It's embarrassing enough REM is ahead of us for a 2021 opening date we don't need the Crosstown falling behind Finch too, I know that only the south section of REM is opening next year but still that pace of construction is incredible.
That's what I find so frustrating about all of this. Yes, I know that the kinds of challenges for the REM (geography, alignment, especially with the REM passing through much less challenging and easier to build in areas, etc.) are different from the Crosstown, but a project of arguably larger scope than the Crosstown, being built in the same country, is on track to be fully complete in much less time than the Crosstown (Crosstown started digging the TBM launch shafts in 2011, started station construction in 2016, and is expected to be complete in 2022, which is still unrealistic, whereas the REM started construction in 2018, and is expected to be fully complete by 2023). I understand that significantly less tunnelling was required for the REM (only the tunnel from Marie-Curie Station to the airport and repairs/enhancements to the Mont-Royal tunnel, including the construction of McGill and Edouard-Montpetit stations, versus the entire 10 kilometres from Keelesdale to Laird required for the Crosstown), but the pace of construction on the Crosstown feels glacial compared to the astonishingly fast pace of construction on the REM.
The ridiculous thing is that many of the same companies working on the Crosstown are also working on the REM (SNC-Lavalin, Aecon and Dragados, just to name a few).
If Cedarvale (formerly Eglinton West) Station is completed before Eglinton Station, there would be little reason why the portion between Mt. Dennis and Cedarvale Stations can't open first.
I feel like this would be a likely course of action. All of the stations from Mount Dennis to Oakwood look like they could easily be completed by 2022, even at their current pace, and depending on how quickly Cedarvale goes, I could see a late 2021-early 2022 opening for the Mount Dennis to Cedarvale section (although the late 2021 part is mostly just wishful thinking)