While the Ford government has ruled out calling a public inquiry into the much-maligned, two-decade-long Eglinton Crosstown LRT project, the president and CEO of Metrolinx is reflecting on lessons learned on the project just days after it opened.

During a quarterly Metrolinx board meeting on Thursday, Michael Lindsay offered an unexpected review of the project.

“This line took much longer to deliver than any of us would have wanted or expected,” he said while also thanking various provincial and municipal transit staff members.

“I just want to offer a thanks to all of the riders, our neighbours, communities and businesses that were deeply disrupted by the construction of the Eglinton Crosstown.

“This project now, for reasons that aren’t always great, is going to be part of the lore of the city of Toronto, I think, for the rest of the history of this city.”

During his speech, Lindsay focused on nearly half a dozen areas that needed improvement.

• Complexity awareness: “Our private-sector partner (Crosslinx Transit Solutions) at the time of giving us a bid for this project underestimated the complexity, the risk and the challenge associated with the project, and some of what we have done as a jurisdiction about moving to more progressive phases of development, to define projects, identify constructability issues up front is all about making sure that our processes no longer are about 30-per-cent design in bid envelopes and then experiencing the risks of constructability as we go.”
• Better focus: “All parties, including Metrolinx, need to ensure on all of our projects that we’re remaining focused on project completion and not on commercial claims that arise as between partners. The reason we have a capital (project) function at Metrolinx … is to make sure that we deliver a service for people eventually, and staying focused on doing the right things even if it requires compromises in respect of commercial strategies, legal strategies, in order to get to done while still respecting taxpayer dollars.”
• More efficient processes: “It’s clear that slower-than-anticipated approval of design puts you behind project schedules and construction almost immediately. So finding a way to make that more intentional, more focused, is going to be important when we uncover unexpected issues (such as major concrete repair work at Eglinton station) like we did on Eglinton … We need early and consistent focus on systems integration, civil infrastructure, which is wed to systems, which is wed to vehicles.”
• Improved procurement processes: “In identifying and selecting joint ventures, independent of whatever collaborative contractual relationship that we have, that they have a collaborative relationship with one another as well. My call to our private sector partners in Canadian industry generally would be whether you’re part of the design team, the build team, the systems team or the vehicles team, we often find as a contracting authority, and we are not alone in this, that we are confronting joint ventures on the other side that have their own commercial issues that they’re trying to sort out, and these equally need to take a back seat to completion.”
• Stronger communication: “Better public communications on reasons for construction delays, disruption, speaking increasingly in terms of ranges when it comes to costs and schedule associated with delivery is something that I think not only is a lesson for us as a jurisdiction, but for every jurisdiction that’s trying to deliver transit.”

After the meeting, Lindsay was asked about legal challenges to construction claims and the potential for paying more in the absence of addressing matters in court.

“I would say we’re never being disrespectful of taxpayer money, right? There is a balance here that has to be struck between insisting upon the performance that we have contracted for and dealing with unknown issues when they arise,” he said.

“The things that genuinely tend to put us sideways on these types of projects are the unknown unknowns. Neither we nor [Crosslinx Transit Solution] had any understanding when we were tunnelling under the legacy station box at Eglinton station that we would have to rebuild the cavity of that station in order to shore it up. That wasn’t anticipated in the contract that we had, and at that point, that’s where we’ve got some choices about what do we do? Do we immediately get legal and commercial about this, or do we try to work with the counterparty group to figure out how we deal with that through our partnership?”

Meanwhile, Lindsay said an estimated 80,000 riders attended the soft-launch opening of Line 5 Eglinton on Sunday.

“I think it’s fair to say that this line is already proving to be transformational,” he said before talking about the new major connection point at Mount Dennis station.

“This is a really intermodal line that has been created, and the intersections with GO and UP Express are every bit as important as the network effect that I think is being achieved for TTC.”

The Eglinton Crosstown is currently going through a “phased” opening with reduced operating hours and service intervals while TTC operators and Crosslinx maintenance crews get more familiar with how the line and infrastructure are working, which stems from lessons learned from the Ottawa LRT experience. A public inquiry into that project identified similar issues, including poor communication.

CityNews spoke with many Line 5 riders since Sunday who praised the new Eglinton Crosstown line and service. However, some passengers raised concerns about accessibility with multiple elevators going out-of-service and questioned certain design features.

The Eglinton Crosstown was first proposed under former mayor David Miller’s Transit City plan in 2007. Contemplated as part of a larger network of new LRT lines, the Eglinton Crosstown would connect Mount Dennis in the west with the Kennedy subway station in the east along Eglinton Avenue. It wasn’t until 2011 that construction on the 19-kilometre, 25-stop line formally began under the previous provincial Liberal government.

