How can a NEW Transit Line be THIS BAD!? (Finch West LRT)

0:00 The Finch West LRT is a light rail

0:03 public transit line in the suburbs of Toronto, Canada.

0:06 It is Toronto’s first new public transit line in over twenty years,

0:10 and there was a lot of excitement about it.

0:12 So when it finally opened in December of 2025,

0:15 the whole city was watching… only to find out that… it's really bad.

0:21 There are many issues with the way this transit line was built,

0:24 but the one that everyone is talking about is how slow it is.

0:27 On the opening day, the train took 55

0:29 minutes to travel the 10.3 kilometre route Westbound,

0:32 which is an average speed of less than 12 kilometers per hour,

0:36 and significantly slower than the bus line it replaced.

0:40 There have been videos on social media

0:42 showing people racing the LRT train on foot, and winning every time.

0:46 And so Toronto city council scrambled to find ways to speed it up.

0:51 So let’s talk about the mistakes that were made on this new transit line,

0:55 which ones might be fixable,

0:56 And why none of these problems should’ve been a surprise to anyone.

1:05 [NJB Intro] I ride a lot of transit,

1:07 and this year in I’ve visited several new LRT lines.

1:11 Including the new Bybanen line in Bergen, Norway,

1:14 The recent LRT extension in Luxembourg City, And the new L-Line in Copenhagen.

1:20 Those last two were for my upcoming

1:22 Nebula show that’s all about great public transit,

1:24 so watch out for that in February!

1:27 [New LRT!] [Ooh it's still got that new LRT smell] And look,

1:31 I’m not a public transit expert,

1:33 but I play one on TV, and I know what it’s like to ride a modern LRT line.

1:38 So I can confidently say that the Finch West LRT is worse

1:41 than any of these other new LRT lines in pretty much every way.

1:45 Oh, a word of warning… I’m going to complain a lot in this video,

1:49 for obvious reasons.

1:50 If that’s not your thing, then I recommend you watch my previous video,

1:53 where I talk very positively about

1:55 an interesting train line I visited in Switzerland.

1:58 It’s likely that you haven’t seen that video,

2:00 because my negative videos perform significantly

2:02 better than my positive ones on YouTube.

2:05 I’ll leave a link in the description.

2:07 OK, back to Toronto.

2:08 The Finch West LRT started out as part of “Transit City”,

2:11 a public transit plan proposed by Toronto Mayor David Miller in 2007.

2:16 As part of Transit City, the Finch West LRT was planned to be longer

2:21 and extend to the other subway station on Finch Avenue.

2:24 It was scheduled to open in 2013.

2:27 That was probably an optimistic estimate,

2:30 but it shows you how long this LRT line has been under consideration.

2:34 By the way, in case you only tangentially follow Toronto transit developments,

2:38 the Finch West LRT is a different line than the Eglinton Crosstown,

2:42 an LRT line in midtown Toronto

2:44 that is partially above-ground and partially under ground,

2:47 and is wildly over budget and delayed by several years.

2:51 The Crosstown still hasn’t opened yet, but when it does,

2:54 it will likely have exactly the same problems as the Finch West LRT.

2:58 The good news though is that anything the city does to speed

3:02 up Finch West will also apply to the LRT on Eglinton.

3:06 These two LRT lines are the only

3:08 remaining remnants of the original Transit City plan.

3:11 The reason why Transit City was killed,

3:14 and why these two remaining LRT lines were so delayed,

3:17 was because the project was illegally cancelled

3:19 by the infamous crack-smoking mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford, and his brother Doug.

3:24 As for Doug, he is now the premiere of Ontario,

3:27 so it really pissed me off to see his shit-eating grin

3:31 in the press photos on the opening day of the Finch West LRT,

3:34 when the reality is that he did everything

3:36 in his power to kill and/or cripple them.

3:38 If you want more details of this, I have a previous

3:40 video about the many ways Doug Ford is ruining Toronto,

3:43 and I’ll leave a link in the description.

3:45 The part about Transit City starts about 14 minutes in.

