INFRASTRUCTURE TRANSPORTATION
December 05, 2025 3.1K
Finch West Line 6 Opens Sunday: It Could Use Some Improvements
With Line 6 opening on Sunday, December 7th, Toronto will have its first new electric rail line in nearly a quarter century. While we can quibble with its number designation being the same as a subway line ( as opposed to in the 500s like streetcar lines), and while its travel times and user experience are akin to a streetcar, now that we have it, we should turn a page and start thinking about expansion. (Improvements to the existing line in the form of stronger signal priority and faster operations are also obviously warranted, as well as probably some street redesigns to remove left turns.) That’s because one of the biggest criticisms one can level at the Finch West line is right in the name: the line is a suburban antenna along Finch West, and not necessarily for great reason; other major transit connections are within reach, and the line could be made much more useful with some fairly minor extension projects.
Finch West LRV approaching Martin Grove Road, image via Metrolinx
Right now, the line runs 11 kilometres from the York subway extension of University Line 1 west along Finch Avenue to Highway 27. The eastern terminus at the subway is underground, with a suboptimal layout that requires going up, down, and then back up to reach the trams, while the western terminus is in a below-grade trench (that reminds me of 69 St station in Calgary), and nicely extends up and under Highway 27 to reduce surface delays there. The below-grade bits at the ends really do remind me of some hybrid of the St Clair and Spadina streetcars. A nice touch at Humber College is an incredibly long covered walkway that almost extends the entire distance from the rail station to the bus exchange; stuff like this could help make transit projects a bit less expensive, while functionally providing almost the exact same experience as a much more costly pedestrian tunnel.
Now, one of the big issues with the way Toronto’s transit network has been planned is just how many transit routes terminate the second they intersect with rapid transit. Connections direct to rapid transit are obviously good, and drive Toronto’s huge feeder ridership into the subway, but somewhat arbitrarily having lines stop when they get to a subway station means those who aren’t going to the subway need to change vehicles for no real reason. Sometimes you’ll hear things like “most people are going to the subway anyways!” — and I mean, everyone literally does get off, but that’s because they have no other option in most cases. That’s unfortunate because we’ve kind of built that into this new rail line: the Finch buses stop at Yonge from the east and west, forcing everyone to transfer, and the Finch West line stops at Finch West station at the east, short of the other side of Line 1, while the line stops just short of the Kitchener Line and the new Woodbine transit hub in the west.
Finch West Line 6, image courtesy of Metrolinx
To be clear, it’s great to have a new higher-order transit line running to the western University side of Line 1, which has always lagged the Yonge side in ridership and has capacity to spare. It’s also great to electrify a key transit route, and provide it with nicer stops, better accessibility, and probably a more consistent experience. It’s just unfortunate that the line is mostly a Finch West shuttle and not a more functional piece of connective tissue in the regional transit network. Fortunately, we can fix that!
There are two logical eastern and western extensions to Line 6, which can be fairly straightforward and hopefully inexpensive, but would be enormously good for its usefulness as part of the transit network, not just as a subway feeder.
The first and probably most obvious extension is one to the now under construction Woodbine transit hub. This one would be just 3 kilometres, which even at the eye-watering (for a tram) $220 million per kilometre that the first phase of Finch West cost, would be a sub-billion dollar project. The project would probably have two stops initially, just at Woodbine GO and Woodbine Casino, but would probably be wisely built with provision for two additional stops, at Woodbine Mall, and one halfway down from the Casino to the new train station to serve the major new developments planned on the site. This is a real example of where we could build transit before most of the development happens, and where there are so few roads to cross, that the route could be super fast. This would also suddenly provide people along much of the route a faster trip downtown on GO trains. You could also imagine riders using the new link to travel from destinations along the Kitchener-Stouffville line to Humber College and other destinations along Finch, perhaps even taking it all the way to Finch West station to access York University — though a faster bus option would surely exist. This new section would also push up the average stop spacing on the line a bit.
Woodbine Racetrack Development Plan, image courtesy of Woodbine Entertainment
The natural second extension would be twice as long, and would take the line over to Finch station to meet the Yonge side of Line 1, truly turning this line into a suburban version of the St Clair streetcar and the only rail link across Toronto north of Eglinton until any Sheppard subway expansion happens. This extension would be about 6 kilometres, and honestly I’d be biased to have only three intermediate stops at Dufferin, Bathurst, and Granbrook, with potential provision for an extra one in York University heights and roughly halfway between Bathurst and Dufferin. This would mean long term the extension would line up with the roughly ~750m stop spacing on the extension to Woodbine, helping the overall end-to-end travel time improve a little bit relative to the initial section that’s opening on Sunday.
