Scarborough LRT cancelation cost cited

The indecision involving the type of rail mode for Toronto's Scarborough Line has now been assigned a specific cost: C$75 million (US$60 million), roughly C$10 million less than high-end estimates.

The four-mile line, owned and operated by Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) as a rapid transit line similar to Vancouver’s Skytrain, has been caught in a remodeling controversy for years. Earlier plans called for the line’s conversion to light rail transit (LRT), while former Mayor Rob Ford scuttled that plan in favor of making much of the route an underground subway extension.

But in a Jan. 9, 2015 letter to Metrolinx CEO Bruce McCuaig from Toronto City Manager Joe Pennachetti, a copy of which was obtained by the Toronto Star, Pennachetti affirms the cost of altering the rail mode, conditional only on a final agreement with Ontario province on funding for the subway option.

Ontario Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca on Monday, Feb. 9, said the province will contribute C$1.48 billion (US$1.2 billion) toward the estimated C$3.56 billion (US$2.84 biliion) cost of the subway project. The Canadian federal government will cover C$660 million (US$527 million) of the cost.