TORONTO — The Eglinton Crosstown, a long-delayed 25-station, 19-kilometer (11.8-mile) light rail line connecting east and west Toronto, is slated to open this Sunday, Feb. 8, following a press conference to mark the occasion on Friday, Feb. 6.
A phased “soft opening” of the route on Sunday will include free-first day rides. The Toronto Transit Commission says no event to mark the launch is planned, but a formal celebration will be held at a future date.
Initial service will see operations on weekdays from 5:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., Sundays from 7:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., and holidays from 5:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Trains will initially operate every six to eight minutes, increasing to every 4 minutes and 45 seconds during peak periods. In six months, peak frequencies are set to increase to every 3 minutes and 30 seconds; eventually, hours will be extended to 1:30 a.m.
The service is projected to cut the end-to-end travel time along Eglinton Avenue to 50 to 55 minutes, compared to current bus service of 105 minutes or more.
The route will open some six years late and more than 15 years after construction began. It will be far beyond the original estimate of Ca$4.6 billion and more than Ca$1 billion over the more recent budget, with the overall cost estimated at Ca$13 billion ($9.5 billion U.S.). That has led to some calls for a government inquiry into the project, but Ontario Premier Doug Ford said at Friday’s press conference that he plans no such action.
“I’m the first to come out and acknowledge the mistakes, but I’m not going to waste time on inquiry and all the nonsense,” Ford said in remarks reported by the Canadian Press. “It would be different if we didn’t acknowledge it. But yeah, has it been a nightmare for all of us? One hundred per cent. The good news is we’re moving.”
More than half of the line is underground. It will connect to 68 bus routes, three subway stations, and two GO Transit commuter rail lines. It opens as construction continues on a westward extension of an additional 9 kilometers (5.6 miles).
First-train departure times are available here. More information on the project is available here, at the website of provincial transit agency Metrolinx. More on its operation is here, at the Toronto Transit Commission website. The fact that Metrolinx handled construction and then handed the line over to the TTC is considered to be one factor in the construction issues.
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In the 1950’s, Toronto could afford actual subways (as did New York, Boston, etc., way back when). Six or seven decades later, construction costs have skyrocketed, disabled access is now required, so we get light rail. It is what it is.
People posting on these pages have made the case that all modes are subsidized – highways, commercial aviation. I respect those people, but even so I must point out the vast difference in accounting methods.
When I buy a ticket on United Airlines, there may be a degree of tax subsidy, but by and large the air fare (added to the airport parking fees) includes capital costs. The control tower, the gate, the baggage claim, the hangar. the parking garage, the runway, the airport roadways, and of course the aircraft itself are pretty much covered by the combination of air fare and the cost of parking. And for all that, the net profit/ loss of companies like United Airlines, over the decade, stands at about zero.
When I buy a ticket for any sort of train, capital improvements are completely off the books. In other words, no one even pretends that the bridges, the tunnels, the tracks, the stations, the layover yard, or the rolling stock, are covered in the ticket price. Rail can’t come close to covering its day-to-day O&M. If capital amortization were disclosed to the rail patron, you would see the true subsidy.
So let’s circle back to Toronto’s new light rail. If the amortization billions of Canadian loonies of capital costs were disclosed to the patron, you would see what that train ride really costs.