Toronto’s newest light rail line has been scuppered by a Boxing Day winter storm, shutting down service several times during the day, as the city struggles with a blast of snow and hailstones.
Just after 7 a.m. on Friday, the line was closed between Driftwood and Humber College stations because of debris on the line. A couple of hours later, communication problems developed between Tobermory and Humber College.
At one point, around 10 a.m., the entire line was closed and had to be replaced with shuttle buses because of “multiple switch issues” along its route.
By roughly 11 a.m., the TTC said service had resumed across the line.
It only took a couple of hours, however, for the line to go down again. This time, a mechanical problem between Humber College and Martin Grove stations stopped trains from running, leading to replacement buses.
That problem was reported just before 2 p.m. and extended to the entire line shortly after. It was reportedly resolved around 5 p.m.
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A spokesperson for the TTC said there were issues with the switching signals, a problem the line has experienced before in cold weather. They suggested the city’s transit agency had few details of what had gone wrong.
“As we understand it, there are switch issues that Metrolinx and their maintainer are responding to,” they told Global News. “That’s as much as we know.”
The Finch West LRT opened in December to complaints about its speeds and technical issues. It was built by a contractor for the provincial transit agency Metrolinx but is operated by the TTC.
It is the first new transit line to open in the city since the early 2000s. Already, concerns about the speed it must travel through intersections and long waits at traffic lights have led to a political push for signal priority and increased speeds.
The issues also coincide with freezing temperatures and winter storm conditions.
During testing last winter, Metrolinx found snow-clearing issues were bringing its trains to a halt on the line. One official observed at the time that, if the line had been open, customers would have been stuck walking.
Metrolinx said those issues related to how the City of Toronto managed its snow clearing and that they would not be repeated this year.
The agency did not immediately respond to questions from Global News about the latest shutdown.
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