A timeline of every single Eglinton Crosstown disaster, from 2010 until today
It’s a long list
At long last, the Eglinton Crosstown is actually, finally in service. This Sunday, riders will zip worry free—fingers crossed—down Line 5, a 20-kilometre stretch of pristine transit that includes stops on both prongs of Line 1 as well as a connection to the future Ontario Line at Don Valley station (rest in peace, Ontario Science Centre station—we hardly knew you). This train (owned by Metrolinx and operated by the TTC) has taken its sweet time getting here—over 15 years, to be exact, long enough for a newborn to grow into a surly teen. The train’s tortured upbringing has included more delays, court cases, construction snafus, political snags and deadline pushes than even the most transit-pilled Torontonian can keep up with. To celebrate the Crosstown’s long-belated opening, we’ve compiled each and every bad thing that has happened to the line en route to its impending debut. And, boy, is it a long list.
Related: Inside the bone-rattling reality of Ontario Line construction
December 7, 2010: On the day of his swearing in, newly anointed Toronto mayor Rob Ford announces that Transit City—the David Miller–era master plan of LRTs that included the Crosstown—was dead. Its replacement? “Subways, subways, subways!”
November 9, 2011: Psych! The Crosstown lives on thanks to it being underground in some sections and therefore sort of a subway. Tunnel-boring machines break ground at Black Creek Drive, with the line scheduled to open sometime in 2020.
May 29, 2012: The TTC warns that Line 5 is more likely to open in 2022 or 2023 after the province decides to take responsibility for it and to deliver it as a public-private partnership, meaning years of work at the city level would have to be scrapped.
September 24, 2015: Then–Metrolinx CEO Bruce McCuaig announces the first official opening date change, to 2021 rather than 2020, in order to ease the construction’s effects on the community.
November 3, 2015: Metrolinx and Infrastructure Ontario announce a $9.1-billion contract with an SNC Lavalin–led consortium of construction companies, Crosslinx Transit Solutions, to deliver the new line and maintain it for 30 years. Then–Ontario Liberal leader Steven Del Duca brags that the contract came in $2 billion under initial estimates—a big win for taxpayers.
November 16, 2016: Metrolinx gets in a spat with train builder Bombardier for failing to deliver the prototype vehicle on time and seeks to end their contract.
February 14, 2017: While in court with Bombardier, Metrolinx receives its first prototype, which it claims won’t start. Bombardier would remain as the train builder.
August 17, 2018: After starting construction nine months late, Crosslinx sues Metrolinx and Infrastructure Ontario, alleging that its clients didn’t hold up to their end of the contract, which forced the consortium to incur damages and costs.
September 6, 2018: Instead of going to court, Crosslinx settles with Metrolinx for an extra $237 million.
February 17, 2020: Metrolinx pushes the opening date a second time, now claiming that Line 5 will open sometime in 2022. It heaps blame on Crosslinx for the delay while the builders say pipes laid improperly during the building of Eglinton station in the 1950s are to blame for the hold-up.
October 8, 2020: With the pandemic in full swing, Crosslinx sues Metrolinx and Infrastructure Ontario for the second time, claiming $134 million in unexpected costs due to Covid.
December 22, 2021: Crosslinx and Metrolinx again settle their differences, with the consortium receiving another $325 million from the province. The completion date is also pushed a third time, to September 2022. Then–Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster claims Line 5 is “progressing well and nearing completion.”
September 23, 2022: Verster announces that the line will miss its fall 2022 opening date and blames Crosslinx for falling behind schedule. An inside source tells the CBC that the project could be delayed by as much as a year.
December 8, 2022: Leaked internal documents from Metrolinx reveal that Crosslinx has “no credible plan” to complete Line 5 and has “continuously failed” to achieve its milestones. The consortium’s internal deadline is March of 2023, though it doesn’t actually believe that—the line is plagued by water damage, and drivers aren’t close to being trained. The budget has also increased by an additional $580 million.
April 28, 2023: Verster reveals that an 800-metre portion of track was laid several millimetres out of alignment—enough to derail a train. He orders the entire stretch to be redone.
September 27, 2023: After promising to reveal an opening date one month prior, Verster refuses to fess up. Metrolinx says the project is suffering from some 200 defects, all of which need to be fixed.
April 24, 2023: Workers are spotted digging up concrete at the new Sloane station and tossing it in a dumpster. Metrolinx acknowledges that the surface wasn’t laid correctly, causing water to pool on the ground.
April 27, 2023: Days later, Verster says there are now 260 quality-control issues holding up the line, all of which he blames on Crosslinx.
