Finch West Line 6 LRT

[Amare]

Since none of them have even hinted about a vehicle defect that leads me to believe they are operating fine.

The Citadis are not operating fine on Finch, i wont get into the details again because they've already been mentioned frequently before.

Steve Munro posted a summary of all the December 2025 issues with the line, and it's clear the Citadis has been plagued with issues:

 

[Obsidian]

The Citadis are not operating fine on Finch, i wont get into the details again because they've already been mentioned frequently before.

Steve Munro posted a summary of all the December 2025 issues with the line, and it's clear the Citadis has been plagued with issues:

View attachment 715727

Unless you have the data on the other TTC lines how would you know if the vehicles on Line 6 are an outlier.

 

[Amare]

Unless you have the data on the other TTC lines how would you know if the vehicles on Line 6 are an outlier.

The info on the Flexity Freedoms will be exposed in due time (notwithstanding the info that's already known about software issues), while the info on the Flexity Outlooks has been available for many years.

 

[turbanplanner]

Materially, there's not many cases where tram is needed over BRT. I'd reckon the 6FW setup can 2-3x BRT capacity, but frankly I don't know if that capacity is truly needed. but the primary benefits of trams are not in carrying more passengers or speed, it's really more about the soft benefits. Trams appear more "solid" in existence unlike BRT and we can argue about whether that's true or not but that is the conception. Additionally it is more comfortable and more spacious. It may materially be similar but results wise trams bring more passengers and economic benefits over the exact same thing but a bus.

As for penalties... All's in the contract that nobody knows. Transparent as a brick wall.

What do you consider successful when it comes to a BRT?

Aside from trip times, personally, consider that Mississauga busway a failure.

Same story with all the BRT‘s in York region, though I don’t really have any experience with them in a rush hour!

The only one I know who is successful is Zum but they don’t even have a right of way for most of their routes!

You have the gold plated VIVA system, which you can drive for 20 minutes on any of the routes and not see a bus in that direction!!!

 

[hw621]

What do you consider successful when it comes to a BRT?

Aside from trip times, personally, consider that Mississauga busway a failure.

Same story with all the BRT‘s in York region, though I don’t really have any experience with them in a rush hour!

The only one I know who is successful is Zum but they don’t even have a right of way for most of their routes!

You have the gold plated VIVA system, which you can drive for 20 minutes on any of the routes and not see a bus in that direction!!!

As for VIVA, when you finally see a bus, it's most likely stuck behind a red light lol

 

[CapitalSeven]

The Finch line has exactly one curve of any importance, and the rigs don't have any serious trouble with straightish track. The performance problems are in the meatware, not the hardware, I think.

 

[yurt2022]

The existing Crosstown vehicles are no longer being made.

Can everyone stop parroting this?

Alstom is literally producing Flexities for the TTC right now, which are basically an identical vehicle aside from gauge.

Alstom isn't going to gut this model just because it was designed by Bombardier...

 

[smallspy]

Can everyone stop parroting this?

Alstom is literally producing Flexities for the TTC right now, which are basically an identical vehicle aside from gauge.

Alstom isn't going to gut this model just because it was designed by Bombardier...

First off, the last one was completed a couple of months ago.

Second, while they may have been derived from each other they are quite different in the details. The bodies are different, the articulations are different, the motors are different, and the number of motors is different. The input voltage is different. One has more equipment to deal with the signalling systems.

Dan

 

[jmi22]

What were they testing when they "tested" Line 6? Surely some of these failures should have shown up...

How pretty the lights on the drivers control panel looked, and ease of balancing a box of donuts on the dash.

 

[jmi22]

Wouldn't be a bad idea for Line 6 to be the next SRT. Maybe then, we can actually improve transit on the corridor by getting rid of the dysfunctional tram line that made both transit worse and slower and road conditions worse and slower, decreasing the quality of commutes for everyone, and hopefully kill the idea of surface LRTs (garbage) ever being built in our city in our lifetimes.

Two Line 5 Shuttles zoomed me by on the surface section of the LRT today. On Tuesday's commute, I'm actually just going to take the bus instead. Nobody I know sees this and thinks "Oh, this line is a good reason for me to not drive" unlike how they view Lines 1 and 2 and they actually use that instead of driving.

As for signal priority, I'm sure the city will botch it given it's track record, and even if they improve it, can still in theory be removed if a future Provincial or local government thinks that it impedes traffic especially as traffic worsens in the decades ahead.

I've spoken out against them to the city and provincial government, got many more people to do so, and I will continue to do my part to ensure we don't deteriorate our city with half measures (that are actually taking us back half way rather than forward) just to please the few that have convinced themselves that oversized streetcars are somehow "a solution to our transit crisis".

Yep, one day we'll have the walnuts to tear up this joke of a tram and elevate Line 4 along the corridor or something. Line 4 always should have been a true crosstown line and breaking up E/W travel thru the north of the city along different lines was moronic from the jump, even if Line 6 was anywhere near as fast as Miller and MX claimed it would be.

 

[Monarch Butterfly]

How pretty the lights on the drivers control panel looked, and ease of balancing a box of donuts on the dash.

But are they blinking in sequence?

 

[duffo]

Can everyone stop parroting this?

Alstom is literally producing Flexities for the TTC right now, which are basically an identical vehicle aside from gauge.

Alstom isn't going to gut this model just because it was designed by Bombardier...

The TTC order was made in 2021, the same year that Bombardier was acquired by Alstom. From what I've heard (through the grapevine), five years out, they are not interested in taking on more Flexity orders.

Can also read between the lines on the mysterious delay to a supplemental Line 5 ECWE fleet order. Flexity would be the natural choice, if it was available....

 

[ssiguy2]

What do you consider successful when it comes to a BRT?

Aside from trip times, personally, consider that Mississauga busway a failure.

Same story with all the BRT‘s in York region, though I don’t really have any experience with them in a rush hour!

The only one I know who is successful is Zum but they don’t even have a right of way for most of their routes!

You have the gold plated VIVA system, which you can drive for 20 minutes on any of the routes and not see a bus in that direction!!!

A BRT/streetcar/LRT are as fast or as slow as you want to make them. It has nothing to do with the technology but rather how the system is set up. If you converted VIVA to rail, having so little signal priority, so many stops, and such horrid frequency, your LRT wouldn't be any faster.

The VIVA system should not have been funded nor should any system like it. If a system gets funding for infrastructure, it should come with a reassurance from the transit agency/city that a good level of service should be provided. If the region refuses to properly fund operations then the QP should do the same with funding the infrastructure,

.

 

[Obsidian]

Based on this report, it looks like the with TSP the trains will still be stopped by red lights.

"However, the city has not indicated any plans to implement red light truncation as part of TSP changes."

How will Traffic Signal Priority for LRTs impact your drive?

With LRT vehicles set to get priority at intersections along both Finch and Eglinton, will drivers be left in the dust as trains speed by?

toronto.citynews.ca

 

[turbanplanner]

Based on this report, it looks like the with TSP the trains will still be stopped by red lights.

"However, the city has not indicated any plans to implement red light truncation as part of TSP changes."

How will Traffic Signal Priority for LRTs impact your drive?

With LRT vehicles set to get priority at intersections along both Finch and Eglinton, will drivers be left in the dust as trains speed by?

toronto.citynews.ca

Red light truncation can shorten a red light so that the LRT vehicle doesn’t have to wait as long, but it doesn’t work at intersections with timed pedestrian crosswalks unless design changes are implemented as well.