The Finch West LRT has been plagued with issues since it began running in early December, repeatedly going out of service, particularly during snowfalls.
In a one-on-one interview with 680 NewsRadio, Michael Lindsay, the President and CEO of Metrolinx took responsibility for the issues but largely blamed a third-party contractor for failing to clear snow and ice from the track and switches on Line 6.
“I’m going to call out our partners at Mosaic transit group,” he says, noting failures with their protocols and their subcontractors to clear snow.
Lindsay says snow and ice hasn’t been cleared off track switches, leading to repeated stoppages.
“The performance of Mosaic in respect of their maintenance activity hasn’t been acceptable and we’re using the contract levers that we have, the financial penalties that are being applied, in order to prompt them for better behaviour,” says Lindsay
The Metrolinx CEO also called out the TTC and the City of Toronto for issues with ploughing on the line.
“It’s about working with our partners at the TTC in order to get the protocols associated with accessing track and blowing snow off of switches right and fast, it’s about working with the City of Toronto to make sure city ploughs aren’t inadvertently pushing snow back onto the alignment on heavy snow days”
When asked why these issues weren’t worked out during extensive testing of the line before it opened, Lindsay said “I wouldn’t dispute that. The testing was good. We’ve got to be better.”
As for when the line 6 issues will get resolved, Lindsay says they are working on it right now.
Over the three weeks between December 7 and December 31, 2025, the line, which is still technically still in the soft-launch phase, reported 350 delays.
