Ontario Line opening date uncertain, construction to be finished in ‘early 2030s’

The Ford government has broken ground on four stations and an elevated guideway for its signature Ontario Line subway, which could be finished sometime in the early 2030s.

The project was born from Premier Doug Ford’s attempts to upload Toronto’s subway system shortly after he came to power, connecting the Don Mills and Eglinton area to Ontario Place.

The Ontario Line was announced in 2019 with a promise that it “could open by 2027” and a $10.9 billion price tag.

It was designed to act as a relief valve for the city’s Yonge/University subway line, offering an alternate way to get from north to south through new neighbourhoods. It broke ground in March 2022.

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Since then, the cost of the project, which has been updated to include operating costs, has exploded to more than $27 billion, and the opening date has been removed. The $27 billion figure captures all major contracts that need to be handed out.

At the groundbreaking event on Wednesday, Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay said the subway would likely be built by the early 2030s, but that testing could extend its opening date beyond that.

“We think we’re still trending toward the early 2030s to be done with civil infrastructure and then to start the testing and commissioning phase,” Lindsay said.

“We’re trying right now to think about how we front-load systems integration considerations to reduce that testing and commissioning time. Once we know more with our private partners about how that’s going … we’ll be able to be even more precise.”

Wednesday’s event marked the beginning of construction work on an elevated guideway for the Ontario Line that will take track from Don Valley Station to Flemingdon Park and then to Thorncliffe Park.

“The Ontario Line is at the centre of our government’s $70 billion plan to build and upgrade transit, helping to fight gridlock and keeping thousands of workers on the job in the face of tariffs and economic uncertainty.”

Ground was also broken at Cosburn Station in the Pape Villa area.