LRT Projects

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Ontario Announces Testing Complete for Finch West LRT

The 30-day Revenue Service Demonstration for the Finch West LRT is complete, and the TTC will take full operational control of the line no later than Monday, November 3, 2025 according to an announcement by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation. A date for revenue service will be decided by the TTC.

The next planned schedule changes for the TTC are on Sunday, November 17, and Sunday, December 22, 2025. Implementation of any changes for November 17 are already well underway internally, and it would be a stretch to see route 6 Finch enter revenue service that soon unless the TTC had already made provision for this. Service change details for November 17 are not yet public, but should start to emerge both from internal sources and from the posting of new online schedule data used by trip planning apps in early November.

The announcement notes that the Eglinton Crosstown line is currently going through its own demonstration period, but the status of that testing has likely been affected by a collision in the Mount Dennis yard as reported by the Toronto Star.

Also announced are:

  • November 16, 2025: Opening of Mount Dennis GO/UP Station as well as the passageway under Eglinton Avenue at Eglinton West station to reduce pedestrian crossings at the surface.
  • The Crosstown stations at Mount Dennis and Eglinton West will not open until revenue service begins on the line, and at that time Eglinton West will make the long-planned name change to “Cedarvale”.

The Ministry touts various changes made based on experience with the Crosstown project that were applied to the Finch project and others:

  • Using simpler, proven signal and power systems from other LRT projects to reduce design complexity and technical risk, making delivery, testing and commissioning smoother.
  • Working collaboratively with building partners to identify critical funding for testing and commissioning and ensuring claims and legal barriers do not impact this process.
  • Onboarding the maintenance provider earlier in the process to ensure the fleet and line are ready for service sooner.

It is not clear what “other LRT projects” might have more complex signal and power systems, but Eglinton is unique in the amount of underground running where trains will be under automatic operation. Problems with premature brake wear on the Flexity LRVs used on Eglinton were traced to incompatibility between the automatic train control system and the braking system on the cars causing them to brake too strongly. This has been corrected, but considering the years the line has been under construction and testing, it is amazing that this problem was only recently found and dealt with.

The points about working collaboratively with “partners” building the line and bringing a maintenance provider “onboard” earlier speak to basic flaws in project design and contract management. A passing reference to the Eglinton line “which began construction under the previous government in 2011” tries to fob off responsibility for issues with Metrolinx that the Ford government had years to correct.

This article will be updated as more information becomes available.

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Waterfront East Design Update

The Design Review Panel at Waterfront Toronto recently considered the proposed design for the surface portion of the Waterfront East LRT and Queens Quay reconfiguration now that it has reached the 60% level.

Updated June 6 at 4:10pm:

The presentation decks from the meeting will not be posted on Waterfront’s site, but I have set up a page on this site where those interested can access them. There is far more information about the designs in the presentation decks than I have included here.

This article focuses on aspects of the design affecting the Waterfront East LRT project (WELRT), one of several major City of Toronto priorities that is not yet funded. Toronto hopes to see money for this in the Federal government’s collection of key infrastructure projects, but nothing is certain.

How much of this design will survive the inevitable “value engineering” and reduce acres of green to boring concrete remains to be seen.

Responsibility for this project is split:

  • The segment from Union south to Queens Quay is a TTC project, but work on that has stopped at 30% design pending certainty about funding.
  • The segments on Queens Quay East, Cherry and Commissioners are split between the Port Lands Flood Protection project (funded) and the WELRT (not funded). Waterfront Toronto is responsible for design of these segments.

Two early works, shown in light blue in the map above, are the reconfiguration of the Yonge Street Slip and the extension of Queens Quay east from Small Street (where it now veers north) to Cherry Street. Readers may recall the overblown Sidewalk Labs proposal for the land around Parliament Slip and south onto Ookwemin Minising (formerly Villiers Island). This design round is far more in keeping with the style and scale of Queens Quay West’s renewal.

