The head of Metrolinx is acknowledging the provincial transit agency has spent too much time embroiled in legal battles with its contractors, pledging a new approach after finally finishing the Eglinton Crosstown LRT.

The light rail route carried its first passengers on Feb. 8, roughly six years after it was originally scheduled to open, bringing to a conclusion a messy period of Metrolinx’s history marked by delays, cost overruns and legal skirmishes.

The consortium building the Crosstown, Crosslinx Transit Solutions, took the government to court over delays during the COVID-19 pandemic and again over how the TTC had involved itself in testing for the line.

The group behind the Finch West LRT also took Metrolinx to court over how the TTC was involved in testing the line. Meanwhile, the consortium currently working on the Hurontario LRT found itself involved in legal battles with its subcontractors.

On Thursday, Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay said one of the key lessons from the Eglinton Crosstown LRT was to work more collaboratively with the construction firms — and only head to court as a last resort.

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“It’s part of the reason we have a more progressive form of contracting now, where we’re sitting investing with the private sector partner in design, identifying constructability issues,” he told reporters. “That’s probably the most important thing to avoid downstream claims.”

Lindsay replaced former Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster last year, moving from another Crown corporation, Infrastructure Ontario.

“We have to always remember that our primary objective is to bring these transit lines into being as opposed to sitting on our rights, insisting on a legal strategy,” he added.

“That’s the thing that we are trying to do as we show up in these projects. And to the credit of our private partners, I think they’re trying to do the same.”

The lessons will be tested in real time for Lindsay, with several major transit projects still in the ground.

The Scarborough Subway Extension is currently halfway through tunnelling, while a western extension to the Eglinton Crosstown LRT is also being built. Stations are being hollowed out underground for the Ontario Line, and work is also taking place to extend the Yonge Street subway into Markham.

Lindsay insisted that avoiding legal claims would not result in the government or Metrolinx rolling over to the demands of builders, prompting cost overruns.

“We’re never being disrespectful of taxpayer money,” he said. “There’s a balance here that needs to be struck between insisting upon the performance that we have contracted for and dealing with unknown issues when they arise.”

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More than 5,000 days after construction began in Toronto, the Crosstown LRT will finally begin carrying passengers along Eglinton Avenue.

Around 7:30 a.m. Sunday, the first train will start its journey westward from Kennedy Station in Scarborough, past connections to the Yonge/University subway line, to terminate at Mount Dennis Station in the west.

The train will leave the station without pomp or ceremony as part of a phased opening to the line, Toronto’s transit agency is trying to play down as a soft launch, managing expectations for the six-year delayed project.

The Eglinton Crosstown LRT was first pitched by former mayor David Miller as part of his Transit City vision in 2007 and, after being briefly dashed by his successor, Rob Ford, began construction in November 2011.

Construction on the line was led by provincial transit agency Metrolinx in a public-private partnership with a construction consortium. The two parties presided over a myriad of delays, legal cases and cost overruns.

By 2023, Metrolinx had given up on providing the public with an opening date, promising only that the public would get three months’ notice before the line opened. Ultimately, that didn’t happen.

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Metrolinx instead announced in December 2025 that it finally believed the project was complete and accepted it from the construction consortium, handing it to the TTC, which will run its timetables and operations.

Behind the scenes, the provincial transit agency aggressively campaigned to open the Crosstown before the end of 2025, but a more restrained approach from the TTC won out.

Its CEO privately pushed to open the line on Feb. 8, during a December meeting, but publicly refused to confirm the date. CEO Mandeep Lali finally announced the same opening date at a meeting on Tuesday, after Premier Doug Ford had told reporters that was when he expected the line to open.

Until the eleventh hour, Lali would not confirm Sunday’s opening date, complaining that unexplained activations of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT’s emergency brakes left him concerned the system was not ready.

Sometime in the week leading up to the opening, he said he was given a satisfactory explanation for the emergency brake incidents, and said he was ready to open the line.

Still, the TTC is framing the opening almost as a pilot. The agency said trains will initiate and terminate service earlier than intended and travel at slower speeds during a phased opening.