As far as the alignment specifics go, the line could run along the centre of the street to Dufferin before shifting to the north side (which has few driveways) until just west of Bathurst to serve the hospital campus and high school. Then at Bathurst, the line could turn north and dive under the street, and turn east to run at higher speed along the Finch Hydro corridor with only two street crossings, potentially with crossing arms or more costly grade separations. This would allow the line to enter Yonge street just north of the Finch subway station, allowing a big island platform in the middle of Yonge to have stairs straight down to the concourse, allowing for connections to subway trains north and south as well as buses. This extension would, like the western one, create a ton of new potential journeys — boosting ridership by allowing people to hop from the University side of Line 1 to the Yonge side, easing access to North York Centre, York University, Humber College and more, while also reducing transfers and improving reliability.
Toronto Existing and Future Rapid Transit Network Concepts, as of March, 2024
Back to the west, the other obvious and long talked about extension would be to Pearson Airport, having the trams passing west of Woodbine GO station (with space which is hopefully protected) and then turning south on Carlingview, west on Fasken, and south again on Campus Drive to land somewhere near the terminals. Stops would likely be placed with one north of the 409, one to the south, one west of the 427, and somewhere at the airport itself, ideally close to wherever a future Line 5 extension and an eventual new bus terminal end up. This extension would again have a wider stop spacing than earlier sections at nearly ~1 kilometre, and help contribute to faster overall trip times.
It is worth considering, however, if this potential future extension to Line 6 could be made even faster. It might also be a nice impetus for the airport to get on with doing some more redevelopment of the endless parking lots it’s surrounded by, creating new offices, hotels, conference space, and shopping for use by passengers and locals alike, and to help create some non-aerospace revenue that could help bring landing fees down. This extension, like the Woodbine one, wouldn’t serve a lot on the way, but it could have a major institutional backer, and it would be so cool to both have trams at the airport, to go with the existing Union Pearson Express rail link.
Finch West Station, Toronto, image via Metrolinx
While all of these potential projects have been talked about a lot, I want to propose a fourth small extension that I’ve discussed in the past, and which makes a ton of sense. Right now as proposed above, we have the Finch West line running from Pearson to Finch station via Woodbine and Finch West, but a major annoyance: this northwestern crosstown arc is two transfers via a short subway ride through North York Centre away from connecting to Sheppard Line 4.
All the research we have, and firsthand experience with the late Scarborough RT shows, that transit riders really dislike transferring. And since, even if Line 4 does get extended west, it going beyond Downsview seems unlikely, for trips which continue west of Line 1’s University side, it would be ideal if passengers on Line 4 could connect directly to Line 6. Fortunately, there is a natural way to make that happen through North York Centre. You may recall we terminated Line 6 at Finch station on Yonge street facing south, so it seems obvious to eventually extend it through North York Centre to Sheppard Yonge above the subway. At the stations, the large concourses could likely be modified to allow direct access from a wide mid-street island platform like at Finch, while two additional stops could be added at Church and at Hollywood. This would give North York Centre better local connectivity (you could even design the stations and rail to allow any remaining buses on Yonge to use the newly dedicated lanes, something European cities do with their trams all the time), and be a great impetus for a much needed total redesign of the surface-level highway that is Yonge Street through North York Centre, which is unusual in both having a ton of density and having a thriving mix of small businesses and restaurants lining it.
A Finch West LRV train, image by UrbanToronto Forum contributor drum118
To be clear, the point of this project is quite explicitly improved regional and network connectivity, the extra stops along Yonge (functioning as a local to the Yonge subway’s express if you will), marginal extra capacity along this section of Yonge as well as a total streetscape redesign are not the drivers of this project — they are really just nice extras. Given the extension is short, has only a couple stops, and runs through one of the city’s densest nodes outside of downtown, it also seems politically palatable, especially if it came along with a plan to allow for more density, and maybe even turn North York Centre into more of a blob of high density and less of a line of high density.
Now, you may wonder if the Finch West line has the capacity for all of these extensions, and honestly I think it does. Humber College and Finch West station have already been built with 90-metre platforms from the get-go — enabling trains as big as are currently used on Ottawa’s O-Train Line 1 or the Eglinton Line 5 Crosstown — with a project to lengthen the surface stops. At the same time, the line’s maintenance facility near Jane and Finch should have the space to be expanded to hold many more vehicles. In the scenario where the line gets so crowded that it becomes a problem, Line 4 is right there to be extended further west.