In its initial implementation, the WELRT will go as far as the Commissioners Street crossing of the new Don River. Tracks on Cherry will be extended south from Distillery Loop through a new portal under the rail corridor to connect with the line on Queens Quay east from Bay Street. Future expansion in various ways is possible, but how soon this might occur is anyone’s guess given the state of transit funding and the uncertainty of land development schemes. Options include:

  • Southern extension via Cherry to Polson Street
  • Eastern extension to a planned Broadview extension and thus to:
    • Leslie Barns via Commissioners
    • East Harbour Station on the Ontario Line and beyond to existing trackage on Broadview at Queen Street

This was a design presentation, and issues of constructability and eventual implementation of the WELRT are beyond its scope.

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Ontario’s 2025 Budget and Transit

Ontario unveiled its 2025 budget on May 15. Although it speaks of “Approximately $61 billion over 10 years for public transit”, by far the lion’s share of this spending is for projects already underway in the construction and design stages.

All of this is for capital expansion and renewal, and nothing has been announced for day-to-day improvement of transit service.

GO Transit

The budget cites:

  • The Hamilton-Niagara through service connection at West Harbour Station which is already in service.
  • The proposed Bowmanville extension which has been announced before, but is only barely underway at the “early works” stage. This extension has physical alignment issues.
  • GO 2.0 includes “delivering all-day, two-way service to Kitchener and Milton, building new GO stations across the region and advancing planning to unlock potential new rail corridors through midtown Toronto, Etobicoke, York Region and Bolton.” There are no dates attached, and some of these have been on maps for a very long time. Notable by its absence is any mention of electrification.
  • A total of $850 million to refurbish GO Transit rail coaches at the Thunder Bay Alstom the North Bay ONR facility. This work is already announced. The cars may receive convenience upgrades such as “charging plug ports, cup holders and improved Wi-Fi”, but the long-term retention of these cars indicates that the operating model for GO electrification, if and when it occurs, will have a large component of locomotive-hauled trains rather than electric multiple units.

Subways

Subway projects in the budget are:

  • Ontario Line (under construction).
  • Eglinton-Crosstown Western Extension (under construction).
  • Yonge North to Richmond Hill (procurement underway).
  • Sheppard Subway Extension (planning, consultation and business case preparation underway). Notable in the map below is the absence of a line east of McCowan where there is a conflict with the City’s Eglinton East LRT project and with maintenance yard property requirements.
  • New subway cars for Line 2. Provincial funding for these trains has been in place for some time. What is not yet funded are trains for service expansion beyond pre-covid 2019 levels. Trains for the Yonge North and Scarborough extensions are included in those projects. The TTC is in the Request for Proposals process for new trains, but this has been skewed by provincial statements that the work should go to Alstom’s Thunder Bay plant.

Yes, they seem to have forgotten the Scarborough Subway Extension (now under construction) in the text although it is included in the map below..

East Harbour Transit Hub

The hub at East Harbour Station, near the point where the Lakeshore East GO line crosses the Don River, will eventually serve GO Transit, the Ontario Line, and the local streetcar/LRT system via the Broadview Avenue Extension and a link west via Commissioners Street.

A substantial portion of this project is funded by the City of Toronto as a remnant of John Tory’s “SmartTrack” plan.

Light Rail Projects

  • Hamilton LRT: This is in early states with procurement underway for Civil Works and Utilities.
  • Hazel McCallion (Mississauga) LRT: Construction is well underway for the initial phase of this project, and the Province is studying whether the extension into downtown Brampton should be tunneled.
  • Ottawa LRT: The Province is studying a potential upload of the Ottawa LRT “to help reduce costs for Ottawa taxpayers”. What implications this might have for future network operation and expansion is not clear.
  • Eglinton Crosstown and Finch West LRTs: “Major construction for both projects is now complete. Metrolinx continues to focus on safety and operational readiness testing, as the projects advance toward revenue service.” There is still no commitment to opening dates, and we are getting close to the three-month lead-time required for a go/no-go decision for an early fall 2025 start of service. Meanwhile, TTC has begun the process to update subway train announcements and maps to reflect the new lines.’
  • There is no mention of the Eglinton East or Waterfront East projects. In a recent letter, Mayor Chow asked the Federal government to contribute 1/3 to these schemes, but there is no indication of support in the Provincial budget.
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TTC Board Meeting April 16, 2025