3:48 I was in Toronto visiting family for Christmas,

3:51 so I had a chance to ride the new

3:53 Finch West LRT on the morning of December 22nd,

3:56 which was about two weeks after it opened.

3:58 Let’s start with the good stuff.

4:00 The connection between the subway and the LRT

4:02 at Finch West station is long, but pretty nice.

4:05 I like the red subway tiles and the signage is very clear.

4:09 I was also glad to see that they built some new public washrooms too,

4:12 which is always a good addition to any rapid transit station.

4:15 I should note that if you’re going by wheelchair

4:18 you need to go down this absolutely huge switchback ramp.

4:22 And then take an elevator to the LRT platforms.

4:24 I really hope that there is a better way

4:26 to get to the platform by wheelchair that I missed,

4:29 otherwise this part shouldn’t be in the “good” section.

4:32 Going up the escalator brings you to the LRT,

4:35 and since this is currently the end of the line,

4:38 there will always be a train waiting.

4:40 The trams are very nice.

4:42 They are spacious and have big windows.

4:45 And the seats are comfortable and have some decent padding.

4:48 There’s lots of room for wheelchairs and baby carriages.

4:51 And of course they have level boarding at all stations,

4:54 making them very easy to get on and off.

4:56 The ride is smooth and comfortable, and there’s really not much to complain

5:00 about when it comes to the vehicles themselves.

5:03 These trains are built by Alstom,

5:05 and they’re the North American variant of a tram series

5:08 that has been used in dozens of cities around the world.

5:12 That being said, these are the same

5:14 model used for the O-Train in Ottawa, Canada,

5:16 an LRT line that had many technical problems in its first few years,

5:20 Including a derailment when it was carrying passengers.

5:23 But that was ages ago and I’m sure it’s fine…

5:26 This tram that I was on had a date stamp of 2019,

5:30 which is an indication of how long this LRT line was delayed.

5:34 The tram stops along the line are pretty nice,

5:36 and bigger than I thought they would be.

5:38 They have a basic roof to shelter passengers while they wait.

5:41 And digital signs to let them know how

5:43 long it will be before the next train arrives.

5:46 By the way, any flickering of the signs that you might see in this video

5:50 are entirely due to the camera shutter

5:52 and they don’t look like this in real life.

5:54 The trains are scheduled to arrive about every five to seven minutes

5:58 during rush hour and about seven to ten minutes at other times.

6:01 On my return trip I got on and off

6:04 the train several times and rarely had to wait very long,

6:07 Though just as I was leaving there was a bizarrely long gap in service.

6:11 The tram stops also have ticket machines,

6:13 As well as readers for the Presto transit card,

6:16 that also work with contactless debit cards and credit cards.

6:20 And like all stations in Toronto,

6:21 you only need to tap when you get on, as there are no per-distance fares.

6:25 It is a little bit weird though that the payment machines are at the stops,

6:30 instead of on the LRT itself,

6:32 like what is common for other surface transit in Toronto.

6:35 I guess they wanted this to feel more

6:37 like a metro experience than a bus or streetcar.

6:41 The Finch West LRT line was built by Metrolinx,

6:44 an organisation owned by the Ontario provincial government,

6:47 and responsible for building transit projects.

6:49 As usual though, since governments aren’t

6:51 allowed to build anything themselves anymore,

6:54 this LRT line was a public-private partnership with a consortium

6:58 of companies under the name Mosaic Transit Group.

7:01 Who have ducked out and let their website domain name expire.

7:04 Now that the line has been built and tested

7:06 it has been handed off to the Toronto Transit Commission,

7:09 better known as the TTC, who will operate the line.

7:13 So with these three organisations involved,

7:14 it has resulted in a lot of finger-pointing about who

7:17 exactly is responsible for the problems with this LRT line.

7:21 And the biggest issue everyone is talking about right now is speed.

7:24 These trains are slow.

7:26 Really slow.

7:27 The most obvious problem is traffic lights.

