Finch West LRT forced to close for 24 hours after snowstorm as winter woes continue

The sun rose and fell in Toronto on Thursday without a single train carrying passengers along the route of the brand new Finch West LRT.

All day, crews worked to dig out the rapid transit line and get it operational, with substantially less success than those trying to reopen the Don Valley Parkway or clear Toronto’s streets.

As of 8:18 a.m. Friday, the Finch West LRT was still not running.

The light rail route launched in December after a testing regime officials said was rigorous, but it has since been beset by disruptions and suspensions, particularly in colder weather.

A spokesperson for the TTC offered few details about the latest, near day-long suspension of the line.

“We are advised the issues are weather related. No ETA from Metrolinx yet,” they wrote in an email. “There issues with both switches and vehicles.”

The suspension in a snowstorm is something that happened to the Finch West LRT last year while it was being tested. It was something officials pledged they had learned from.

Text messages previously obtained by Global News revealed that during last February’s snowstorm, Metrolinx staff expressed relief that the line wasn’t yet open.

3:34 Metrolinx prepares to open long-delayed LRTs in winter

In November, when asked about the texts by Global News, Metrolinx promised lessons had been learned and the issue would not be repeated.

“This is not an issue with how the LRT runs in winter weather,” the agency 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.”

1:45 Power surge knocks Finch West LRT out of service in new line’s latest service disruption

On Thursday, however, a blast of freezing temperatures and snow disabled the entire line.

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Metrolinx said that this time around, the city hadn’t repeated the mistakes of last February and made the issue worse, but the level of snow dropped overnight, which meant clearing the tracks was proving difficult.

“I can confirm that the City’s snow plowing work is not the cause of the Line 6 closure,” a spokesperson said.

“Line 6 service is being impacted by weather‑related delays, primarily due to ongoing snow‑clearing efforts. Maintenance crews are closely monitoring and clearing tracks to make them operational again.”