This week, the Ontario government made two major transit announcements that will have a major impact on communities in west Toronto and the GTHA. One of these announcements remained almost hidden and received little media attention.
Finch West Line 6 vehicle in winter, picture by Reece Martin
By November 3, 2025, the TTC will assume control of the Finch West light rail line. In case you haven't heard it 1,000 times, it's a 10km, 18-stop route that runs from Finch West station on the University subway line 1 to Humber College. The line bears close resemblance to contemporary or reconstructed streetcar routes such as Spadina and St. Clair. There is both a subway station at Finch West, where connections can be made entirely indoors and within the pay zone to the subway, and an underground station in a ditch at Humber College, connected to the school's bus station via a long covered walkway – a nice touch that we should consider more often when pedestrian tunnels are prohibitively expensive. En route between the two lines, the line stops at several above-ground stops with more generous canopies than the Eglinton light rail line and a black design reminiscent of some modern GO stations such as Agincourt and Bramalea. There are also numerous non-transit improvements along the route, including bike paths, an off-road pedestrian path under Highway 400, and space for a community center at the maintenance and storage facility near Jane and Finch.
Finch West Line 6, image courtesy of Metrolinx
The actual opening date has not been announced and is expected to be up to the TTC and the city, as the TTC will be the operator of the line. It remains to be seen how this potentially messy relationship will work, with different parties responsible for operating rather than maintaining the route, but various disputes over this project and the Eglinton Crosstown do not inspire confidence. Some early reports suggest the route could open as early as December 7th. While we should be cautious about fixed dates for these projects, we are fairly late in the commissioning process, so there should be less unpredictability.
Finch West Line 6 vehicle during testing, picture by Reece Martin
Of course, the opening of the Finch West line will also be transformative for Toronto in many ways, and that is very exciting. It appears to be our first entirely new transit line in over 20 years (something we expected from the Eglinton line and not a project that began eight years later in 2019). It will also be busy from day one essentially converting the Finch West bus – one of the continent's busiest bus routes – to rail. It also prepares us for two major possible expansions of North York Center and the future Woodbine station, creating a solid, if rather slow, northern crosstown route. The line also has the potential to show the light to TTC: while the correct signal priority still appears to be without lights, both Finch West and Eglinton use double-ended streetcars with doors on either side, as well as modern signaling and double switches. Perhaps given these technologies and the improved speed and reliability they provide, as well as the more cost-effective crossover reversals (as opposed to space-hungry loops), city planners will become more open to using this technology in future tram network expansions.
Eglinton Line 5, image courtesy of Metrolinx
A second announcement was actually at the end of the Ontario government's press release: As it turns out, some portions of the Eglinton Crosstown project will actually open in mid-November, so in some ways the 14+ year project is finally benefiting the region's transit riders and pedestrians. The first news is that a portion of the new underground walkways built for the Eglinton West (soon to be Cedarvale) station will be opened to help people navigate the large and car-heavy intersection of Eglinton Avenue West and Allen Road. But even more significant from a public transit perspective, the Mt. Dennis station will open to GO Train and UP Express service, while the TTC bus station will serve some routes. This means that the ever-increasing Kitchener Line service (which we discussed in a recent article) as well as UP trains to Mt. Dennis Airport will suddenly make Weston like Weston – one of the most well-connected places in the region overnight – with an average of over 6 local trains per hour each direction.
Mount Dennis Station from the air, image via Apple Maps
The opening of Mt Dennis (along with Confederation, as discussed in an article yesterday) marks GO's 72nd and 73rd stations, meaning we already have enough stations under construction (thanks largely to the remnants of the SmarTrack program) to take the network past the 75 station mark. Major changes are underway across the region and we are finally starting to see progress towards opening up.
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Reece Martin is a well-known advocate for good transit around the world. He lives in Toronto and blogs at nextmetro.substack.
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UrbanToronto will continue to monitor the progress of this development, but in the meantime you can learn more in our database file linked below. If you'd like, you can join the discussion in the associated Line 5 and Line 6 forum threads, or leave a comment in the designated area on this page.
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