RC109 NovDec 2023 - Magazine - Page 4
EDITOR’S NOTE
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023
VOLUME 21, NUMBER 6
COMMUNICATION
BREAKDOWN
by John Tenpenny
WHEN WILL THE Eglinton Crosstown LRT project be completed?
It’s a simple question.
The answer though is anything but simple.
The $12.6-billion project, headed by regional transit agency Metrolinx began
construction in 2011, with the 25-stop, 19-kilometre line slated to be up and running
in the fall of 2022, but construction has stretched on long past that. Due to a variety
of reasons, including the impact of COVID-19, repairs to the existing Yonge-Eglinton
subway station and issues with Crosslinx Transit Solutions (CTS)—the consortium
contracted by the provincial government to build the project—Metrolinx can’t or
won’t give a de昀椀nitive opening date.
Phil Verster, Metrolinx’s CEO even held a press conference to announce they
wouldn’t be providing that information.
“Now, I have to tell you that I had every intention to predict an opening date or
series or range of possible opening dates for the Eglinton Crosstown with you today.
But I’ve decided against doing so, based on the fact that CTS is 昀椀nding and rectifying
issues on a week-by-week basis, and that this a昀昀ects the opening date signi昀椀cantly,”
stated Verster.
How’s that for a non-answer?
The only thing he promised was to update the progress being made every two
months until the high-risk testing and commissioning work has been completed, but
not before.
Verster cited four reasons as to why the project is not 昀椀nished, including delays
caused by the initial design phase taking a year longer than expected, a three-month
delay caused by a technical defect on Line One, a seven-month delay from COVID-19
impacting the critical path of the project, and the testing and commissioning phase
taking longer than expected.
As you can see, there is plenty of blame to go around, and this disaster leaves no
one feeling con昀椀dent about Metrolinx’s other transit projects, such as the Ontario
Line, reaching completion as scheduled.
Sound familiar? Maybe you’ve heard of the Ottawa LRT?
That project had so many problems, a public inquiry had to be conducted. What the
commission found was that “there were persistent failures in leadership, partnership
and communications in the construction and maintenance of the Ottawa LRT.”
Large infrastructure projects, by their very nature, are complex and inevitably,
there are going to be issues and delays, but the lack of communication, between the
owner and the builder and the public and the issues created by that breakdown, can
be unprecedented.
There seems to be a common theme running through the failures of both projects. A
lack of leadership and oversight by all parties leads to the same place: citizens paying
more and having to wait longer for much-need public transit.
They deserve answers, not updates.
John Tenpenny is the
editor of ReNew Canada.
john@actualmedia.ca
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RENEW CANADA – NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023
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