Finch West LRT opens to large crowd

The deep need in Toronto for better transit was clearly expressed by the thousands of local residents lined up in the snow before dawn on Sunday December 7, 2025 to welcome the opening of the Finch West LRT, with the lineup stretching several blocks hours before the doors were due to open. Following speeches by Mayor Olivia Chow and Ontario Minister of Transportation Prabmeet Sarkaria, with press and VIPs riding the first train, TTC and Metrolinx staff welcomed passengers with souvenirs, cookies and activity kits for the many children in attendance. Many transit advocates and Transport Action members also made the trip to ride the line on opening day; everybody was pleased to join the celebrations and see this long-awaited service begin operations.

Unlike TTC streetcars which have fare machines on board, fare payment on Finch West is done before boarding, with Presto machines at all stations. However, the Humber College station, which serves as a hub for bus connections, is also equipped with a traditional TTC farebox and transfer machine.

The line uses Alstom Citadis Sprit trains with the SelTrac signalling system by Hitachi (formerly Thales and developed in Toronto), much like the Ottawa’s Confederation Line, although the Finch West LRT operates in dedicated lanes but not a sealed corridor, so top speed is limited to 60 km/h. Indeed, it immediately became apparent to passengers on the first few trains that the operating speed of the line was not as hoped, taking more than 50 minutes to reach the Humber College station, an average speed barely into double digits and rarely exceeding 40 km/h. The route designed with stations at most major road intersections, and platforms on the far side of the intersection, yet transit vehicles were not being given priority at the traffic lights, so the trains stopped at almost every intersection to wait for the lights before advancing across it to make the station stop. This is an inefficient way to operate, requiring more vehicles to deliver the same frequency, and frustrating to passengers.

Although the main motivation for building Finch West was the address bus overcrowding, pass-ups and delays at peak times, providing improved travel reliability for the community, the forecast benefits in business case for the investment were predicated on also achieving a reduction in journey times, and for Metrolinx and Mosaic, the line’s contractor, to have failed to deliver that is a serious problem, compounding the extended construction time and cost escalation that has affected all recent projects.

Within days of the line’s opening, Mayor Olivia Chow promised to address the issue of Transit Signal Priority (TSP). The equipment for TSP was installed, and is also implemented at many other intersections across the city, although not fully utilized and the city’s reluctance to implement in on the surface section of the Eglinton LRT is something Transport Action has been concerned about, so we will be very pleased if the policy is finally changed and TSP used to its true potential across the city, with benefits to streetcar and bus passengers as well as both LRTs once Eglinton opens, now expected in the early spring.

Even with these issues, the line is certain to be a success and to facilitate additional housing and economic activity along the route, and hopefully it is just the start of delivering the massive amount of additional public transport the region needs. It is vital that rather than wringing hands over the difficulties associated with launching these LRT projects, after many years of underinvestment, the Ontario government continue steady investment so that the industry capacity and engineering skills base developed for them is not dissipated, and the return of experience is fed back into new ensuring the success of projects like the Hamilton LRT and Eglinton East. 

We also hope to see Finch West to extended beyond Humber College to the new Woodbine GO station and the airport.