Metrolinx is inviting the public to make their mark on transit history in Toronto.
Metrolinx has launched a naming contest for the tunnel boring machines (TBMs) that will dig the tunnels in the downtown portion of the Ontario Line subway project between Exhibition Station and the Don River.
After being assembled, tested and taken apart in Schwanau, Germany, a town more than 6,000 kms away from Toronto, the first two of four TBMs have arrived in Canada.
To submit names and read the rules for the Ontario Line naming contest, visit metrolinx.com/NameOurTBMs.
Metrolinx is accepting names until June 23. Submissions can also include pairs of related names.
After the submission period closes on June 23, people can vote on their top choices. Winners of the naming contest will be credited and have the chance be part of a photo-op with the machines at the TBM tunnel launch shaft.
The 16-metre-deep shaft will become the starting point for the two TBMs, which will dig a roughly 6-km pair of twin tunnels under Toronto’s bustling downtown core.
Work is underway at the launch shaft just east of Exhibition Station, where Metrolinx broke ground in November 2024 to prepare for the arrival of the TBMs this fall. The shaft will be used as a portal for Ontario Line trains to transition from above ground to below ground.
The Ontario Line will deliver 15 new subway stations to the city and will run from Exhibition Place, through the heart of downtown, to the Eglinton Crosstown LRT at Don Mills Road. The new subway line also includes 40 connections to other transit options throughout the city and bring nearly 250,000 people within walking distance of public transit.
Construction began in December 2021 and is expected to be completed by 2031.
The project is expected to cost about $27.2 billion.
