{"id":400058,"date":"2026-01-10T07:35:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T07:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/400058\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T07:35:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T07:35:21","slug":"metrolinx-ceo-acknowledges-launch-problems-with-finch-west-lrt-toronto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/400058\/","title":{"rendered":"Metrolinx CEO acknowledges launch problems with Finch West LRT – Toronto"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The head of Ontario\u2019s transit agency says officials kept full bus service on Finch Avenue West after the launch of a new light rail service because they were expecting teething problems.<\/p>\n

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Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay acknowledged in a social media post on Friday that the new Finch West LRT<\/a> has struggled on cold days since it launched in December.<\/p>\n

\u201cKnowing that we would face challenges like this is why we decided with the TTC to keep bus service ready in parallel for this ramp up phase of operations,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

As temperatures have dropped deep into the negatives, service on the line has been repeatedly suspended because of issues with the switches used to control trains on the line.<\/p>\n

On Boxing Day, for example, trains stopped running for several hours<\/a> throughout the day while the TTC tried to deal with \u201cmultiple switch issues\u201d along the Finch West LRT.<\/p>\n

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Lindsay suggested the problems came from ice and snow clogging the switches, stopping them from working and forcing trains to grind to a halt.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWinter conditions present challenges to railways across the country. One of the classic maintenance challenges is making sure that the switches that guide vehicles from track to track are free of ice and snow,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhereas freight rail operators often literally use flamethrowers to do the job \u2013 Line 6 has electric heaters which melt snow and ice. Perfecting the use of heaters, along with the deployment of wayside staff to manually clear ice and snow is something which we continue to work and focus on.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Lindsay said the configuration of the rails forced the Finch West LRT to use electric heaters instead of gas, part of the early teething problems. He said buses had been kept on regular schedules on Finch to accommodate the problems.<\/p>\n

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Despite the problems, Lindsay said Finch West has a record of operating 94 per cent of the time without issues over its first month.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan promise you that we will continue to refine processes, deploy additional resources, and support all teams as they gain experience in operating and maintaining the line,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the TTC said performance on the Finch West LRT was improving over time.<\/p>\n

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\u201cDelays are all relative,\u201d they said. \u201cSome are very minor and involve things like pedestrian incursions or debris on the track that are outside our control, and some are a bit longer.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Descrease article font size Increase article font size The head of Ontario\u2019s transit agency says officials kept full…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48,137726,105053,13404,714,123294],"class_list":{"0":"post-400058","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-finch-west-lrt","12":"tag-metrolinx","13":"tag-ontario-politics","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-toronto-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}