They are the massive machines that will help build new subways in the GTHA. This week, Between the Lines: A Metrolinx Podcast digs into tunnel boring machines and how they work. Listen to the full episode below.

This week, the Metrolinx podcast team is going deep on the mechanical marvels that are tunnel boring machines (TBM).

Want to learn more about the podcast? Check out the new show landing page.

Host Matt Llewellyn speaks with Walter Trisi, director of construction for the Scarborough Subway Extension project. With Trisi’s decades of tunnelling experience on hand, the two chat about how a tunnel boring machine works, how using TBMs actually minimizes disruptions to the surface and how the Scarborough Subway Extension is making history in Ontario.

Episode 17 – Fifty Years in Rail: Talking GO Transit's past & future with Rob Fuller – Between The Lines: A Metrolinx Podcast

On this week's episode: we talk with Metrolinx's Director of Rail Operations, Rob Fuller. He takes us into the Willowbrook Rail Maintenance Facility and talks about the changes he's seen in the rail industry in the last 50 years and where GO Transit service is heading in the future. Watch: Rob Fuller takes us through the Willowbrook Rail Maintenance Facility Host: Matt Llewellyn (@mattrolinx) Guest: Rob Fuller, director of rail operations Producer/Social: James Wattie (@jameswattie) Learn more at blog.metrolinx.com Credits: Czar Donic / Red Red Shoes / courtesy of http://www.epidemicsound.com Dusty Decks / Golden Crates / courtesy of http://www.epidemicsound.com Nylonia / Last Question / courtesy of http://www.epidemicsound.com — Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/metrolinx/message

1. Episode 17 – Fifty Years in Rail: Talking GO Transit's past & future with Rob Fuller 29:33
2. Episode 16 – #AMAwithAMA – Who is Train Guy, can TBMs be reused and more! 10:50
3. Episode 15 – Tunnel Boring Machines 27:24
4. Episode 14 – #AMAwithAMA – Your Light Rail Transit (LRT) questions answered 08:14
5. Episode 13 – Navigating market volatility in transit 22:24

Do you have a question you’d like answered? Email the team at podcast@metrolinx.com.

Read more about the three TBMs currently in use by Metrolinx and how the public helped named them here.

Also, tunneling recently started on the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension – learn more here.

To learn more about the Scarborough Subway Extension, click here.

You can also watch how the Eglinton Crosstown LRT was tunneled below:

Story by James Wattie, producer/editor, Between the Lines: A Metrolinx Podcast