Toronto residents will get an update in late January on the status of the long-delayed Eglinton Crosstown, Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow says, but the line won’t open before then.
“You will get an update at the end of January as to where the Eglinton Crosstown, where it’s at, and we’ll be able to say more at that time,” Chow told reporters Tuesday ahead of a city council meeting.
The Crosstown, which was supposed to be complete by 2021, has faced numerous delays and setbacks. The line completed its last day of a key testing phase on Dec. 1 and Metrolinx officials said it would likely be a few weeks more before the line could open. However it eventually became clear it would not open by the end of 2026.
The mayor said Tuesday that the city is also working to make sure that Crosstown vehicles are given signal priority when the line eventually does open, following the lacklustre performance of the Finch West LRT at its opening more than a week ago.
One of the problems identified at opening was that the city was not giving signal priority to the LRT vehicles, contributing to performance some said was slower than the buses it replaced.
Responding to the debacle, Chow is moving a motion today at council to advance implementation of more aggressive transit signal priority at intersections along the surface portions of the Eglinton Crosstown (Line 5) and Finch West LRT (Line 6) and to do more to speed up streetcars.
She said staff would also look at left-turn signalling so vehicles aren’t waiting behind left-turning traffic.
But speaking with reporters, Coun. Brad Bradford accused Chow of having been “asleep at the switch” before the Finch line opened.
“These conversations have been ongoing for many years. Metrolinx was building the system, but they were building to the specifications of the TTC and the City of Toronto,” he said. “I would have much preferred that she had engaged far earlier and I think TTC customers would have appreciated that as well.”
Bradford is moving a motion to implement a money-back guarantee to issue refunds for any customer who experiences a delay of 15 minutes or more from expected performance on the TTC.