7:30 Despite the fact that these LRT trains run in their own dedicated lane,

7:35 they do not have priority at traffic lights.

7:38 Which means that it is very, very common for them to get stuck at a red light.

7:44 When I rode the LRT it needed to stop at almost every intersection.

7:48 In total my one-way trip took 43 minutes,

7:51 which is an average speed of around 14 kilometers per hour.

7:55 That’s painfully slow even compared to other light rail lines in Canada.

8:00 For example, the LRT in Kitchener-Waterloo nearby

8:02 has an average speed that’s twice as fast,

8:05 despite also running a route that goes through

8:08 some of the busiest areas of the city.

8:11 Apparently this LRT line is supposed to have

8:14 a basic form of traffic signal priority,

8:16 but only to extend the green signal time if the train

8:19 is approaching and only if it is running behind schedule, which is ridiculous.

8:24 The point of traffic signal priority on an LRT is

8:29 not just to let a late vehicle catch up to schedule,

8:32 it’s also to make that schedule more efficient,

8:35 so that taking public transit can be faster than driving.

8:39 But what is even more infuriating than a modern LRT sitting at a red light,

8:44 is that, even when the light turns green,

8:47 it turns green first for left-turning cars.

8:50 I don’t know if there’s a city in the world

8:54 with light timing this stupid for an LRT line.

8:57 It is absolutely insane that this rapid transit line cost $3.5 billion to build,

9:03 and yet trains full of people need to sit at a red

9:07 light so that a couple of drivers can turn left first.

9:12 Toronto City Council is promising to change the signal timing,

9:15 and to provide signal priority at all times, but I’m worried that it will only

9:20 ever be this watered-down “extend the green light, if possible” priority,

9:23 rather than a system that actively changes

9:25 the traffic light to green ahead of time,

9:28 like what is common in many other cities.

9:31 An LRT like this should almost never need to stop at any red light, ever.

9:37 That should be the expectation.

9:40 Unfortunately traffic signals are not the only

9:42 speed problem on this light rail line,

9:44 as the trains also travel unusually slowly, even between stops.

9:48 These trains have the ability to run

9:51 significantly faster than this, but they don’t,

9:54 because of arbitrary speed restrictions.

9:57 One of the things I noticed about every single new LRT line I visited this year,

10:01 is that they all travel at about 70 kilometers per hour in suburban locations.

10:06 On this LRT line, the TTC decided

10:08 to implement a 60 kilometers per hour speed limit.

10:11 OK, fine.

10:12 Whatever.

10:12 Close enough.

10:13 But it’s not even going that fast.

10:16 When I rode the Finch West LRT,

10:18 the speed between stops was typically less than 40 kilometres per hour,

10:22 and the highest speed I ever saw was 56 kilometers

10:25 per hour… but that was only for a few seconds.

10:29 What’s much worse though is that they have also implemented

10:32 a speed limit of 25 kilometres per hour through intersections,

10:36 and 15 kilometres per hour at platforms.

10:39 So even if the train does manage to get a green light,

10:43 it will slow down to less than 25

10:45 kilometers per hour to go through the intersection.

10:48 This is a ridiculous speed restriction that you

10:51 won’t find on any other modern LRT line.

10:54 The TTC claims that they need to run

10:57 the trams at these low speeds for safety reasons,

11:00 and even had the nerve to say that it

11:03 was part of Toronto’s commitment to Vision Zero, a road safety program.

11:06 I would love to see Toronto implement

11:09 a 25 kilometre per hour speed limit for cars,

11:12 the things that are overwhelmingly responsible

11:15 for the vast majority of road deaths, and see how well that goes over.

11:19 And of course trams in Sweden,

11:21 the place where Vision Zero was invented, are not crippled in this way.

11:26 Swedish cities do sometimes have a 30 kilometer per hour speed limit for trams,

11:30 but that's when they're in the busy parts of the city where

11:33 the speed limit is 30 kilometres per hour for every other vehicle as well.

