Taxpayers will have to shell out an extra $400 million in order for the already over-budget extension of the Spadina subway line to be completed by the end of 2017.

In a report posted to the TTC’s website on Friday, CEO Andy Byford confirmed that the cost of the 8.6 kilometre, six-stop addition has increased by $400 million, bringing the total price tag to $3.184 billion.

The news comes 10 months after the TTC announced that the project was $150 million over-budget and would need a “complete reset” in order to be completed in 2017.

At the time of that announcement, Byford fired two senior executives involved in the project and requested that a third-party review of the project be completed.

“The action I took back in March in going to my board and going to city council and saying we need a third-party in to help us finish the construction on this job, I believe that decision has been proven to be right because we have made extreme progress in the last year,” Byford told reporters on Friday. “What I could not do was turn the clock back to completely rectify the various reasons that have led to us now asking for $400 million more. I could not turn the clock back to 2007-2008 when the project incurred an 18 month delay in startup and I could not turn the clock back to mitigate against the costs and delays due to the fact that the designs of stations kept changing.”

The latest budget increase of $400 million will go towards the cost of settling current legal claims with contractors as well as other claims that the TTC’s lawyers believe could be forthcoming.

According to the report, Toronto taxpayers will be asked to foot the bill for $240 million of the increase while York Region taxpayers will be required to cover the remaining $160 million.

“We are not saying that money (the $400 million) is gone, we are not saying that money is committed. We are saying that up to $400 million needs to be put aside for known claims – claims that we know have merit and will have to be funded in future – as well as the potential exposure to claims,” Byford said. “That $400 million represents what we believe from extensive analysis to be the max exposure that we are likely to face.”

The staff-proposed budget, which is scheduled to go to council in February, already includes $57 million in approved spending that is currently unfunded and it is not immediately clear where the additional money for the subway extension will come from.

Speaking with reporters at the future site of a new subway station at York University, Byford said that he has spoken with City Manager Peter Wallace about the shortfall but that no decisions have been made on how to address it.

“I can say that if anyone is suggesting that this will lead to fare increases, no it won’t,” Byford said. “This will be accounted for within the capital budget.”

Project is about 80 per cent complete

The Spadina subway extension was initially supposed to be completed in the fall of 2016, however the TTC now says that it won’t be finished until December, 2017.

Though that represents a delay of more than a year, it is ahead of the late 2018 or early 2019 completion date that had been floated by city staff before a third-party was brought in to help oversee the project.

“The good news is that since the project management changed, the project is forging ahead quite well,” TTC Chair Josh Colle told CP24 on Friday afternoon. “If anything it is a reminder of the importance of taking action”

According to the TTC, the entire subway extension is about 80 per cent complete and the tunnels themselves are 92 per cent complete. The new station at York University has the most work left to do and is about 63 per cent complete.