News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 02, 2020
A Message to Our Readers
 10K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
EarthCam Time-Lapse Documents Rafael Viñoly-Designed New Stanford Hospital Construction
 42K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
Resort Town
 6.1K     0 

From CP24....

Metrolinx has made significant changes to its senior leadership team as the provincial transit agency struggles to get two light rail projects on track, a new memo obtained by CTV News Toronto shows.

CEO Phil Verster announced the departures of Karla Avis-Birch and Steven Levene in the email and thanked them for their service to the Crown corporation. Avis-Birch worked as Metrolinx’s chief planning officer and Levene worked as the chief operating officer (rapid transit), according to their respective LinkedIn profiles.

Verster said the changes were made in an effort to “evolve and adapt” in the face of an expanded mandate, which includes the Eglinton Crosstown LRT and Finch West LRT, two major transit project in Toronto that have yet to come online after years of delays and lawsuits.


“To do this, we must ensure that the right combinations of people, competencies, processes, and structures are in place,” he wrote.

As a result of the changes, Metrolinx will overhaul its planning and development (P & D) and operations (rapid transit) departments. Verster said P & D will be integrated into a number of other divisions, while the operations team would be split into two groups: one of which will be a new “asset management and maintenance division” led by chief engineer, Fay Pittman. The second operations group will be led by Phil Taberner, the vice president of new rail infrastructure, in an “acting capacity,” whose focus will be “getting the Eglinton and Finch West LRTs into service.”

In a statement to CP24, a spokesperson for Metrolinx said a restructuring in the management ranks such as this is “not unusual.”

“Metrolinx’s mandate and the complexity of our work has increased significantly over the past several years. As a result, there is a need for the organization to evolve and adapt to deliver on North America’s largest transit expansion,” the statement read.


Mayor Olivia Chow was asked about the changes at an unrelated news conference on Wednesday, and seemed to indicate that she was pleased with the development.

“It’s not up to me to comment on the inner workings of Metrolinx and the structure as to who does what…but it’s a good indication there’s some shakeup. But really, it’s up to the Minister of Transportation and the CEO of Metrolinx,” she said.

In a post to social media, Coun. Josh Matlow said he believes the C-suite reorganization is in direct response to the delayed projects.

“Metrolinx’s delays have impacted local residents, shuttered small businesses, wasted tax dollars & left us all without the transit we need to tackle congestion & get to work or school on time,” he wrote in a tweet. “Clearly heads are rolling because their vehicles haven’t been.”
Click to expand...
 
Aplus23 said:
This is gonna be highly used from day 1, and this is the first new line in the system since Sheppard but Geez. Metrolinx really dropped the ball on this one
Click to expand...
Metrolinx is dropping the ball on every rapid transit project, it's their MO at this point.

Crosstown wont open until 2025, Finch wont open until that lawsuit issue is settled, Hurontario who knows anymore, and the Scarborough subway extension is apparently having tunnel digging issues with the TBMs so it's already behind schedule.
 
hawc said:
Word on the street is that the foundation slab under the Yonge/Eglinton Station Box is cracked and can't be fixed without ripping everything out and starting over.

;)
Click to expand...

Again, this is such a juicy rumour that I simply cannot believe the media in this city would not be doing their best to at least get dead drops on emails/documents confirming this to be the case.

Either

a) there is little to no truth to the rumours (I.e. the errors are much more trivial than described)

or

b) the media in this city is just as incompetent as metrolinx and doesn’t know how to leak the story of the year.
 
goodcitywhenfinished said:
Either

a) there is little to no truth to the rumours (I.e. the errors are much more trivial than described)

or

b) the media in this city is just as incompetent as metrolinx and doesn’t know how to leak the story of the year.
Click to expand...

or
c) the ensuing litigation is causing all concerned to stay silent.... for now

and/or

d) the slab is currently intact but some data suggests it is suspect, or likely to fail before the contractual end of life, or we won't really know until a few more freeze/thaw cycles have passed....

- Paul
 
Or e) after all of the previous delays everything is going through its final checks now, and the line will be opening soon.

If there had been some structural issue with the slab under Eglinton Station we would have heard about it by now. The TTC is really, really sensitive to issues like that. Remember Victoria Park? Or the Eglinton bus terminal? Or Islington? Or Bay?

Dan
 
goodcitywhenfinished said:
Either

a) there is little to no truth to the rumours (I.e. the errors are much more trivial than described)

or

b) the media in this city is just as incompetent as metrolinx and doesn’t know how to leak the story of the year.
Click to expand...
Why not both?

But yeah, I’m quite sure this is nonsense of the variety far too common in railfan circles… someone mentions a foundation crack and suddenly everyone starts hearing complete demolition is the only fix. I mean seriously, has any tunnel project, anywhere in the world, had that kind of total demo required to fix something? It’s just not a thing.
 
Last edited:
Amare said:
Crosstown wont open until 2025, Finch wont open until that lawsuit issue is settled ...
Click to expand...
With construction complete, why would the lawsuit delay operation? That's not been a factor on Line 5.

Not would delaying operation be in either parties interest.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top