Metrolinx doing 'late-stage' work on Eglinton Crosstown LRT but offers no new opening date

Metrolinx is doing "late-stage" work at Eglinton Crosstown LRT stations and stops, but it has no new date for the opening of the new line, the provincial transit agency reported on Thursday.

At a board of directors meeting, Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster said the agency is working closely with Crosslinx Transit Solutions, the consortium building the $5.8 billion Eglinton Crosstown project, to ensure testing, commissioning and documentation is completed. Metrolinx announced on Sept. 23 that the project was delayed.

"We will open the EC LRT once we are satisfied that it is safe and reliable to do so," Verster told the board.

The 19-kilometre line, which was to be up and running by the end of this year, is to run along Eglinton Avenue with 25 stops from Kennedy in the east to Mount Dennis in the west.

Metrolinx received updates on several rapid transit projects at the meeting, including the Ontario Line, Eglinton Crosstown West Extension, Finch West Extension, Scarborough Subway Extension and Hurontario LRT.

Verster said the agency will learn lessons from the final report, delivered on Wednesday, of a public inquiry into Ottawa's Confederation Line, a light rail transit system.

The inquiry found that city officials and contracted companies made "egregious" errors during the construction and testing of the $2.1-billion LRT route. The report said the line was rushed into service too early, which led to malfunctioning equipment, flattened and cracked wheels and a pair of derailments.

The Rideau Transit Group consortium, which helped build the line, includes SNC Lavalin and Ellis Don, two companies that are helping build the Eglinton Crosstown.

When asked about the report at the meeting, Verster said: "It's really important to learn lessons from equipment that operates on other networks."

A quarterly report on capital projects says Metrolinx has completed such Eglinton Crosstown work as the installation of exterior glazing at the Chaplin Station main entrance and landscaping for both Oakwood Station entrances in July. Permanent traffic signals were installed at several stations, including Fairbank, Laird and Oakwood, in August.

As for the Ontario Line, Verster said the agency has awarded two major contracts for its design and construction.

Infrastructure Ontario and Metrolinx have awarded a contract valued at $6 billion to Ontario Transit Group to design, build and finance the Ontario Line Southern Civil, Stations and Tunnel package and a contract valued at $9 billion to Connect 6ix to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the Ontario Line Rolling Stock, Systems, Operations and Maintenance package.

"We have made huge steps forward on the Ontario Line," Verster said. "These are two of the three big packages to built the Ontario Line."

Verster said Metrolinx has "disaggregated" the third package into different contracts and has gone to market with requests for qualifications for two big progressive design build contracts that makes up the northern end of the 15.6-kilometre route. The line is slated to cut through downtown from the Ontario Science Centre to Ontario Place.