Metrolinx seems to really want to open up the Eglinton Crosstown LRT by 2021, which doesn't seem all that far away now.

That's why the provincial transit agency just agreed to buy 61 light rail transit vehicles from the French company Alstom.

If Metrolinx doesn't open the Crosstown on schedule, they'd apparently be on the hook for a $500,000 per day fee to the construction company building the LRT.

"We are pleased to be able to say we have certainty that there will be trains to run on this line," wrote Metrolinx President and CEO John Jensen in a press release. "We know for sure that Alstom’s light rail vehicles work. They are currently producing quality vehicles on-time for Ottawa’s Confederation Line LRT project."

Should the Bombardier cars be eventually delivered, Metrolinx will put the Alstom cars on the Finch West and Hurontario (in Mississauga) LRT lines instead.

As the Toronto Star writes, Metrolinx inked a $770 million deal with Bombardier in 2010 to buy 182 LRT vehicles. The first test vehicles were supposed to arrive in 2015, but they haven't gotten here yet.