Quick action sought after Finch LRT's slow-speed complaints

TTC chairman and Toronto city councillor Jamaal Myers says he’ll be addressing complaints from riders who have claimed slow travel times aboard the newly opened Finch West LRT — also known as Line 6.

“There’s real work to be done to make sure it delivers the level of rapid transit we all expect, especially after spending $3.5 billion dollars to build the thing,” Myers told reporters at a city hall news conference Wednesday.

Myers said he would be taking the complaints to a TTC board meeting later in the day.

“I’ll be putting forward my two motions to ensure Line 6 and Line 5 (the yet-to-open Eglinton LRT) and our entire streetcar network operate the way rapid transit should, which is, of course, fast,” Myers said. “Riders are right to expect better. Rapid transit must be rapid. If our LRTs move too slowly, riders will stay in their cars and congestion will worsen and the billions of dollars invested in public transit will not deliver the expected results. This is unacceptable.”

Myers said his first motion is asking the TTC, the city of Toronto, Metrolinx and the province to explore transit signal priority, higher service frequency, and “review outdated policies that unnecessarily restrict LRT speeds on Lines 5 and 6.”

“These are all practical, achievable, near-term solutions. Why I’m optimistic is there is political will to get these things moving faster,” Myers added.

His second motion is in regards to street-car speeds.

TTC STREET CARS ‘SLOWEST IN THE WORLD’

“Our recent TTC car board review found that our TTC street cars are, in fact, the slowest in the world. These changes do not require major construction, they simply require political will. We’ve been talking for decades about getting the street cars moving faster. It’s actually now happening,” Myers said.

It’s expected that 50,000 riders will use the Finch LRT line daily with 230,000 living in northwest Toronto and within walking distance of Line 6.

When asked why these issues weren’t worked out before the Finch LRT opened on Sunday, Myers responded: “There’s a lot of shoulda, coulda, wouldas, but I think right now we’re just looking at (the issues) and we’re getting it done.”

“We’re not pointing fingers. We’re not blaming anyone,” he said. “Everybody understands that this needs to be done and everybody is rowing in the same direction. The hope and the expectation is that the work that’s being done on Line 6 will apply to Line 5 so a lot of these teething pains, shall I call them, will be skipped.”

CHOW SAID FINCH LRT CAN BE FASTER

On Tuesday, Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow vowed to speak with both the TTC board and council about the slow-service complaints regarding the Finch West LRT line.

“The train is not as fast as it can be — absolutely — so I’m hearing the feedback,” Chow told reporters. “I’ve ridden the train and I know it can be faster.”

TTCriders spokesperson Andrew Pulsifer, who rode the line himself on opening day, told the Toronto Sun on Tuesday he received reports that it took 50 minutes for riders to get from one end of the 10.3-kilometre line to the other with buses sometimes passing the LRT.

And on Monday, media outlets were reporting the trip took as long as 55 minutes during the morning rush hour.

“The first media advisory (from Metrolinx, dated Sept. 20, 2024) said it would be around 34 minutes, I believe, from one end to the other, which already in itself seemed a bit long,” Pulsifer said.

On Monday, a TTC spokesperson said the one-end-to-the-other-end trip time in morning/afternoon rush hour was scheduled to be 46 minutes.

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