Category Archives for "Urban Transit"

Lessons Learned from Eglinton Crosstown LRT Project

By Transport Action Ontario | Latest News , Uncategorized , Urban Transit

The Toronto Eglinton Crosstown LRT (Line 5) started up on February 8, 2026 and has received mostly good reviews from the public.  However, as readers know, the $13 billion Design-Build-Finance-Maintain project was beset by many problems – $ 1 billion over budget, 6-years late, litigation, pandemic and community disruption.

There have been calls for a public inquiry, but Premier Ford has rejected this idea. There are also calls for an investigation by the Auditor General. A thorough review of the project could reveal opportunities for improvements in future Infrastructure Ontario projects to deliver on-time and on-budget.

At the Metrolinx board meeting of February 12, Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay spoke at length about lessons learned.  His remarks were not covered by the media, but are informative and summarized below:

• Private sector partner (Crosslink Transit Solutions) underestimated the risk at the time of bid.  Their bid was based on a 30% design.  Metrolinx has now changed its contracting strategy and is using mostly progressive contracts, where the private partner and Metrolinx work cooperatively on the design to develop a final price.
• Too much litigation.  As the project ran into trouble, the contracting partners turned to claims and litigation, rather than focusing on project completion.  More compromising is needed.
• Slow approvals.  As there are always surprises in underground work, processes need to be in place for quick approvals of alternate plans.  For Line 5, the big surprise was discovering cavities dating back to the 1950s in the concrete station box under Eglinton subway station.
• Need early focus on system integration.  There were interface issues between the civil infrastructure, the vehicles and the systems.  Need to focus early on final testing and commissioning.
• Avoid commercial disputes within the private partner.  There were issues between the partners forming Crosslink and should have been avoided.
• Need better public communications.  This includes cost ranges and schedule delays.

Mr. Lindsay said that Metrolinx has taken these learnings to heart and has implemented changes on its current projects, like the 4 subway projects current underway.  We certainly hope that is the case, and that the changes prove effective.  Metrolinx must also ensure that lessons learned are retained within the organisation and not lost due to institutional amnesia.

“Transit over Traffic” Report Receives Broad Media Interest

By Transport Action Ontario | Highways and Bridges , Latest News , Urban Transit

Our report “Transit over Traffic: Hard Truths for Addressing Gridlock in the GTHA”, published December, 2025, continues to receive broad media attention. The Daily Commercial News, a magazine focusing on infrastructure, published a good summary article on January 23, 2026, here.

Submission to Ontario 2026 Budget Consultations

By Transport Action Ontario | Community Transit , Highways and Bridges , Intercity Rail and Bus , Latest News , Northern Ontario , Southwestern Ontario , Urban Transit

Transport Action Ontario (TAO) has provided input into Ontario’s 2026 Budget as part of its consultation process. We limited our comments to public transportation needs. Our seven points are highlighted below:

• Increase Ontario Transit Investment Fund. This fund is intended to support rural intercommunity bus service and is inadequate to meet the demand of our many smaller and rural municipalities.
• Fund completion, publication and execution of the Southwestern Ontario Transportation Plan. This long-delayed plan needs to be finalized for this growing region.
• Introduce provincial banking of discontinued rail corridors, ie “rail bank”. Although Ontario has introduced a Short Line Railway Investment Tax Credit, it has not acted on the equally important issue of railway segments (often owned by short line railways) being discontinued and not preserved as transportation corridors.
• Deep dive into capital costs and procurement model for rapid transit in Ontario. Capital costs have been rising rapidly, threatening our ability to fund and construct additional important transit infrastructure.
• Cancel Highway 413 and the proposed Highway 401 tunnel. A recent report, coauthored by TAO, shows that rapid transit in this part of the GTA would be at least twice as cost-effective than Highway 413 for moving people and goods.
• Fund additions to “de-risk” the Northlander train service. We believe that auxiliary power should be available on each train, and that two sleeper cars should be added to each train set.
• New Revenue tools. Municipalities need new tools, such as a portion of the provincial sales tax or a land transfer tax. The province needs to test road pricing as a proven means of congestion reduction and revenue generation.

Our full submission can be viewed below.

