As we’ve taken readers from end to end at every stop and station along Toronto’s Crosstown light rail transit system, we’re constantly adding updates on the progress being made. Today, we’re celebrating a progress milestone in the Crosstown construction journey. After years of sweat, dirt and digging, Laird Station is now the first of the mined stations to be fully excavated. 

Don’t let these dark caverns drag you down.

You aren’t staring at a portal into the Upside Down – that dark world of the Netflix series Stranger Things – these are the tunnels that house the future of Toronto’s rapid transit. In fact, after two years of excavation work, things are looking bright at Laird Station.

Laird Station is now officially the first of the three mined stations to be completely dug out.

Mining involves digging a massive underground cave and then building the station inside. This helps to minimize disruptions to everything above ground.

How massive are these passages under the city? Try 500 metres long. That’s the length of two TD Bank towers stacked end-to-end.

From here, construction crews will continue bringing Laird Station to life beneath the hustle and bustle of Eglinton Avenue.

Further west, the milestones continue.

Construction crews just finished their final concrete pour on what will be the roof of Fairbank Station.

The next step will be excavating underneath the finished station roof, once the concrete dries, of course.

Now we move to the outstanding work going on above ground, where more concrete is being poured.

Near the eastern end of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT route, it’s full steam ahead on Eglinton’s Golden Mile.

While the temperatures are starting to cool off, work doesn’t slow down. Concrete pours, electrical work and rail installation continue into the fall.

Can’t get enough Crosstown? For more stories, just click here.

(This story was updated on Nov. 4, 2019, to reflect a change from the reported length of the dig from ‘three’ to ‘two’ years.)