Metrolinx says it’s making “tremendous progress” on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, despite the consortium that’s building the line having gone to court to seek an extension of its scheduled completion date.

Metrolinx officials took members of the media on a tour Wednesday of the Crosstown site at Mount Dennis, just west of Eglinton Ave. and Black Creek Dr., which is the future home of an LRT station as well as a maintenance and storage facility that will house the line’s vehicle fleet.

“You can see the tremendous progress that’s been made,” said Jamie Robinson, director of community relations for Metrolinx, the provincial agency in charge of the region’s transportation plans, as he stood inside a partially finished vehicle cleaning facility.

“It’s an area of the city which is in dire need of jobs and employment and transit, so it’s all connecting here.”

When it’s complete, the Mount Dennis station, which is the western terminus of the 19-kilometre Crosstown, will connect with a new GO Transit and Union Pearson Express station just to the west, and be served by a TTC bus terminal with 15 bus bays.

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The station will also incorporate the Kodak building, which was built in 1940 and had to be moved during the LRT construction. Four levels of the historic structure will be rented out for office space, and an auditorium will be open for community use.

On Wednesday, the station was complete enough for journalists to wander the platform, next to which track has already been laid. The station is expected to be substantially complete by the fall of 2019.

The hulking white maintenance and storage facility on a 42-acre site just to the north of the station is about one month away from substantial completion and is expected to receive its first light rail vehicle from manufacturer Bombardier in November. Five more are to follow by February.

The Crosstown will have an initial fleet of 76 vehicles, but the maintenance and storage facility can accommodate 135 cars should proposed extensions of the Eglinton line ever be completed.

In July, Crosslinx, the consortium which was awarded the bid to build the Crosstown in 2015, filed a notice of action in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice alleging Metrolinx had breached its contract. The group, which is made up of industry heavyweights Aecon, ACS, EllisDon and SNC-Lavalin, is seeking damages and an extension to the construction deadline of September 2021.

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Metrolinx countered by filing an application in court to stay Crosslinx’s suit. A hearing is scheduled for Sept. 11.

Robinson said Metrolinx is working with Crosslinx to better understand its claim, but the transit agency is “100 per cent” confident the $5.3-billion Crosstown line will be done by 2021.

More than 500 people are employed in the construction of the station and storage facility at Mount Dennis, according to Crosslinx. About 2,400 people are working on the entire line, which will have 15 underground stations and 10 surface stops.

The Crosstown is fully funded by the government of Ontario but will be operated by the city-owned TTC.

Ben Spurr is a Toronto-based reporter covering transportation. Reach him by email at bspurr@thestar.ca or follow him on Twitter: @BenSpurr

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