Finch West LRT opens with free ridership after years of delay

TORONTO – Torontonians commuting across the city’s northwest are being treated to a day of free fares Sunday as service opened on the long-awaited Finch West Line.

The route, which is about 10 kilometres long, is the first new line added to the city’s transit network since 2002. 

It connects service to 18 stations and around 30 bus routes from Finch West Station on the Yonge-University subway line to Humber College, with connections to regional transit lines like GO Transit, York Region Transit, Mississauga’s MiWay and the Brampton Züm.

The TTC says trains will arrive every six and a half minutes during morning and afternoon rush hours and every 10 to 12 minutes at other times. 

The line was first proposed in 2007 but was delayed by years of political debates, changes in funding and repeated construction setbacks, which generated criticism from locals in the area. Construction on the LRT broke ground in 2019 and it was originally slated to open in 2023.

A report by Metrolinx earlier this fall said the line’s total cost was $3.7 billion, including life cycle, operating and maintenance costs, putting the project above the initial $2.5 billion estimate. 

That same report also shows the Eglinton Crosstown LRT — a delay-plagued project also first proposed in 2007 — has incurred a cost of over $13 billion.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said earlier this week the delay-plagued Eglinton Crosstown LRT is expected to open in 2026. 

Construction began on that line in 2011, and it was first expected to open in 2020. September was later touted as a possible opening date but performance issues had pushed that timeline back further. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 7, 2025.