The TTC Board met on April 16 with many items on its agenda. These include:

There are separate articles on this site covering other reports from this meeting:

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A Sign Of Life on Line 5 Eglinton

The TTC work signup is now in progress for the schedule period starting March 30.

It includes a signup for the Eglinton LRT for non-revenue simulation training.

Now if only we could get Metrolinx to give a clear indication of an opening date. They did once claim that there would be a three-month pre-opening period. We will see just how long “three months” is.

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Queens Quay East Bus Lane Proposal

Updated Feb 18, 2025 at 12:55pm: A TTC report with more extensive information about the proposal was posted today as part of the Board’s agenda for February 24. Information from that report has been merged into this article.

In the long wait for any kind of transit improvement for the eastern waterfront, the City of Toronto and TTC now plan to install reserved bus lanes on Queens Quay between Bay and Parliament Streets. A short stretch is also proposed for Front Street between Bay and Yonge Streets eastbound.

The proposal would add red lanes:

  • eastbound on Queens Quay from Jarvis to Parliament,
  • westbound on Queens Quay from Parliament to Bay, and
  • eastbound on Front from Bay to Yonge.

The Martin Goodman Trail (cycling) will not be affected. A new westbound right turn lane will be added on Queens Quay at Jarvis. Parking spaces will be removed on Front east of Bay Street.

Updated Feb. 18, 2025: Maps of the proposed changes to Queens Quay and to Front Street are included in the TTC report.

There is more reservation westbound on Queens Quay than eastbound, and that is the direction with the worst congestion problems. The south side offers less space for creation of a bus lane, and in some cases there might be lane narrowing to free up space for the north side.

The reserved lane westbound is generally in the curb lane, but between Sherbourne and Jarvis it will be the second from the curb. The curb lane will be dedicated to right turns given the high demand for this at Jarvis. With this change, the westbound stop at Richardson Street will be removed. The lane disappears between Cooper and Yonge Streets due to space constraints, but reappears west of Yonge in an area now used for Motorcoach loading.

On Front Street, although this is a “red lane”, the intent is for storage of up to five buses, not for speedy travel. Moreover, the bus stop will be shifted further east adding to the walking distance for riders to Union Station.

The accessible loading zone will shift west behind the bus layby. The layby area is now occupied by ten parking spaces which will be removed. This area will be shared by 114 Queens Quay, 19 Bay and 202 Cherry Beach.

For further details on the proposal, please see the TTC Report at pp 12-15.

[End of Feb. 18 update]

The area is now served, albeit infrequently, by a mix of routes that can often be snarled in traffic. The intent is to save up to five minutes travel time between Bay and Parliament. The reserved lanes will also host future improved service to developments on the eastern waterfront pending construction of the planned, but long-delayed Waterfront East LRT.

  • In May 2024, 114 Queens Quay replaced the southern end of 19 Bay which now terminates at Front Street. From a loop via Front, Yonge, Wellington and Bay it runs south on Bay then east on Queens Quay into the Port Lands. The 114 operates every 10 minutes in peak periods, 12-15 minutes at other times. This is the primary route serving waterfront developments.
  • 202 Cherry Beach (summer months only) runs from the same downtown loop as the 119 and follows its route as far as Parliament where it shifts north to serve the Distillery District. The 202 then turns south via Cherry Street to a loop at Cherry Beach. In summer 2024, this route operated every 20-30 minutes with no service in the AM peak.
  • 75 Sherbourne has a south end loop via Sherbourne, Queens Quay, Jarvis and The Esplanade. It operates every 6-8 minutes during weekday daytime, and 20 minutes or more during most other periods.
  • 65 Parliament loops at the George Brown Campus on Queens Quay. (This loop was the former eastern terminus of 19 Bay). It operates every 8-9 minutes during peak periods, 13-15 minutes at other times. Overnight service is provided every half hour by 365 Parliament.