New Report: Transit over Traffic – Hard Truths for Addressing Gridlock in the GTHA

By Transport Action Ontario | Highways and Bridges , Latest News , Major Reports , Urban Transit

Transport Action Ontario and Environmental Defence Canada have jointly published a major report on addressing gridlock in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA). It makes the case that spending $80 billion on mega-highways like Highway 413 and the Highway 401 tunnel will make commutes worse, not better. Decades of experience across North America show that expanding urban highways (non-tolled) just induces more traffic. For the same $80 billion price tag, Ontario could build 400 km of new rapid transit.

The report makes the case that the best way to reduce gridlock is to reallocate highway funding to transit builds and also double transit service so people can “show up and go” without checking schedules. Cities where 30% of rush hour trips are by public transit have proven that this approach works to ease road congestion.

The report also uses Highway 413 as a case study – and demonstrates that putting $14 billion (the estimated capital cost of this highway) towards public transit investment instead of the highway would move more than double the number of commuters per hour.

The report recommends 5 bold actions:

• Redirect capital funding from mega-highways to transit
• Increase transit operating funding
• Reverse car-enabling subsidies
• Reduce tolls on Highway 407 for trucks as part of a region-wide road pricing scheme
• Stop urban sprawl

The report can be viewed here:

Finch West LRT opens to large crowd

By Transport Action Ontario | Urban Transit

The deep need in Toronto for better transit was clearly expressed by the thousands of local residents lined up in the snow before dawn on Sunday December 7, 2025 to welcome the opening of the Finch West LRT, with the lineup stretching several blocks hours before the doors were due to open. Following speeches by Mayor Olivia Chow and Ontario Minister of Transportation Prabmeet Sarkaria, with press and VIPs riding the first train, TTC and Metrolinx staff welcomed passengers with souvenirs, cookies and activity kits for the many children in attendance. Many transit advocates and Transport Action members also made the trip to ride the line on opening day; everybody was pleased to join the celebrations and see this long-awaited service begin operations.

Unlike TTC streetcars which have fare machines on board, fare payment on Finch West is done before boarding, with Presto machines at all stations. However, the Humber College station, which serves as a hub for bus connections, is also equipped with a traditional TTC farebox and transfer machine.

The line uses Alstom Citadis Sprit trains with the SelTrac signalling system by Hitachi (formerly Thales and developed in Toronto), much like the Ottawa’s Confederation Line, although the Finch West LRT operates in dedicated lanes but not a sealed corridor, so top speed is limited to 60 km/h. Indeed, it immediately became apparent to passengers on the first few trains that the operating speed of the line was not as hoped, taking more than 50 minutes to reach the Humber College station, an average speed barely into double digits and rarely exceeding 40 km/h. The route designed with stations at most major road intersections, and platforms on the far side of the intersection, yet transit vehicles were not being given priority at the traffic lights, so the trains stopped at almost every intersection to wait for the lights before advancing across it to make the station stop. This is an inefficient way to operate, requiring more vehicles to deliver the same frequency, and frustrating to passengers.

Although the main motivation for building Finch West was the address bus overcrowding, pass-ups and delays at peak times, providing improved travel reliability for the community, the forecast benefits in business case for the investment were predicated on also achieving a reduction in journey times, and for Metrolinx and Mosaic, the line’s contractor, to have failed to deliver that is a serious problem, compounding the extended construction time and cost escalation that has affected all recent projects.

Within days of the line’s opening, Mayor Olivia Chow promised to address the issue of Transit Signal Priority (TSP). The equipment for TSP was installed, and is also implemented at many other intersections across the city, although not fully utilized and the city’s reluctance to implement in on the surface section of the Eglinton LRT is something Transport Action has been concerned about, so we will be very pleased if the policy is finally changed and TSP used to its true potential across the city, with benefits to streetcar and bus passengers as well as both LRTs once Eglinton opens, now expected in the early spring.

Even with these issues, the line is certain to be a success and to facilitate additional housing and economic activity along the route, and hopefully it is just the start of delivering the massive amount of additional public transport the region needs. It is vital that rather than wringing hands over the difficulties associated with launching these LRT projects, after many years of underinvestment, the Ontario government continue steady investment so that the industry capacity and engineering skills base developed for them is not dissipated, and the return of experience is fed back into new ensuring the success of projects like the Hamilton LRT and Eglinton East. 

We also hope to see Finch West to extended beyond Humber College to the new Woodbine GO station and the airport.