![\"Metrolinx's](\"https:\/\/www.on-sitemag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Ontario_Line_South_TMBs.jpg.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe Ontario Line twin TBMs assembled at the manufacturing plant in Schwanau, Germany. (Photo courtesy of Metrolinx)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Metrolinx has announced the launch of a naming contest for the tunnel boring machines (TBMs) that will be used on the new Ontario Line subway. Part of the province\u2019s transit expansion plan, the line will bring 15 new stations to Toronto. Once in operation, a trip from one end to the other is expected to take less than 30 minutes. That compares to approximately 70 minutes on the current transit system.<\/p>\n
The new TBMs will dig the southern tunnels for the subway. Potential names for the TBMs can be submitted through an online survey<\/a>, which will remain open until Monday, June 23.<\/p>\n Metrolinx is encouraging participants to draw inspiration from local landmarks, history, cultural figures or unique features about the communities the TBMs will travel through and, since the TBMs will be working in a pair, themed and twin-related names are welcome.<\/p>\n After the submission period closes, a shortlist of names will be posted for online voting. Winners of the naming contest will be credited and have a chance be part of a photo-op with the mammoth machines at the tunnel launch shaft.<\/p>\n In preparation for the arrival of these machines, Metrolinx broke ground last November on the 16-metre-deep shaft that will become the entry point for the TBMs. The two massive machines will dig a pair of six-kilometre tunnels underground starting just east of Exhibition Station to just west of the Don River.<\/p>\n