The mammoth project was supposed to be done by 2020. However, that finishing date was repeatedly pushed back due to various legal, construction and testing issues along with COVID-19-related delays.

As CityNews reported over the past several years, there have also been issues with poor construction, the signalling system that has required multiple software upgrades, and a small collision during the final testing and commissioning phase. At one point, provincial officials confirmed there were around 260 deficiencies that needed to be addressed.

Prolonged construction and road closures also took a toll on many small businesses in Little Jamaica and elsewhere along the corridor, sparking calls for financial support from the provincial government.

Line 6 Finch West LRT issues still being addressed with consortium: Lindsay

Lindsay went on to address issues that arose with the Line 6 Finch West LRT after it launched in early December, specifically focusing on its reliability and trip times while defending the line as a whole.

“What we are seeing as we ramp up passenger service is the perfection of operations and maintenance protocols as opposed to anything that is wrong about the nature of the system that has been built,” he told Metrolinx board members.

“We need to continue to optimize with partners the speed of that system, even the way in which it’s operated and the dwell times that we experience at end terminals in partnership with the TTC.”

When it comes to running the 11-kilometre and 18-stop line, Lindsay said dealing with winter weather has been a huge obstacle. He said Mosaic Transit Group (the private-sector consortium that built the line and is responsible for maintaining its infrastructure) changed its staffing in response.

“Mosaic has brought international expertise from other cold weather jurisdictions, put them into the senior leadership positions on their maintenance team. I think that’s already had an impact,” Lindsay said, adding crews are getting a better handle on checking all 55 track switch heaters, manually clearing snow in spots and ensuring drainage sites where snow melts are clearing.

“All of this bears out in some of the performance statistics that we’re now seeing post the 25th of January for Finch, where the system has been for that time period to today available 95 per cent or better of the time.”

He added that on-time performance is improving, noting it’s been operating as scheduled between 70 and 80 per cent of the time over the past couple of weeks.

“Together, in partnership with the TTC, we’re going to continue to work on improving Finch,” Lindsay said.

Throughout the winter, the line regularly saw service interruptions and suspensions for issues such as switch problems,

As Line 6 Finch West launched, many complained about excessive trip times across the corridor.

On social media, some reported trip times between Finch West subway station and Humber College station (the two ends of the line) of around 55 minutes. According to a Metrolinx website on the Finch West LRT project, light rail vehicles “will take approximately 33-34 minutes to travel from end to end, for an average speed of 20 to 21 km/h (including stops).” It also said the top speed will be around 60 km/h.

To get a better idea of the current travel times, a reporter and a camera operator from CityNews Toronto conducted a speed test of the line in early December. Both left from Finch West station to go to Humber College station after a morning rush-hour commute.

The camera operator drove a car to Humber College station along Finch Avenue West and Highway 27. The westbound trip took approximately 23 minutes. When it came to riding a light rail vehicle on the dedicated right-of-way along the same roads, it took the reporter just shy of 47 minutes due to stopping at several red lights along the alignment and briefly holding at a few different street-level stops.

For the eastbound trip back to Finch West station from just outside Humber College station during the lunch period on the same day, the reporter used a temporary Line 6 shuttle bus to assess those trip times. It took the reporter just over 31 minutes to make the trip, while it took the camera operator around 29 minutes to make the same trip by car.

Like the above-ground section of Line 5 Eglinton, Line 6 Finch West opened without transit signal priority measures at intersections with traffic lights. In January, Toronto city council directed municipal staff to make changes in an effort to speed up trip times. The changes are expected to be in place later in 2026.

According to a January poll released by Liaison Strategies, 62 per cent of respondents classified Line 6 Finch West as “very unsuccessful” in its early days of operation, while eight per cent rated it “unsuccessful.” In terms of support, 13 per cent of those surveyed said it was “somewhat successful” while five per cent called it “very successful.”

When those surveyed were asked who they hold responsible for the Finch West LRT line being “reliable and well-maintained,” 54 per cent said Metrolinx. Twenty-one per cent of respondents said they believed the TTC is responsible for reliability and maintenance while 11 per cent said they were unsure and nine per cent said they believed it is a shared responsibility between the transit agency and Metrolinx. A small percentage of those surveyed said Mosaic Transit Group, the City of Toronto and the Ontario government.

Construction on the Finch West LRT project began in 2018 at the end of the previous Liberal government. Metrolinx staff said the system was expected to cost $2.5 billion, which included construction costs plus maintaining the line and its infrastructure for 30 years. A report at the provincial agency’s board in November showed that as of Sept. 30, $2.45 billion in costs have been incurred to date, and the current baseline cost after “exclusions” sits at $3.75 billion.