11:38 There is no justifiable reason for these suburban

11:41 LRTs to run this slowly through intersections,

11:44 especially when the speed limit for cars is 50 kilometres per hour.

11:48 And since speed limits are rarely enforced in Toronto,

11:51 drivers will always be going much faster than that too.

11:54 It should be noted that, even after the recent meetings with city council,

11:57 there is no plan to change these ridiculous speed limits.

12:00 I also noticed that the LRT drivers are

12:03 in absolutely no hurry to get up to speed.

12:06 The other LRTs I’ve taken recently accelerated very quickly from stopped,

12:10 as one of the major benefits of modern LRTs is

12:13 how quickly their powerful electric motors can get up to speed.

12:16 But you'd never know that here in Toronto.

12:19 I don’t know if this lack of acceleration is also a policy of the TTC,

12:23 but wow, these trams accelerate so slowly.

12:27 You’d think they were pulled by horses.

12:30 This glacial acceleration may be related

12:32 to another issue with this transit line though:

12:35 the stations are really close together.

12:37 The new LRT in Copenhagen may be the most similar to Toronto.

12:42 It also runs alongside a major suburban arterial road

12:45 in an area with lots of industrial parks and single family homes.

12:49 Here all of the stations are at least a kilometre apart.

12:53 Station spacing is important to get right, especially in suburban areas.

12:56 If stations are too far apart,

12:58 then there won’t be enough people living near one.

13:00 But if stations are too close together,

13:02 then the train needs to stop so often that it never gets up to speed.

13:06 And that’s a major problem with the Finch West LRT.

13:10 There’s a station at almost every intersection.

13:12 There are several places where you can clearly see one station from the other.

13:17 In this case, the stations are less than 450 metres apart.

13:21 This means that these LRTs never really get a chance to get up to speed,

13:25 which means that, even if the traffic light issues were resolved tomorrow,

13:29 this would still not be a very fast transit line,

13:32 because nothing about this LRT line was built with speed in mind.

13:37 Speed issues aside, there’s something even

13:39 more fundamentally wrong about this LRT line, and the best way to describe it is

13:45 “car-centric transit.” There are so many design decisions

13:48 that make it clear that the priority was not

13:51 to make the best possible experience for transit riders,

13:53 but rather, to design a surface

13:56 transit line that inconveniences drivers the least.

13:59 Along the entire length of the line,

14:01 this LRT runs right in the middle of a suburban arterial road,

14:05 what is sometimes called a “stroad”.

14:07 This means that at every single station,

14:09 transit passengers are dropped off in the middle of the stroad,

14:12 and need to cross multiple lanes of car traffic to get to where they’re going.

14:17 This is not only unpleasant, it’s also unsafe.

14:20 And it was kinda dystopian to see these Metrolinx posters reminding pedestrians

14:25 to pay close attention because

14:26 of the dangers caused by their car-centric transit.

14:30 Several other new LRT lines I visited in 2025

14:33 also ran through suburban areas and along busy roads,

14:36 but none of the stops felt as hostile as the ones in Toronto.

14:41 For example, the LRT in Luxembourg runs along

14:44 this very wide suburban arterial road for several kilometres,

14:47 but instead of running right in the middle of it like in Toronto,

14:51 it was designed to run along the side of the road.

14:54 Which means that some destinations are immediately accessible

14:57 to people riding transit without having to interact with cars.

15:01 Or consider this stop in a very suburban area along the new LRT line in Bergen.

15:06 Not only is this station area very nice,

15:09 you can also envision how there could be a pedestrianised block built here,

15:13 with some buildings and shops and restaurants.

15:15 The Finch West LRT is designed such that there

15:18 will never be any stops directly next to a building, or park, or car-free area.

15:23 Apart from the start of the line at the subway station,

15:26 every single station on this transit line requires people to interact with cars.

15:30 And many of the stops are at the edge of giant surface parking lots

15:34 separating the shops and buildings from any

15:36 transit rider who might want to go there.

15:39 I will say though, the only good thing about all of the ugly

15:42 old strip malls in Toronto is that the rent is cheap,

15:44 so this is where you’ll find the best ethnic restaurants.

