Ground broken on first Eglinton Crosstown LRT station

Artist’s rendering of the new Keelesdale Station on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT

The Eglinton Crosstown LRT is the largest public transit project currently under construction in Canada and represents the single biggest expansion of urban rapid transit in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area in more than half a century. This 19-kilometre corridor will include a 10-kilometre underground portion, between Keele Street and Laird Drive.

The province of Ontario has invested $5.3 billion toward the capital costs of the LRT line, which is expected to begin service in 2021.

A consortium known as Crosslinx Transit Solutions signed the final $9.1 billion P3 deal with Infrastructure Ontario and MetroLinx last November. It calls for Crosslinx to the Crosstown LRT by 2021. The contract sees payments during construction, a substantial completion payment and the monthly service payments during the concession period.

Eglinton Crosstown final contract, worth $9.1B, signed with Crosslinx consortium

Crosslinx Transit Solutions is a consortium made up of EllisDon, ACS Infrastructure Canada, Aecon, and SNC-Lavalin. Financing for the P3 project is provided by National Bank Financial Inc. and Scotia Capital Inc. as Underwriters; Alberta Treasury Branches, Caisse Centrale Desjardins, The Bank of Nova Scotia, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd. and Toronto-Dominion Bank as Mandate Lead Arrangers; and The Bank of Nova Scotia and National Bank Financial Inc. have acted as Co-Financial Advisors for the project.

Though most construction work will be completed by early 2021, commissioning and training for the service will be carried out through to 2021 to meet the in-service date for the LRT.

At the peak of construction, Crosslinx estimates that approximately 2,500 workers will work on the project and that 90 percent of the labour will come from the Greater Toronto Area.