[Kelson]

Used AI to figure out how much I've personally contributed through my tax dollars towards this mega project over the last 15 years.

It says that the average Ontario resident has paid $90 over 15 years. I've paid $425.

Good to know.

What imputes did you put into the ai calculation to get the $425 tax figure? Your personal tax rate over the past 15 years? Your provincial residence? Just curious how you calculated that. I would happily pay $90, or $425 in 2026 dollars for using this line for the next 20 years

 

[Admiral Beez]

Matlow: Can you explain why the LRT is not opening with full aggressive transit signal priority on the surface? And can you confirm that it will be fully aggressive transit signal priority?

Lali: We will have a fully operational, functioning phase rotation TSP system before the end of Q2. That's across both lines.

Why aren't they opening Line 5 with signal priority from the get go?

 

[crs1026]

Used AI to figure out how much I've personally contributed through my tax dollars towards this mega project over the last 15 years.

It says that the average Ontario resident has paid $90 over 15 years. I've paid $425.

Good to know.

I'm surprised your figure is that low. AI tells me the spend to date is over $9B and the 30-year build plus operating cost will approach $14B.

On a population of 16 million in Ontario, that's roughly $900 per person, ignoring those who die before 30 years pass, and those born during the 30 years. I won't complicate that number with amortisation or npv.

And that begs the question of who should pay....Thunder Bay residents might ask for a discount. We certainly won't see Fredericton or Red Deer taxpayers chipping in. Arguably GTA residents derive the most benefit.

I'm not arguing it's a bad investment, or that I want my share refunded, but it certainly is a bite out of what I and my family have available to put in a TFSA. And certainly I have not received accountability or transparency commensurate with what I would hve received by buying shares in a publicly traded company.

- Paul

 

[hawc]

And that begs the question of who should pay....Thunder Bay residents might ask for a discount. We certainly won't see Fredericton or Red Deer taxpayers chipping in. Arguably GTA residents derive the most benefit.

Thunder Bay is getting all the jobs building the rolling stock aren't they?

But your point stands, maybe use Sudbury as the example.

 

[smallspy]

the fire suppression sprinklers burst this morning I suspect due to the temperature shifts we've been experiencing lately. Mount Dennis Station does have a significant exposure to the outside air so I suspect Metrolinx and Crosslinx are now working on a permanent remedy to prevent this from happening again.

It wasn't "this morning", it was on Monday morning.

And the whole thing had been repaired by Tuesday morning.

As usual, it's people broadcasting things without context or information, and the debbie downers latching on to it as if it happened THIS VERY MINUTE!!1! It did not. By the time it became news, it was already a non-issue.

Dan

 

[Towered]

I'm most interested to see how this line will impact travel patterns, particularly north-south routes that previously were forced to feed into line 2.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Thunder Bay is getting all the jobs building the rolling stock aren't they?

But your point stands, maybe use Sudbury as the example.

I thought that since the Alstom acquisition that a lot of the rolling stock had moved out of Bombardier's old plant.

 

[MisterF]

I'm surprised your figure is that low. AI tells me the spend to date is over $9B and the 30-year build plus operating cost will approach $14B.

On a population of 16 million in Ontario, that's roughly $900 per person, ignoring those who die before 30 years pass, and those born during the 30 years. I won't complicate that number with amortisation or npv.

And that begs the question of who should pay....Thunder Bay residents might ask for a discount. We certainly won't see Fredericton or Red Deer taxpayers chipping in. Arguably GTA residents derive the most benefit.

I'm not arguing it's a bad investment, or that I want my share refunded, but it certainly is a bite out of what I and my family have available to put in a TFSA. And certainly I have not received accountability or transparency commensurate with what I would hve received by buying shares in a publicly traded company.

- Paul

Focusing on ongoing operating expenses seems like it's missing the big picture. I'm guessing revenues aren't included in that number?

Thunder Bay residents benefit from the additional tax revenues and economic gains that new infrastructure generates. Besides, Toronto residents pay for all kinds of things in Thunder Bay. Twinning Highway 17 in the area doesn't come cheap for example.

The whole point of funding from upper levels of government is to use scale and shared resources to build stuff that benefits everyone. If we stopped funding things because people in city X don't want to pay for a project in city Y then nothing would ever get built. Such pettiness would grind the province to a halt.

