Eglinton light rail part of $12B Toronto transit plan

Toronto will get a major underground rapid transit line along Eglinton Avenue as part of a $12.4 billion transit plan the province plans to unveil Thursday morning.

The new light-railline will run underground along Eglinton Avenue from Black Creek Drive in the citys west end to Kennedy subway station in the east. From there it will continue at street level all the way to Scarborough Town Centre along the existing Scarborough RT route, which it will replace.

The new Eglinton Crosstown line will cost $8.2 billion, which is all the money the province has made available for large transit projects in Toronto.

This means there will be no provincial money to expand the subway along Sheppard Avenue, which has a $4.2 billion price tag. But sources tell CBC the Sheppard expansion will go ahead, using city and private funds.

Thursdays announcement means the province is cancelling plans for the Finch West light-rail transit route, which was part of former mayor David Miller's Transit City plan. That line would have run from the yet-to-be built Finch West station to Humber College.

When he took office last December, Mayor Rob Ford said he was scrapping Transit City because it would run at street-level and obstruct traffic.

The project to be announcedThursday has a tentative completion date of 2020.