15:47 Now building a transit line in an awful suburban

15:50 place like this can still be a good idea,

15:52 so I don’t want to be too negative about this.

15:54 There are many cities that have built LRT lines specifically because they can

15:59 act as a catalyst to improve urban places and to spur new development.

16:03 But I worry that because this transit line

16:06 has been built in such a car-centric way,

16:09 transit riders will always be second-class citizens,

16:12 and so there will always be a need to build lots

16:14 of parking and wide roads to cater to the first-class citizens who drive.

16:18 This is the difference between designing good public

16:21 transit that provides a positive experience for transit riders

16:24 as well as an opportunity to build better

16:26 urban places along the transit line in the future,

16:29 Versus public transit that is designed

16:31 to inconvenience drivers as little as possible,

16:33 which will result in a much worse experience for transit riders,

16:36 and will ultimately ensure that this will forever

16:39 be a place that is primarily for cars.

16:42 Even at the end of the line at Humber College,

16:45 the transit stop doesn’t go directly to the campus,

16:47 But instead, it’s at the far end of a parking lot, right next to a highway.

16:52 It is surreal to see an exit to a transit station labelled

16:55 with a walking figure and a sign that reads “to Highway 27” Like,

17:00 why would anybody taking transit want to exit directly onto Highway 27?

17:05 Was this transit stop designed by someone who has never taken public transit?

17:09 I would hope that some day this parking

17:11 lot would be converted into buildings and housing,

17:13 because while it would still be at the side of a literal highway,

17:17 at least this side would bring people to somewhere less hostile.

17:21 It’s also frustrating that the line travels across the entrance to highway 400,

17:25 and so it needs to stop several times at traffic

17:28 lights to allow cars to enter and exit the highway.

17:32 There is no need for an LRT to stop right at the on-ramp to a highway,

17:36 so this would have been a great place for the LRT

17:39 to go underground to bypass this cloverleaf junction completely.

17:43 It’s just so bizarre to see a new transit

17:46 line that has made so many concessions to drivers,

17:50 and the result is brand new public

17:52 transit that is extremely slow and underwhelming.

17:55 Fundamentally though,

17:56 none of this should’ve been a surprise to anyone in Toronto,

18:00 and that’s the thing that bugs me the most

18:03 about the response from politicians and the press.

18:05 It’s great that they’re talking about it,

18:07 but this LRT line never should have opened in this state.

18:10 It was very obvious to anybody who was

18:13 paying attention that this LRT line would be bad,

18:16 because it was going to be operated the same way as the Toronto streetcars.

18:21 These streetcars also have no signal priority,

18:23 so they often get stuck at red lights, and then need to sit and wait for one

18:29 or two cars to turn left before getting a green signal.

18:32 Their stops are also too close together,

18:34 so the streetcars can never get up to speed.

18:36 And they are also subject to insane speed restrictions,

18:41 especially through intersections.

18:42 There are so many other problems

18:44 with the way the Toronto streetcars are operated,

18:46 but I have a previous video about that if you’d like to learn more.

18:49 I'll leave a link in the description.

18:51 So it’s nice that city council is finally talking about these issues,

18:54 but the real question is, why has Toronto allowed these streetcar lines

18:59 to have exactly the same speed problems for decades?

19:03 The one thing that has brought me hope however,

19:06 is that Torontonians are actually complaining about

19:09 this, which has forced the government to respond.

19:12 And I'm so glad to see it.

19:14 One of the most annoying things about living

19:16 in the Netherlands is that the Dutch complain about everything.

19:19 It doesn’t matter how good it is,

19:22 people here will find something to complain about.

19:24 But it also means that Dutch cities are regularly improving,

19:27 because people aren’t willing to settle for mediocrity.

19:31 If it isn’t perfect, then people will complain,

19:33 and that provides the motivation to make things better.

19:36 Whereas in Canada, people are often hesitant to complain about anything,

19:40 because they don’t want to rock the boat.

