When I stood at the corner of Eglinton and Yonge last week, watching construction crews bustle around what will eventually become one of Toronto’s busiest transit hubs, the question on everyone’s mind wasn’t if the Eglinton Crosstown LRT would open – but when.
After nearly 13 years of construction, detours, and business disruptions, Metrolinx officials are now publicly acknowledging what many Torontonians had already suspected: the troubled light rail project might not open until 2025.
“I’ll be honest, there’s still a possibility we can open in 2025, but we’re looking at all options,” Phil Verster, Metrolinx CEO, told reporters during a recent project update. This admission follows years of missed deadlines for the 19-kilometer, 25-station line that’s meant to transform east-west travel across the city.
For small business owners like Maria Constantinidis, who has operated her family bakery near Eglinton and Laird for over two decades, each delay represents another year of struggling with reduced foot traffic.
“We’ve survived the pandemic, but this construction seems endless,” Constantinidis told me while arranging pastries in her display case. “Every time they announce another delay, I wonder how many more businesses won’t make it.”
The $12.6 billion project – originally budgeted at $5.3 billion – has become a case study in infrastructure challenges. Originally slated to open in 2020, the timeline has been repeatedly pushed back with frustratingly vague explanations about “defects” and “quality issues.”
Transit advocate Steven Farber, transportation professor at the University of Toronto Scarborough, believes these ongoing delays point to deeper issues in how major infrastructure projects are managed in the region.
“What we’re seeing is the result of complicated procurement models, contractor disputes, and perhaps overly optimistic initial timelines,” Farber explained. “The real tragedy is that communities along Eglinton have borne the brunt of these miscalculations.”
The project’s troubles intensified in September 2022 when Metrolinx announced its contractor, Crosslinx Transit Solutions, hadn’t met requirements to deliver a substantially complete system by that fall. Since then, officials have avoided committing to specific opening dates.
During a recent Toronto Transit Commission meeting, TTC CEO Rick Leary expressed concern about the repeated delays, noting that the commission has already trained operators who may need retraining if the timeline extends much further.
“We’ve got qualified operators ready to go,” Leary said. “But skills fade, and we may need to restart portions of the training program depending on how long this takes.”
Provincial Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria has faced mounting pressure to provide clarity on the timeline. In a statement to media, Sarkaria emphasized that safety remains the primary concern.
“While we understand the frustration around timelines, we won’t compromise on safety or quality,” Sarkaria said. “Torontonians deserve a transit system that functions properly from day one.”
Behind the scenes, sources familiar with the project point to ongoing disputes between Metrolinx and Crosslinx Transit Solutions over contract terms and technical issues. These disagreements have already led to legal battles, with a 2021 Superior Court ruling that found the pandemic constituted an emergency entitling the consortium to compensation and schedule relief.
City Councillor Josh Matlow, whose ward includes a portion of the Eglinton line, didn’t mince words when I spoke with him about the latest delay.
“At this point, the Crosstown has become symbolic of how not to build transit,” Matlow said. “The lack of transparency around timelines and accountability for delays has eroded public trust in transit planning altogether.”
Recent data from the Toronto Region Board of Trade estimates that businesses along the corridor have seen revenue declines between 30-50% during construction, with over 140 businesses closing permanently since the project began.
For urban planner Jennifer Keesmaat, former Chief Planner for Toronto, the Crosstown saga highlights the need for a different approach to major infrastructure.
“We need to rethink how we structure these public-private partnerships and whether our procurement models actually deliver value,” Keesmaat suggested during a recent urban planning symposium. “The extended timelines and budget overruns on the Crosstown raise serious questions about our current approach.”
Meanwhile, as testing of vehicles continues along completed sections of track, riders like Scarborough resident Daphne Chen remain skeptical about the latest projections.
“I’ll believe it when I see trains actually carrying passengers,” Chen told me while waiting for a bus at Kennedy Station. “At this point, most of us have stopped planning around projected opening dates.”
The repeated delays have complicated planning for the TTC, which must coordinate bus routes and service changes around the eventual opening. The Commission estimates it costs approximately $2.1 million annually to maintain readiness for integration with the new line.
Back on Eglinton Avenue, community organizer Carlos Rueda pointed out another concerning development: construction fatigue has begun to normalize disruption in ways that may have lasting effects on the corridor.
“We’re seeing a kind of learned helplessness setting in,” Rueda observed as we walked past hoarding and construction barriers that have become permanent fixtures of the landscape. “People are losing the ability to imagine what a completed project might actually look like.”
As winter approaches, testing will continue on the line, with particular focus on the underground stations and systems that have reportedly caused many of the delays. Whether these efforts will yield a 2025 opening – or yet another postponement – remains to be seen.
For now, Toronto continues its wait for a transit project that, when completed, will have taken longer to build than many of the world’s most complex subway systems. The question increasingly isn’t just when the line will open, but whether the lessons from its troubled development will inform a better approach to the numerous transit expansions currently on the drawing board for the Greater Toronto Area.
