Last winter, as a major snowstorm blanketed Toronto, Metrolinx officials appeared to be breathing a sigh of relief that one of their flagship transit projects still wasn’t open to the public.
The Finch West LRT, which was in its testing and commissioning phase, was being buried in mounds of ice and snow thrown up by city crews, leaving the empty test vehicles struggling.
“Thank goodness for transit riders the Finch LRT is not operational,” one wrote in a message to CEO Michael Lindsay. “Folks in the corridor would be walking the way the (City of Toronto) is clearing snow.”
The message, obtained by Global News using freedom of information laws, is one of a flurry sent to and from Lindsay as more than 20 cm of snow was dumped on Toronto in a winter blast.
The massive February storm forced widespread school closures and a parking ban, while the city faced criticism for a slow and inflexible snow-clearing strategy.
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One of the problems with the operation appears to have involved city crews clearing excess snow onto the tracks where testing cars were running for the delayed Finch West LRT.
The light rail project was originally meant to be ready to open in 2023, a date that was pushed. Sources now tell Global News it is expected to open by Dec. 7, 2025.
Completion of the route’s stations and stops wrapped last year, meaning the most recent winter was the first when trains ran regularly during the snow.
A series of texts to and from Lindsay, seen by Global News, reveal how the snowstorm sent testing on the Finch West LRT sideways and those at the very top scrambling to right the ship.
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The first message in the chain suggests trains were forced to stop running as snow fell, and City of Toronto crews cleared it into massive piles.
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“Trying to get ready for validation again tomorrow, but tough to run a (light rail vehicle) through those winrows,” the message said.
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Lindsay responded to say he would call the City of Toronto’s top civil servant.
“City manager now taking an active interest in snow removal plan along roads which cross the alignment,” Lindsay later replied to the staff member. “Would note that it is an automatic stop and stay when heads of rails cannot be seen.”
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He attached a number of photos to the text, which showed rails on the route completely buried in snow.
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A spokesperson for Metrolinx said the problems experienced during the storm were not because of how the Finch West LRT has been designed, but rather were issues with the City of Toronto’s snow-clearing plan.
“This is not an issue with how the LRT runs in winter weather,” they said in a statement. “The city’s contractor inadvertently cleared snow from the roadway onto the LRT guideway. We have spoken to the city to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
While the original timeline for the light rail route means it would have been open in February if it had not been delayed, one expert said the incident shows why the extensive testing and re-testing of routes is so important.
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Matti Siemiatycki, director of the infrastructure institute and professor of geography and planning at the University of Toronto, said the takeaway from the troubled Ottawa LRT was that no system should launch without extensive testing.
“Lesson number one is don’t skimp on the commissioning, don’t skimp on the testing, make sure this thing is correct,” he said.
“In some ways, commissioning and doing trial runs during winter weather is actually good to make sure that it works. So it’s not when passengers are on there and the doors aren’t working.”
Recent snow didn’t impact tests
Early signs are that the issues experienced last winter won’t be repeated.
A blast of 10 cm of snow, which landed on Toronto in November, had no impact on the tests being run on either the Eglinton Crosstown LRT or the Finch West, Lindsay said this week.
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“The snow did not impact testing,” he said on Monday. “Still working with the TTC to finalize plans to put passengers on Finch very soon.”
There is still no formal opening date for the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, although the province maintains there is still a possibility it could open this year.
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