The line will operate from roughly 5:30 a.m. on weekdays and 7:30 a.m. on weekends. It will close at 11 p.m. daily.

“As part of the phased opening of Line 5, the TTC is advising customers that there will be no grand opening ceremony, formal event, or commemorative merchandise on Sunday at any location,” the transit agency wrote in a statement.

Despite the low-key nature of the launch, the TTC admitted it expected crowds to ride the line all day Sunday.

Premier Ford chided journalists for being “negative” about the long-delayed Crosstown ahead of its launch on Friday and urged Torontonians to celebrate the fact it has finally opened.

“You’re beating a dead horse here; we’ve been going through this for years, the same old questions,” he said. “Let’s celebrate a new line.”

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When soil testing machines were first rolled out on Eglinton Avenue around 2008 to prepare for a potential light rail line, local business owner Anita Dimitrijevic found them “pretty scary.”

But they were only the start. Work on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT would continue until early this year, spanning political parties, governments, construction firms and local mayors.

For more than 15 years, the key east-west road entered a funk, where local businesses closed, traffic snarled and the transit project at the centre of it struggled from one controversy to another.

Dimitrijevic’s business, Di Moda European Lingerie, is one of many along the route now ready to emerge blinking from the construction chaos when the Eglinton Crosstown LRT officially launches on Sunday.

They are ready for the prosperity the new transit line promised.

“Access to the area was more difficult, parking was limited. Many customers assumed that the whole street was closed and as a small boutique, we really rely on foot traffic,” Dimitrijevic told Global News.

“Seeing the LRT finally open feels like a reward, and we would like to enjoy that reward. We are expecting that our community will change. We’re expecting more people, we’re expecting more movement, more accessibility, more connections.”

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The idea of a major transit line on Eglinton Avenue predates even Dimitrijevic’s business, which has been in the area for 21 years. But it was former Toronto mayor David Miller’s Transit City vision in 2007 that breathed life into the plan.

Miller secured provincial funding for his plan to build light rail along Eglinton Avenue from the provincial government.

“It was our proposal, for the most part our design — our being the City of Toronto and the TTC — and we secured the funding,” Miller told Global News.

Then, his successor at city hall, Rob Ford, came to power in 2010 and scrapped the plan. Instead, he proposed an underground version of the route, kicking off years of debate and chaos.

Despite the wrangling at city hall, the route ended up being agreed upon in the image Miller had imagined, and it began to move forward. The TTC, however, was forced to release control of the plan, which would be led by the newly-created provincial transit agency Metrolinx.

Miller said taking control away from Toronto’s transit agency, which is accountable to residents, was a mistake. It made the Eglinton Crosstown LRT an Ontario-wide political hot potato.

“I’m very sad that provincial interference meant a decade delay and had some other pretty negative consequences, including massive cost overruns,” he said. “I’m angry about that, frankly. But it’s pretty exciting to have been there at the inception.”

The line was beset by lawsuits and delays, missing its target opening date. By 2023, it was three years delayed and Metrolinx had stopped even trying to predict when it might open to the public.

That dynamic continued until December 2025, when the provincial transit agency finally accepted the Eglinton Crosstown LRT as complete and handed it to the TTC. The TTC then took its time assessing the line itself, eventually confirming it would open on Sunday, Feb. 8.

Miller said, despite the long and winding road, it would be a momentous day for Toronto.

“It’s massively frustrating how long it’s taken. And I think people should be justifiably angry,” he said.

“But people should also be really pleased that we finally have rapid transit across an incredibly important avenue in Toronto. That connects so many neighbourhoods, rich and low-income people, into the fabric of the life of the city. It’s pretty exciting.”

That excitement is beginning to bubble along Eglinton Avenue, where the potential of easy access is being relished by businesses.

“It’s only been 15 years, it’s a very exciting day. And we’re excited that this project is moving forward,” Maureen Sirois of Vicky’s Jewellery, and president of the Eglinton Way BIA, told Global News.

“Now we’re optimistic. Our street’s looking great, it’s going to look greater, and people are going to be able to access all these neighbourhoods on Eglinton.”

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