The cost of extending the Toronto subway further into Scarborough has almost doubled, according to new estimates, which show the price of the project now stands north of $10 billion.
The Scarborough Subway Extension was first announced in 2019 as part of Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s “transportation vision,” alongside projects like the Ontario Line and an extension to the Eglinton Crosstown West.
The three-stop underground route effectively replaces the now-shuttered Scarborough RT and takes the subway almost eight km further into Scarborough.
Provincial transit agency Metrolinx’s initial business case for the project pegged the cost at roughly $5.5 billion. Figures disclosed in an update for its latest board meeting show the route is now expected to cost $10.2 billion.
The agency stressed in a statement that the 2019 price was only for the construction of the route and didn’t include operating costs like lifecycle maintenance of the route, which have now been added to the tally.
“As we do with all major construction projects, the initial cost estimate ($5.5B) announced in 2019 was just the estimated construction cost of the project,” a Metrolinx spokesperson said.
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“The $10.2B value includes construction costs along with additional project costs, like property acquisition, technical engineering advisers, installation, testing and commissioning of all systems equipment, and interconnection with existing TTC systems.”
They said the total cost also now captures design, supply, testing and commissioning of the track, as well as an extra track running east from Kennedy Station.
“We have to build,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said on Tuesday. “It goes back — for decades and decades, everybody talked about a Scarborough subway, nobody would do anything. We stepped up and did it.”
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles, however, said the increase was concerning.
“Ten billion dollars is not spare change, it’s people’s hard-earned money,” she said in a statement. “We need a public inquiry into Metrolinx. The culture of secrecy, wasted dollars, and delays cannot continue. Something has to change.”
The Scarborough Subway Extension’s cost increase follows a similar pattern to the government’s signature Ontario Line.
That line was unveiled alongside the subway extension in 2019 and priced at $10.9 billion. By 2022, once contracts had been handed out, the estimate rose to between $17 and $19 billion.
Last June, the number increased again to $27.2 billion. The latest estimate included property acquisition and all operating costs, like the subway extension.
The Metrolinx spokesperson said both projects were part of a historic transit expansion in and around Toronto.
“The government of Ontario is carrying out the largest subway expansion in Canadian history to combat gridlock which costs Ontario’s economy $56 billion every single year,” they said.
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