Eglinton Crosstown LRT's September opening date looking less and less likely

While much headway has been made toward opening Toronto's Eglinton Crosstown LRT in September as expected, it's starting to look like the 13.5-year-long project may be delayed even further as we get closer to the fall.

The regional transit agency's move to hand the line over to the TTC two weeks ago was generally considered an indication that locals were finally on the verge of getting to ride the problem-plagued line, which was initially scheduled to launch in 2020.

Prior to that big announcement, signage had already appeared along Eglinton explaining that bus stops were being "updated in preparation for" the LRT's inauguration, and TTC staff were re-deployed and re-trained along the route.

Though internal budgets anticipated a summer 2025 debut, anonymous sources recently cited a September 2025 opening, though with the caveat that "an eleventh-hour problem" during testing and commissioning could mean a deferral, and was not improbable.

And, many will notice that Metrolinx hasn't confirmed a firm date as of yet, which they vowed to do no more than three months out from that time. With calendar pages now rolled over to July, we are thus past the hope for a September debut based on this benchmark.

Metrolinx's media team would not outright confirm to blogTO whether the "three months before the date" rule was still in effect this week, but instead pointed to statements CEO Michael Lindsay made during a Provincial press conference last month.

Lindsay detailed how all civil infrastructure for the project was, as of June 17, complete, along with all driver training, with the TTC having just taken control of the line in preparation for service.

He added, though, that the line was still in the stress-testing phase for vehicles, systems and maintenance needs, which was "going pretty well" at that time.

The CEO then outlined what the next steps will look like whenever the system "achieves a certain amount of stability," for which no timeline was provided. But, at that time, the following will take place:

1. A 14-day formal trial running period
2. A 30-day revenue service demonstration "to satisfy that Line 5 performs the way that it needs to"
3. A further betting-in period to continue with testing post-substantial completion of the project, "to ensure that it will be safe and reliable."

If the first two steps were commenced immediately after this announcement, they would last until the end of July, with the opening then hinging on the undisclosed length of the final betting-in period. There is also the fact that some further stress-testing was likely needed to reach that "stability" point from which the above steps could begin.

Then, there are potential hiccups to consider — and the Crosstown, until now, has had many of them. In March, for example, Metrolinx flagged a "Signalling and Train Control System (S&TCS) fault identified during earlier test operation" that ended up interrupting driver training.

"If everything goes according to plan and real progress is being made, that's why we have a September fall date for the Eglinton Crosstown, but I want to stress that we cannot, cannot open that system if it is not going to perform," Lindsay reiterated back in mid-June.

"The trend line is good, but it is always subject to revision depending on what we find through systems testing."

For now, would-be riders can only wait for further updates. However, the longer we go without one, the less realistic a September kickoff seems.