 

[hawc]

Don't usually agree with The Star but this seems bang on:

The opening of a new mass transit line in a major city should be a moment of celebration for residents. But if — and forgive us if we still count this as a significant “if” — the Eglinton Crosstown LRT does indeed open to the public as planned Sunday, it will be, first and foremost, the end of a nightmare for Torontonians.

Rarely in the history of this country has a major project gone so wrong for so long with such devastating consequences. As laid out in an investigation by the Star’s Andy Takagi and David Rider published last week, the Crosstown has been an orgy of buck-passing, blame-shifting, money-blowing incompetence that has somehow managed to stagger on, unfinished for more than 15 years.

Every level of government, public agency and private company involved deserves some of the blame. As Takagi and Rider make clear, the entire $13 billion project was badly conceived, poorly designed, wretchedly tendered and incompetently executed.

Takagi and Rider called it a national joke. It’s worse than that. When it finally does open, the Crosstown will stand as an object lesson in how to do everything wrong. Spend the most money. Waste the most time. Snarl up a city. Wreck neighbourhoods. Ruin traffic. Bicker ceaselessly and pointlessly among yourselves.

City councillor Josh Matlow has called for a public inquiry into the Crosstown debacle. That’s a great idea. We’ll never know everything about what went wrong and why on Eglinton without a complete and painful airing of the facts. What we already do know is concerning enough. But we deserve to know more because Toronto and Ontario can’t afford to repeat this debacle with current and future public projects.

As unearthed by Takagi and Rider, the “original sin” lies with the decision by Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government to give control of the Crosstown to Metrolinx.

Unlike the TTC, the then-newly created provincial agency had zero experience planning, tendering or building major transit projects. And boy did it show. From the beginning, Metrolinx vastly underestimated the complexity and costs of the Crosstown line.

Right at the start, the agency designed and signed an unwieldy and unrealistic contract with Crosslinx — the private consortium charged with building the LRT. What followed was years of overruns, foul ups and bad blood that drove up costs, pushed back timelines and undermined public trust, not just in this project, but in our governments’ abilities to get big things done in this city, province and country.

McGuinty (and Kathleen Wynne’s) Liberals can’t shoulder all the blame, of course. Ford’s government has owned this file since 2018. And Takagi and Rider’s story suggests the TTC shares at least some of the responsibility for what remains a broken relationship with Metrolinx.

Indeed, the largest failings here may be structural and even cultural. From the beginning, the Crosstown LRT seems to have been planned and built by people and agencies more concerned with being blamed for getting things wrong than they were in actually making them work right.

Nowhere is that more structurally true than in Metrolinx. What McGuinty and his team built — and what Ford and his government have kept in place — is an agency that allows full provincial control with zero political responsibility. It’s recipe for unaccountable, inefficient operations: a politician’s dream that has turned into a nightmare for the residents of Toronto.

If Sunday’s opening goes off as planned, we’ll be the first in line to cheer. The people of Toronto have been paying for this LRT, and living through its construction, for 15 years. They deserve something that works, something that links the wonders of the Aga Khan Museum to the flavours of Little Jamaica, that ties together Forest Hill and Scarborough, that allows families, employees and friends to visit, play and work in each other’s homes and businesses without facing the abject terror of the existing east-west commute.

At the same time, we cannot forget the mess that brought us here. We can’t just smile and move on. We need to know everything that went wrong with the Crosstown LRT. More importantly, we need to ensure it can never happen again.

 

[micheal_can]

Thunder Bay is getting all the jobs building the rolling stock aren't they?

But your point stands, maybe use Sudbury as the example.

As the token Sudbury resident,we whine when we have horrible infrastructure and you guys get new shiny things. However, that does not mean Toronto and the GTA does not need shiny new things. It is good to hear this thing is finally going to open. Fun fact, the Northlander has been out of service for a shorter length of time than this construction took.....

 

[Allandale25]

 

[Richard White]

View attachment 713040

"sorry folks but it won't open on February 8th"

 

[nfitz]

I thought that since the Alstom acquisition that a lot of the rolling stock had moved out of Bombardier's old plant.

The province was hyping the Thunder Bay jobs ... I'm not sure what would have changed. I'd think they'd be putting the deal at risk if they were to pull that kind of stunt.

 

[txlseries4]

View attachment 713040

Plaque unveiling

 

[McGillicuddy]

View attachment 713040

I would not be at all surprised if this was the "opening day" photo op (perhaps Mr. Ford will even get to sit in the drivers' cabin and ring the gong) without any of the risk of actually doing it on opening day.