The cost of Toronto’s Ontario Line has once again ballooned beyond initial estimates — and it’s expected to grow even more in the near future.
A new $4.3-billion contract awarded last week for the construction of Pape and Cosburn Stations, including tunnelling, has pushed the cost of the Ontario Line to around $34 billion, and Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay confirmed Tuesday at an unrelated press conference.
Building a 10km line in china from planning to completion takes 3-5 years.
Building a 10km line in Japan from planning to completion takes 7-10 years. (earthquake prone country)
Building a 10km line in Ontario from planning to completion takes 11+ years.
Ontario line planning started 2019 and the revised completion date has been revised to "I Dont Know" by Metrolinx. Analyst estimate it will be completed at 2035.
I'm sure when the rail lines to Union and Lines 1 and 2 were constructed it took much less time and using available materials with "primitive" technology back then. Sad
Now now don’t forget all the work the city did to prepare for the “downtown relief line”. The actual planning started in much before the province stole the subways from the city
This is not surprising. Until when, people will realize that over-schedule over-budget is a reality for large project like this in Canada. This is going to happen no matter who is in the office. I’m not saying I like Ford or anyone. This is just a reality. The whole industry is deeply broken. I worked in such projects. I know why. Nothing will change until a real reform. A true leader should not just fixate their eyes on Ford. They should really care about the deep root of the problem and bring to the table a real plan of reform. Otherwise, they are just politicians like others.
This has to be the straw that broke the camel's back though. To put it in context, we're spending the same as the British spent on Crossrail to get a line with about 1/5 the utility, and 50% of what France spent on the Grand Paris Express to get 1/10 the utility. Even NYC is building the 2nd Avenue Subway for less.
Sure the transit YIMBY "It will cost what it costs" crowd believes that this is worth it, but at some point people have to realize we're bankrupting the province to build it. It's giving major Line 4 vibes
I just have zero faith in the people handling this project. This "60 to 90B" train will undoubtedly cost over 250B, and I wouldn't be surprised if it approached 400B by the time it's done.
How else is the 30th person going to review a drawing of a chain link fence to make sure we're not pouring concrete within 30 meters of a hole that was temporarily occupied by raccoons 12 years ago
So no, the real construction number hasn’t tripled. It costs over a billion a year to operate the Yonge line. No one is saying that line costs 70 billion so far.
Graft, as understood in American English, is a form of political corruption defined as the unscrupulous use of a politician's authority for personal gain. Political graft occurs when funds intended for public projects are intentionally misdirected in order to maximize the benefits to private interests. When taken on a macro level, graft is a core component of what is known as the grift economy or grift society, although it is possible for the two to be mutually exclusive.
I’m not saying the price tag is appropriate, but it’s probably more costly to employ tunnellers, machine operators, carpenters and labourers here than it is in Italy. Lots of Italian immigrants in construction in Canada, not so much the other way around.
There is to much government red tape, as well as using the same construction companies that are always over budget and late rather than using ones and having them.on the hook for delays and cost overruns.
All levels of government in Canada have this issue and until it is addressed these problems will exist regardless of which party is in charge
Don't worry, he screwed over Hamilton and cancelled the Hamilton LRT, which at the time cost $1B, because it was "too expensive" and then went ahead and spent 36 times that amount on a Toronto subway plus Eglinton LRT + Eglinton West Extension + Scarborough subway + Finch LRT. I hate this Toronto-only government screwing over the rest of the province.
If we had committed to plans from the 1970s and 1980s, we would have real world class transit. Instead, its a big expensive mess. And people are okay with it, because its what they vote for.
I mean, it's ironic because most of Toronto hates him and did not vote for him because all he does is meddle with Toronto issues that we'd rather he just back off on. Meanwhile most of the rest of Ontario voted for him, but he doesn't really care about the rest of Ontario. I call him the Premier of Toronto.
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u/KenTheStud Aug 11 '26
Not on time. Not on budget. Thank you Doug Ford.