19:42 I spent years doing advocacy while I lived in Toronto,

19:45 and this was a regular point of contention.

19:48 When the city proposed or built something that was bad,

19:51 I would complain about it,

19:52 and some of my fellow advocates would get really upset.

19:56 They would say things like, “stop complaining,

19:58 at least they’re building something!” Or, “there

20:00 are other cities where it’s even worse,

20:02 so be thankful for what you have.” And similarly with this YouTube channel,

20:06 there are people online who seem to think I

20:08 visit North America just looking for things to complain about.

20:11 That I’ve decided cities here can never improve and so I’ll

20:13 there’s nothing they can ever do that will make me happy,

20:16 But that’s completely false.

20:17 The truth is that I have been to hundreds of cities around the world.

20:21 I know what’s good and what’s not, and most importantly,

20:24 I refuse to “grade on a curve.” One of the things that has always annoyed

20:28 me when talking about urban planning online is

20:30 when people say something like, “it’s pretty good….

20:33 by North American standards.” Because as soon as you do

20:36 that, you’re never going to build anything that’s truly great.

20:38 I recently recorded an excellent episode of my podcast,

20:42 The Urbanist Agenda, with Brent Toderian;

20:44 the former chief planner of Vancouver and someone who has

20:47 actually completed great urbanist projects in many cities around the world.

20:50 One of the things he talks about in our conversation

20:53 is his “5 steps to making better cities”.

20:56 I’m not going to go into all of the details here– you

20:57 should listen to him say it on the podcast– but the Finch West

21:00 LRT is a perfect example of what he calls “doing the right thing

21:04 the wrong way.” This is so often seen as progress by well-meaning urbanists,

21:08 but as Brent argues, it can actually be worse than doing nothing at all.

21:14 Last year I made a video arguing why I believe

21:16 that trams are the best mode of transportation for cities.

21:20 Not just because of their efficiency,

21:22 but also because of how a good tram line acts as a catalyst to better urbanism.

21:27 Which is why cities all over the world are building new tram and LRT lines.

21:32 So what really pisses me off about these Toronto LRT projects is

21:36 that millions of Canadians who have never

21:38 had the chance to experience anything better,

21:40 will just assume that this is what an LRT or tram is supposed to be.

21:45 A cool-looking but slow train that trundles along

21:48 the median of a suburban stroad at a glacial speed,

21:51 spending most of its time stopped at red lights,

21:55 and being passed by cars, buses, and bicycles.

21:57 And so there will be many people, even Canadian transit advocates,

22:02 who will ignorantly argue against building any new LRT projects,

22:05 which will be a net-negative for Canadian cities,

22:08 and result in much less transit being built.

22:11 Which is why it's so important to make this LRT line better,

22:14 and also to ensure that whatever fixes are put in place on Finch

22:18 West are also applied to the Eglinton Crosstown and the streetcars as well.

22:24 Ultimately, Canadians– online and offline– need

22:27 to complain about the Finch West LRT.

22:30 And don’t assume that just because the city Council has talked about this issue,

22:34 that it’s going to get fixed.

22:35 The only way this is going to get better is if people keep the pressure up.

22:40 So if you live in Toronto,

22:42 contact your city councillor and tell them what you think of this LRT line,

22:45 and the streetcars as well.

22:47 And then do it again in six months if it still isn’t good enough.

22:51 And make sure you join the TTC Riders advocacy group, if you haven't already.

22:55 I’ll leave a link in the description.

22:58 Canada deserves better transit,

23:00 but they’re never going to get it if people don’t start complaining about it.

23:05 Thanks for watching.

23:05 If you’d like to help me make more videos like this one,

23:08 consider supporting my channel by signing up to Nebula or my Patreon,

23:12 I’ll leave links in the description.

23:13 And check out this video on the left

23:15 to learn more about the problems with Toronto's streetcars,

23:17 or the video on the right to learn why

23:20 I think trams are the best transportation method for cities.

23:23 Thanks again for watching.

23:25 I appreciate it.