Interim Metrolinx CEO keeping quiet on Eglinton LRT opening date | Globalnews.ca (2025)

While several politicians gathered Tuesday to celebrate shovels hitting the ground for the Eglinton West LRT extension, the rest of the line remains unopened to the public, with those on hand not willing to provide an exact date for the long-delayed project to be completed.

As he stood among Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria and Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, Metrolinx interim CEO Michael Lindsay deftly stickhandled questions from reporters about an opening date for the transit system.

“The premier and the minister gave me a very clear mandate, and that was to open the Eglinton Crosstown when it was safe and reliable to do so,” he told reporters.

“In the short time that I’ve been at Metrolinx, there has been some exceptional progress that’s been made on some of the work that is required in order to get this line open.”

Lindsay listed the updates to signal systems, as well as all of the major construction projects being completed as examples of progress.

“If you go out to the Eglinton Crosstown today, anywhere on the alignment, you will see trains moving back and forth,” Lindsay said. “That is the TTC getting ready to operate this line.”

While some Torontonians would have gotten a sense of relief at those sightings, Lindsay warned that it is not a matter of days, but a matter of months before they could be up and running.

“Right now, what’s happening is literally TTC drivers are familiarizing themselves with the line and they’re driving it for the protocols that (need to) be established,” he said. “They’re getting their seat time up so that they can be certified as drivers of this line.”

Once the drivers are trained, Lindsay said that the trains will begin to run more frequently, allowing for a series of stress tests that will determine the safety levels of the project.

“I think it’s roughly a 30 -day period of what we would call revenue service demonstration. running the line on a simulated basis with no passengers on it, but at the frequency that it’s going to run at when we actually open the line,” he explained.

“Those tests are going to be the thing that really tell us what the safety and reliability performance of this line is going to be. Therefore, we need those tests in order to know what the actual opening date is going to be.”

Lindsay, who previously served as the head of Infrastructure Ontario, only came board in early December to replace Phil Verster, who was let go by the Ford government after years of delays.

Construction began on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT in 2011 and was initially due to be finished in 2020 with rumours swirling that it may finally be open to the public in the fall.

Lindsay was non-committal on Tuesday when asked how long he would remain with Metrolinx for although to be fair, that is the Ford government’s decision as much as it is his.