The service between Union Station and the waterfront on 114 Queens Quay is not on a par with other routes that have dedicated lanes, and real improvement in accessibility of the waterfront will only come with much better service and eventually the LRT link via the Bay Street tunnel. A recommendation and decision on staging of the LRT should come to Council and the TTC later in 2025, but the project is not funded.

Public consultation will be held via a survey that is active until Thursday, February 20, and via three sessions:

  • Tuesday, February 18, 2025, 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. This session was held via webex.
  • Wednesday, February 19, 2025 at the George Brown Waterfront Campus:
    • 3 – 5 p.m. A pop-up event will occur in the main lobby.
    • 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. An in person session in the 2nd floor main auditorium, room 237.

This page will be updated when more information is available.

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June 1/25 the Earliest Date for Eglinton/Finch says TTC Chair (Updated)

At the TTC Board meeting on December 3, Chair Jamaal Myers proposed a motion to extend the validity of legacy fares (tickets, tokens, day passes) to June 1, 2025 for the “conventional” system, and to December 31, 2025 for WheelTrans. This was adopted by the Board.

After the meeting, in a press interview, Myers was asked “Why June 1”?

He answered that June 1 was the earliest possible opening date for Line 5 Eglinton Crosstown and Line 6 Finch. Those lines have no fare collection support for the old fare media.

This puts Metrolinx in a bind: either they announce an earlier date, something they have been loathe to do for months, or they acknowledge that we will not ride these trains until late Spring, maybe. If Doug Ford holds an election as expected, there will be no ribbon cutting for him to tout his great works.

Updated Dec. 4/24 at 6:10pm: In today’s Star, Myers qualified his statement:

TTC chair Jamaal Myers told the Star on Wednesday that the TTC is preparing to operate the Eglinton Crosstown and Finch West LRTs using an internal target date of early June next year — though he was careful to note that he does not speak for Metrolinx, the provincial agency in charge of constructing both beleaguered light-rail lines.

Myer added that the June target date was set separate from Metrolinx’s construction timeline, and was solely for the TTC’s internal preparations to take over operations once the LRT is ready.

He said TTC staff are using June 1 as a target date to train the LRT drivers and it includes a 30-day “revenue service demonstration,” which will see trains run along the full track of the LRT. The internal target dates were partly created for financial planning purposes and are not specific to the LRT.

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TTC Board Meeting: July 17, 2024

The July 17 Board meeting was extraordinarily long thanks to three in camera items, plus extended discussions of the CEO’s Report and of use of buses as homeless shelters during the winter.

The confidential session dealt with:

  • A collective bargaining update for two small groups of customer service and operations supervisor employees.
  • An update on advice from External Counsel. On a recorded vote, this was adopted with all Board members except Councillor Saxe in favour. As of the publication of this article (July 28), there have been no leaks about the subject of this report.
  • An update on the fare modernization program including the status of the Presto contract. The report was also discussed briefly in the public session later in the meeting.

The public meeting included:

  • The July 16 storm, flooding and hardening of infrastructure against climate change.
  • New subway trains and federal funding announced earlier the same day (July 17).
  • Prioritization of State of Good Repair projects. This item received scant attention although the report contains much interesting background on capital plans.
  • Safety on the TTC.
  • Use of shelter buses.
  • Transit network expansion update.
  • Fare Compliance Action Plan: See the updated version of my previous article on this report which includes the debate at the Board meeting.

Not discussed was the issue of hydraulic fluid leaks from subway work cars of which one quarter are still out of service. A report is supposed to be coming to the Board soon. It is not clear how much this situation is affecting the TTC’s ability to stay on top of track maintenance issues and the growing list of slow orders for track that cannot be safely operated at full speed.

