Source reveals when long-awaited Eglinton Crosstown LRT will open

A source with knowledge of the project says the Eglinton LRT will finally be up and running on Feb. 8. Councillor Josh Matlow reacts to the news.

The long-delayed Eglinton Crosstown Light Rail Transit (LRT) line is expected to finally open next month, a source with direct knowledge of the project tells CP24.

The source confirmed to CP24 Monday evening that Feb. 8 will be the opening date for Line 5.

Construction on the new transit line began in 2010.

It was originally slated to be completed in 2020 however, costs ballooned to $1 billion over budget and the line has yet to open.

“I’ve said right from day one, we inherited (it), we took the responsibility,” Premier Doug Ford said at an unrelated news conference late Monday afternoon.

“Thank God it’s opening. They’ve done hundreds of thousands of kilometres of testing, and it’s going to finally get finished. One end of the city is going to be connected to the other. But I’m happy it’s done, that’s all I can tell you, because it’s been a nightmare for all of us.”

Earlier Monday, Toronto-St. Paul’s Coun. Josh Matlow posted on social media that the Eglinton Crosstown would be opening on Feb. 8. However, in an email to CP24, TTC spokesperson Stuart Green said the transit agency has “not announced an opening date.”

“I can tell you that there are many, many community members who are very excited to see a line that we’ve been waiting 15 years in construction (for) to finally open,” Matlow said in an interview with CP24 on Monday.

“But, it also needs to be a lesson learned on how not to construct a transit line. It was promised to open in 2020, we are now in 2026. It went about $1 billion dollars in costs overrun. Countless businesses have been closed and struggled through it all. Communities have been impacted.”

Matlow said that he’s calling for a public inquiry into the construction and management of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT because he wants to “hold the Government of Ontario and Metrolinx to account” and to “ensure lessons are learned” to avoid repeating the same problems as work progresses on the Ontario and Scarborough lines.

Beaches-East York Coun. Brad Bradford also spoke with CP24 and said that he hopes the Eglinton LRT doesn’t have the same issues as the Finch West LRT did when it opened last month.

“We saw with the Finch Crosstown, the fact that the signal priority wasn’t in place when it opened, the fact that the line was operating slower than the busses it was replacing... I don’t think Torontonians will have a lot of time or patience for a similar episode if that was, in fact, the case here with the Eglinton Crosstown,” said Bradford.

“So my message to the TTC, to the mayor, is to make sure that T’s have been crossed and the I’s have been dotted. When it comes to this opening, Torontonians can’t afford to wait any longer once it is finally up and running.”

The TTC’s Line 6 opened to public on Dec. 7, but has been plagued by numerous switch issues resulting in closures and delays for users.

That line has also faced repeated closures due to poor weather in recent weeks.

The TTC has said the Eglinton Crosstown LRT will offer “seamless interchange connections to Line 1 at Cedarvale and Eglinton stations, Line 2 at Kennedy Station, along with GO Transit and UP Express connections at Mount Dennis and GO Transit at Kennedy.”

The 19-kilometre line, which includes 25 stations, will also connect to 68 bus routes.