A completion date for the Eglinton Crosstown LRT is still nowhere in sight, but a recent report from Metrolinx sheds light on how work is progressing on the often delayed light rail line.
A June 27 report from the provincial transit agency in charge of the LRT, said construction permits have been closed for all the stations except Eglinton, the largest and most complex on the line. That means that 14 of the 15 stations on the 19-kilometre line, which has 25 stops in all, have been given occupancy permits after being inspected to ensure they meet Ontario’s building code, a benchmark that ensures the stations are safe to operate in.
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“Our focus on Eglinton Crosstown remains relentless,” said Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster at the agency’s latest board meeting at the end of June. “And we continue to make progress.”
Verster wouldn’t say when that progress would lead to an opening date for the trouble LRT, which has been under construction since 2011.
Work on the Eglinton station, at the intersection of Yonge Street, is ongoing “owing to its complexity,” according to Metrolinx.
The six-storey excavation underneath the station is the length of two hockey rinks, space that is for the station as well as mechanical rooms and a crossover space big enough to allow a light rail vehicle to turn.
The agency has also received occupancy permits for another 22 structures including at-grade stops and non-passenger facilities such as buildings at the maintenance facility, Metrolinx said in an email.
When the Crosstown officially starts running, it won’t be a surprise. Metrolinx will give the public a heads-up three months in advance of the opening, Verster said at the board meeting, during which time the provincial agency will begin testing the line by running trains on a full service schedule to ensure that all of the operational issues have been ironed out.
The line, originally scheduled to open in 2020, has been hampered by delayed design work, the pandemic, and legal wrangling with Crosslinx Transit Solution (CTS), the consortium building the line.
But two key problems on the Crosstown that have set back the line’s opening date have been fixed.
Software defects in the signalling and train control system, which steers and moves trains, meant that TTC driver training had to be put on the back burner until the defects were fixed.
That happened in April and May with the sixth release of a software version, “which substantially removed defects,” Verster said at the board meeting, allowing for crew training to start.
As of the June meeting, 17 TTC staff have been instructed on how to teach other drivers to operate the Crosstown. Training for drivers includes in-class sections as well as on-the-road experience to get familiar with the trains and signalling etc., said a TTC spokesperson.
The TTC said it estimates 110 operators will be needed for the Crosstown, which will also be referred to as Line 5. That number includes the 95 needed for the operation of the line as well as extra staff to fill in for vacations and backfill.
Metrolinx also said that it has fixed problems with Line 5’s track alignment. The track, laid by CTS, wasn’t installed to Metrolinx’s specifications and was out by millimetres, running the risk of a train climbing onto the tracks and derailing.
At the end of June, Metrolinx also said that tunnelling for the western underground segment of the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension was finished.
The first station to receive an occupancy permit was the Keelesdale station, near the west end of the line, which was issued in August of 2022, six years after a groundbreaking ceremony at the site that kicked off a new phase of construction on the Crosstown.
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