TTC: Let Metrolinx build Eglinton LRT
Written by Douglas John BowenThe Toronto Transit Commission Wednesday said it is comfortable with letting Metrolinx take the lead in building additional light rail transit in Canada's largest city, including the Eglinton Crosstown LRT.
TTC, often seen to be at odds with Metrolinx’s role as the regional transit agency for the Greater Toronto Area, said it would cooperate with both Metrolinx and Infrastructure Ontario to advance C$8.4 billion in expansion projects.
“We understand this is the way this project is going to move forward,” TTC Chair Karen Stintz said to local media. Added TTC CEO Andy Byford, “I’d say straight up there is no squabble.”
TTC’s affirmation comes despite a TTC staff report warning Metrolinx’s plan to build the Eglinton Crosstown LRT had an overly ambitious timeline, including targeted completion of the project by 2020, which the American Public Transit Association (APTA) termed “unrealistic.”
Toronto’s City Council early this spring reaffirmed the city’s plans to expand its LRT system, overriding objections from Mayor Rob Ford, who backed more subway construction and dismissed LRT expansion as wasteful.
