Construction of Toronto's next transit line took a giant leap forward on Monday, with crews completing the final section of track for the Eglinton Crosstown LRT as the 19-kilometre rapid transit line races toward its planned (and long-delayed) 2022 opening.
The last track's installation below Eglinton subway station connects the final gap in the line for a full, uninterrupted track connecting Mount Dennis Station in the west to Kennedy Station in the east.
And it wasn't just a case of laying the final tracks and bolting everything into place. Metrolinx made an event of the track installation's finale with a throwback to the 1885 celebration of the Canadian Pacific Railway's completion.
The CPR's golden spike cemerony in 1885 (L) and the Crosstown LRT's ceremony on Nov. 1, 2021. Photo via Metrolinx.
Like that historic moment in Canadian transportation history 135 years ago (along with the US First Transcontinental Railroad's trend-setting ceremony 1869), the Eglinton Crosstown's final section of track was fastened into place with a "golden spike."
Or, in this case, a gold-painted clip, as modern LRT tracks don't actually use railroad spikes.
The "golden spike" is really a gold-painted clip holding the final section of track in place. Photo via Metrolinx.
Harkening back to the 19th-century railroad that connected the nation, the photo-op featured a fancy period costume to set the mood. Crews from Crosslinx Transit Solutions (the contractor building the line) posed for the occasion, the monumental moment in the line's construction cementing their place in the history books.
And while we're now much closer to seeing the line in action in 2022, Metrolinx has still yet to provide an exact date for the Crosstown LRT project to enter service as the TTC's Line 5.
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