Insights Eglinton Crosstown light rail transit | making Toronto faster and safer

The Eglinton Crosstown Light Rail Transit is part of a 25-year plan to provide an integrated transportation and transit system within the region. The project includes 19 km of light-rail transit running both underground and at-grade. There are 15 underground stations, 10 stops and a maintenance and storage facility for the vehicle fleet.

Our design teams have tightly integrated the Eglinton Crosstown with other modes of transportation, including bus routes, three subway stations and various commuter rail lines. It is the largest transit expansion in Canada’s history and a project of this size has presented our teams with some unique challenges.

Preserving a piece of history

We needed to excavate under a four-storey, 45-metre long heritage building that would form part of a new station. After a careful assessment, our teams proposed to lift the building and move it 60 metres from the site. We accomplished it using specially constructed tracks, and then eased it back into place just over a year later!

Considering communities

We’re building Eglinton Crosstown in the busy heart of a major city, so minimizing disruptions to people's daily lives is our priority. One way we resolved this was by switching from the bottom-up construction to top-down construction instead. Our crews dug down a couple of metres, laid concrete slabs and backfilled. Construction continued underneath, allowing the city to go about business as usual. We’re also building three of the stations by the sequential excavation method (SEM). This avoids substantial utility relocations and minimizes disruptions to the people who live, play and work in the area.

Rapid results

Our project managers, engineers and designers are driven to change lives by making transport faster, smarter and safer. At surface, the light-rail transit line will ease traffic and congestion. It will move people 60% faster than the existing bus services and handle 10 times as many passengers. Transit users will enjoy 25 new stations and stops, access to 54 bus routes, three subway stations and various GO Transit lines. Overall the city will benefit from a fast, reliable and convenient transit option that carries passengers in dedicated right-of-way separate from regular traffic.

Project statistics:

25
stations and stops

19
kilometers of rail

60%
faster than current travel times

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2016 Best Transit and Aviation Project (Silver): P3 Bulletin Award
2015 Gold Award (Project Financing): Canadian Council for Public-Private