Line 6’s imminent opening is obviously very exciting, but perhaps the most exciting thing is that these lighter weight rail lines have some obvious extensions that could be done on the cheap, giving Toronto a way to keep expanding its rail network into the 2030s and 2040s, even if the funding for subway-scale infrastructure dries up.
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Reece Martin is a well-known advocate for good transit, worldwide. He is based in Toronto and blogs at nextmetro.substack.
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UrbanToronto will continue to follow progress on this development, but in the meantime, you can learn more about it from our Database file, linked below. If you’d like, you can join in on the conversation in the associated Line 5 and Line 6 Forum threads, or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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UrbanToronto has a research service, UTPro, that provides comprehensive data on development projects in the Greater Golden Horseshoe — from proposal through to completion. We also offer Instant Reports, downloadable snapshots based on location, and a daily subscription newsletter, New Development Insider, that tracks projects from initial application.
To the west, the other obvious and long talked about extension would be to Pearson Airport, having the trams passing west of Woodbine station (with space which is hopefully protected) and then turning south on Carlingview, west on Fasken, and south again on Campus Drive to land somewhere near the terminals. Stops would likely be placed with one north of the 409, one to the south, one west of the 427, and somewhere at the airport itself, ideally close to wherever Line 5 and an eventual new bus terminal end up. This extension would again have a wider stop spacing than earlier sections at nearly ~1 kilometre and help contribute to faster overall trip times, however it is worth considering if you could get it even faster. It might also be a nice impetus for the airport to get on with doing some more development of the endless parking lots it’s surrounded by, creating new offices, hotels, conference space, and shopping for use by passengers and locals alike, and to help create some non-aerospace revenue that could help bring landing fees down. This extension, like the Woodbine one, wouldn’t serve a lot on the way, but it would also have a major institutional backer and it would be so cool to both have trams at the airport and a third rail link to Pearson airport.
While all of these potential projects have been talked about a lot, I want to propose a fourth small extension that I’ve discussed in the past, and think makes a ton of sense. Right now as proposed, we have the Finch West line (probably just called the Finch line at this point?) running from Pearson to Finch station via Woodbine and Finch West, but the major annoyance with this northern crosstown arc is that continuing it east on Line 4 of the subway requires two transfers and a short ride through North York Centre on Line 1. All the research we have and firsthand experience with the Scarborough RT shows that transit riders really dislike transferring. And since even if Line 4 does get extended west, going far beyond Downsview seems unlikely, for trips which continue west of Line 1’s western leg it would be ideal if passengers on Line 4 could connect directly to Line 6. Fortunately, there is a natural way to make that happen through North York centre. You may recall we terminated Line 6 at Finch station on Yonge street facing south, and it seems obvious to eventually extend it through North York Centre to Sheppard Yonge above the subway. At the stations, the large concourses could likely be modified to allow direct access from a wide mid-street island platform like at Finch, while two additional stops could be added at Church and Hollywood. This would give North York Centre better local connectivity (you could even design the stations and rail to allow any remaining buses on Yonge to use the newly dedicated lanes, something European cities do with their trams all the time) and be a great impetus for a much needed total redesign of the surface-level highway that is Yonge Street through North York centre, which is unusual in both having a ton of density and having a thriving mix of small businesses and restaurants lining it. To be clear, the point of this project is quite explicitly improved regional and network connectivity, the extra stops along Yonge (a local to the Yonge subway’s express if you will), marginal extra capacity along this section of Yonge as well as a total streetscape redesign are not the drivers of this project — they are really just nice extras. Given the extension is short, has only a couple stops, and runs through one of the city’s densest nodes outside of downtown, it also seems politically palatable, especially if it came along with a plan to allow for more density, and maybe even turn North York Centre into more of a blob of high density and less of a line of high density.
Now, you may wonder if the Finch west line has the capacity for all of these extensions, and honestly I think it does. Humber College and Finch West station have already been built with 90-metre platforms from the jump — enabling trains as big as are currently used on Ottawa’s O-Train Line 1 or the Eglinton Crosstown with a project to lengthen the surface stops. At the same time, the line’s maintenance facility near Jane and Finch should have the space to be expanded to hold many more vehicles. In the scenario where the line gets so crowded that it becomes a problem, Line 4 is right there to be extended further west.
Line 6’s imminent opening is obviously very exciting, but perhaps the most exciting thing is that these lighter weight rail lines have some obvious extensions that could be done on the cheap, giving Toronto a way to keep expanding its rail network into the 2030s and 2040s even if the funding for subway-scale infrastructure dries up.
