The head of Ontario’s transit planning agency says Metrolinx is working to “build public trust” months after the launch of the problem-plagued Finch West LRT that left riders feeling frustrated with the transit system.
In late December, the Finch West LRT became the first transit system to open in Toronto since 2022 — an 18-stop, 10-kilometre surface line that replaced the bus network with high-speed rail.
It didn’t take long, however, for the line to hit trouble. Freezing temperatures wreaked havoc with its switching systems, suspending service and forcing passengers onto shuttle buses.
Data on the Finch West LRT’s performance, shared with Global News by Metrolinx, shows service availability during a one-week period dropped to 88 per cent.
In a sit-down interview with Focus Ontario, Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay struck an apologetic tone and said Metrolinx should have tested the track switches “more rigorously” and ultimately failed to properly set expectations for riders about the potential disruptions they were about to face.
“I wouldn’t say it’s acceptable,” Lindsay said of the constant closures caused by frigid temperatures and heavy snowstorms.
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“We get that every disrupted commuter and rider has a very personal story of impact of why the system didn’t work. We acknowledge that and I have a deep empathy,” the CEO added.
Lindsay said, looking back, Metrolinx should have worked with the construction consortium on the “maintenance protocols associated with clearing switches” to ensure a smoother process to get service back on track.
“I wish we had worked with Mosaic (Transit Group) to test those a little bit more rigorously,” Lindsay acknowledged. “Maybe through the course of the last winter, when we were doing some of the final operator driver training.”
Still, Lindsay said it wasn’t a mistake to open the transit line in the middle of winter and suggested the issues would have eventually arisen regardless of the opening date.
“Imagine a world wherein we waited until spring, and then we had seven predictable months of service on the Finch West LRT, only then to discover as the Canadian winter presented itself next year that we’re facing these issues,” Lindsay said.
The number of switch-related incidents, Lindsay said, has been whittled down to single digits after Mosaic and Metrolinx “perfected” a response protocol on how to handle the issue.
While Metrolinx has yet to address the mechanism to thaw out the infrastructure, the agency is offering confidence that the transit line won’t be plagued with the same switching issues next winter.
Ultimately, Lindsay said, one of the biggest lessons learned was communication and that the agency failed to prepare the public for what to expect.
“These sorts of issues on new transit lines are also not unanticipated, right?” Lindsay said. “It isn’t just Ontario as a jurisdiction that has struggled with some of the initial performance of systems like this one and has had to deal with outages or switch issues and these types of things.”
“I certainly wish that we had done more to stress and underline for people: this was meant to be a soft launch of the Finch West LRT,” Lindsay said.
An extended version of the Focus Ontario conversation with Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay will air on Saturday, March 7, 2026.
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