(This sort of thing doesn’t happen very often!)
This Sunday December 7th, the first Transit City light rail line opens! Say hello to Line 6 Finch West!
In case you missed the news: it’s really happening. Line 6 Finch West is a new 11-kilometre mostly-surface light rail line running from Finch West station on Line 1 to Humber Polytechnic’s North Campus. It runs in a reserved right-of-way in the centre of Finch West allowing vehicles to speed past traffic congestion, and should provide much more reliable and predictable transit service across Etobicoke. Reliability is one of the biggest predictors of transit success, so we’ll be keeping an eye on ridership and on-time performance for sure.
At launch, Line 6 LRT service will run from 6 AM – 10 PM Monday to Saturday and 7:30 AM – 10 PM on Sundays. After this winter’s “soft launch” period, our understanding is that the schedule will be extended to match the rest of the rapid transit network.
CodeRedTO volunteers will be along the route on Sunday December 7 starting at 7:30 AM with some free pins for the first riders – keep your eyes peeled!
This route runs from the edge of York Centre ward, across Humber RIver-Black Creek, and deep into Etobicoke North ward. The 36 Finch West bus which currently runs this route carries about 40,000 riders per day, and these three wards have a combined population of over 330,000 residents. If you’d like to learn more about the neighbourhoods Line 6 passes through, the University of Toronto’s School of Cities has published some fascinating Maps of Line 6 Finch West showing population density, green space, car space, and more!
Toronto is in the middle of a very large transit expansion, with new lines and stations expected to open fairly regularly over the next decade. You can learn more about the expansion projects on the City of Toronto’s Transit Expansion website. And if you like maps, they’ve got a doozy too!
We hope to see you on Line 6 one day very soon!