Toronto's new Ontario Line subway just took a huge step toward completion

While progress on Toronto's Eglinton Crosstown LRT has been very much one step forward, two steps backward as of late, work on the Ontario Line subway is going forth full steam ahead, with the provincial government announcing another pivotal moment in the route's construction on Thursday.

In preparation for massive tunnelling efforts northward, crews have now broken ground on the second tunnel launch shaft near the fututre Gerrard Station, which is where advanced tunnel boring machines (TBMs) — which are presently nameless, but that the public is invited to help come up with epithets for — will start a journey up towards a future northern terminus.

The shaft will eventually be the point where trains will switch from the route's below-ground to (controversially) above-ground segments.

This step comes after work on the line's first tunnel launch shaft began at Exhibition Station last year.

Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay remarked on the momentous occasion at the site of the forthcoming Gerrard Station today, celebrating the milestone of "creating another starting point for the project's second set of tunnels."

The tunnels will burrow under Pape Avenue for three kilometres, also connecting with the existing Pape Sation on TTC's Line 2, which Lindsay notes "will help reduce crowding on the busiest section of Line 2 by 21 per cent during rush hour."

Metrolinx has fittingly declared 2025 to be the "year of digging" for the Ontario Line, which will run 15.6 kilometres total, spanning 15 stops from Exhibition to the former Science Centre hub, now renamed Don Valley Station.

When the new route finally opens in 2031 after about a decade of construction, it is expected to see some 388,000 boardings each day.