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36 Finch West: Travel Times Between Keele and Humber College

In a recent thread on X/Twitter (and no doubt other venues) there has been some controversy about the relative speed of 6 Finch LRT versus the bus service it will replace. Writers have based their arguments on speeds published in the Scheduled Service Summaries, although these are not always reliable for various reasons:

  • The speeds shown are over the full route. For the 36 Finch West service west of Keele Street (Finch West Station), this includes the portion south of Humber College to Humberwood Loop.
  • Actual speeds vary from the scheduled ones, and there is a fair amount of scatter around these averages. An important factor in any reserved lane implementation, regardless of technology, is the hope that, as on King Street originally, better reliability can be brought to travel times and hence to service quality.

The purpose of this article is to review actual travel time data on weekdays for selected months between 2017 and 2023. The specific months were chosen both for variety, but also within the limitations of data that I have been collecting for several years. 36 Finch West fell off my radar, so to speak, in 2022 and I was not tracking it, but began again in 2023 in anticipation of the LRT opening to get some “before” data.

The data are shown in two formats.

  • Weekly average travel times by hour together with the standard deviations in data values, a measure of the scatter in the data.
  • The raw data points to give readers a sense of the range of travel times that can occur on a day-by-day, hour-by-hour basis.

The challenge for the LRT line is to both reduce the averages times, and to narrow the band in which these times lie.

The section measured is from west of Keele Street to Humber College. This is chosen to ensure consistent data for departures from Finch West Station in the post-TYSSE era, and coincides roughly with the LRT portal from Finch West Station. This also eliminates station time which can vary considerably, especially for the bus service, due to the station’s location.

Data for October 2017 and April 2018 precede the opening of the TYSSE and the start of construction on Line 6, and they are included as a stating point against which any improvement might be compared.

Westbound and eastbound data are shown side by side, and the charts move forward in time from top (2017) to bottom (2023)

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Eglinton East LRT Update

On December 5, 2023, Toronto’s Executive Committee will receive an update on the Eglinton East LRT project. Readers with long memories will recall that there was a time when a “peace in our time” solution to the Scarborough Subway debate would have seen both an extended subway and at least part of the EELRT built with the monies already earmarked for the Scarborough projects. This claim was a work of creative fiction, but it got the subway extension’s approval through Council.

We are still waiting for the LRT, and Scarborough will be lucky to see it until the late 2030s at best.

This set of reports keeps the ball rolling on the EELRT, albeit slowly. Until the Provincial aims for extension of Line 4 Sheppard are clear, the degree of conflict with the LRT plans and the scope of the LRT will not be known.

The most recent proposal has a U-shaped line running from Kennedy Station east and north to the University of Toronto’s Scarborough Campus (UTSC), and then north and west to Sheppard and McCowan with a branch to Malvern Centre. These shadow the original Transit City proposals for a Scarborough-Malvern line and a Sheppard East line, although the latter would have run west to Don Mills Station.

The cost estimate for the full EELRT project sits at $4.65 billion based on construction in the 2027-2034 period. This is a class 3/4 estimate with a potential range of -20% to +30%. This excludes key items including: property, procurement, vehicles, lifecycle maintenance, and future operations and maintenance.

With Ontario studying potential expansion of the Sheppard subway west to Downsview and east to at least McCowan, any Sheppard branch of the LRT has an uncertain status.

The map on the left shows the City’s version of the EELRT while the one on the right shows how the Metrolinx study area extends to Meadowvale road.

Metrolinx claims to be reviewing a range of technologies including subway, “light metro” and LRT, but it does not take a genius to figure out that any true extension of Line 4 Sheppard would use subway technology just as extensions to Lines 1 Yonge and 2 Bloor-Danforth already do. This would be especially important for a westward connection to Downsview which would not make any sense as a short, free-standing route.

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