to be accepted until June 1, 2025 rather than their original expiry date of December 31, 2024.

Per a post from transit pundit Steve Munro, Myers said that an extension until this day made the most sense because June 1 is “the earliest possible opening date for Line 5 Eglinton Crosstown and Line 6 Finch,” as “those lines have no fare collection support for the old fare media.”

Though this is yet another vague tidbit and is unconfirmed by Metrolinx, it does give the public some sort of idea of the most updated timeline for the long-running transportation projects.

The Crosstown, of course, is the one riders are most impatiently waiting on, now way over budget and in its 14th year of construction after countless setbacks, including software troubles, painstaking track alignment problems and litigation.

According to a poll from earlier this year, most people don’t think the LRT will launch until 2026, despite station construction wrapping months ago and vehicle testing having been underway for more than three years now. 

The 25-stop, 19 km-long route was initially slated to open in 2020, with Metrolinx inadvertently hinting at this time last year — in what could be seen as their most recent admission of any schedule — that the earliest it could make its debut would be springtime 2024.

As for the Finch West LRT, the Province announced its completion in September, but provided no firm opening date.

As the government arm’s CEO Phil Verster, who is stepping own in a matter of days, has said of the Crosstown’s testing phase, “some of the changes you make at one point cascade to other systems… we are relentlessly and with urgency focusing on getting the fixes in place and will only declare a date when we are satisfied that we can give a date with certainty that is reliable.”

So, after years of letdowns, we shouldn’t hold our breaths.

Along with this and the changes to the legacy fare deadline, the other big news item from the TTC Board meeting on December 3 was a winter ban on e-bikes and e-scooters after recent vehicle fires and ensuing debates.