May 2023: The opening date is delayed for the fourth time, now slated for 2024. Crosslinx declares its intent to sue Metrolinx for the third time. Metrolinx decides to withhold cash from Crosslinx but remains committed to working with the consortium. Crosslinx sues Metrolinx, alleging that the work has gone beyond the scope of its contract. Verster confirms that Line 5 won’t operate until at least 2024.
December 15, 2023: As Verster avoids committing to an opening date, the TTC assumes, for budgeting purposes, that the train will open no earlier than September of 2024.
June 27, 2024: Every station on the line is now complete except for Eglinton, which remains a pain. Software bugs in the signalling system have been fixed, but Metrolinx refuses to announce an opening date.
October 2, 2024: Crosslinx says fixing the last bits of improperly laid tracks can’t be done in the winter, potentially delaying the project into the spring of 2025.
October 10, 2024: An officially fed-up city council votes to ask Queen’s Park to launch an inquiry into the ever-expanding boondoggle, including the “fractious” relationship between Metrolinx and the Crosslinx consortium.
November 9, 2024: The Crosstown officially enters its 14th year of construction.
December 2, 2024: After seven years of taking flack for the embattled line, Verster resigns as head of Metrolinx. Premier Doug Ford calls Verster’s track record “nothing less than a miracle” and names Infrastructure Ontario head Michael Lindsay as interim CEO.
February 7, 2025: Ford says he’s “really, really confident” the Crosstown will open in 2025 but refuses to give an exact date or month. He then spouts off about digging a tunnel under the 401.
March 13, 2025: Two anonymous sources tell the Star that the Crosstown is set to open in September. One said it had been “ready to go for a while” and that the parties involved were “running out of things to fight about.”
March 14, 2025: Following the Star’s report, Mayor Olivia Chow says the TTC is ready to take over the line and has been for years. “Hopefully, I’m still alive seeing it open,” she quips.
April 8, 2025: New Metrolinx CEO Lindsay refuses to set an opening date.
June 3, 2025: Ford confirms that the September opening date is still on. “Thank God,” he adds.
June 17, 2025: Metrolinx transfers operation of Line 5 over to the TTC, which begins a stress-testing process projected to last at least six weeks but with no firm end date.
July 22, 2025: Toronto city manager Paul Johnson says he’s “blindly optimistic” that the Crosstown will open soon. “It’s very, very close,” he says. His comments echo that of outgoing TTC head Greg Percy, who said, “September is a reach, but this fall is plausible and certainly by year’s end.”
August 6, 2025: TTC crews discover braking, HVAC and other reliability issues with the trains themselves, which despite being delivered a decade earlier are only now being driven for the first time.
August 14, 2025: A train collides with a car at Swift Drive. The crash causes property damage but no injuries.
September 5, 2025: September comes, and the Crosstown does not open. “We’re now hoping it’s October,” says Lindsay, adding that the 30-day revenue test period, which was supposed to start in late August, didn’t get going on time.
September 10, 2025: Newly hired TTC CEO Mandeep Lali says the line’s “failures are clearly reducing,” illustrating just how low the bar has fallen.
October 7, 2025: Metrolinx finally starts the Crosstown’s 30-day revenue service demonstration.
October 21, 2025: Two trains crash at the Mount Dennis maintenance and storage facility, forcing Metrolinx to pause the 30-day testing period.
November 16, 2025: Metrolinx opens Mount Dennis and Cedarvale stations to commuters, which both connect to other forms of transit. The Line 5 entrances of each station remain closed.
November 28, 2025: Ford blames delays on the previous Liberal government, which hasn’t been in power for seven years. “It’s driving me crazy,” he says. “Just get the damn thing open.”
December 1, 2025: The train enters its final day of revenue service testing. Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria tells reporters, “We are so, so close on the Crosstown.”
December 7, 2025: The Finch West LRT—which started construction eight years after the Crosstown—opens to the public, officially lapping its cousin to the south.
February 3, 2026: Following a TTC board meeting, Lali announces that the Eglinton Crosstown will open February 8 at reduced service, with free rides for the day.
Anthony Milton is a freelance journalist based in Toronto specializing in long-form magazine writing. He previously worked as an assistant editor at Toronto Life, where he launched the Front Row newsletter. He regularly contributes all sorts of stories to the magazine, including deep dives on sports, business and housing as well as short-form commentary on our ever-changing city, from its obsession with cherry blossoms to its maddening NIMBYism. His work has also appeared in Maclean’s, Ricochet, TVO, the Trillium and more.
