Toronto’s newest transit line in more than two decades – the Finch West LRT or Line 6 – opened on Sunday, December 7 to lots of criticism over its slow speeds with some trips taking more than one hour. One person – Mac Bauer a.k.a. 514runner – beat the LRT by 18 minutes while running! While Toronto City Council passed a motion this week to speed up the LRT including enabling full transit signal priority, I decided to ride the Finch West LRT to Humber College and return via bike share.
Riding the LRT
After arriving at Finch West station and going up the stairs, the welcome signage to the new line becomes apparent.
The LRT station has a minimalist design with the use of smaller digital billboards, though the next train information wasn’t available at the time. The nearby tunnel portal makes this station more exposed to the elements.
Unlike for the subways, bilingual Metrolinx signage is used along the LRT line. Even the logo for Line 1 looks a bit different.
The Finch West station platform has two sets of signs showing all the stops along the line, as well as a regional transit diagram showing the GO train and the TTC’s rapid transit lines.
While it took about four minutes for the train to arrive per the cover photo, the train was stopped for more than ten minutes before it left the station. Even though this was outside of rush hour, this kind of waiting is excessive. However, the train inside is spacious with brought cloth seats.
I saw four accessibility areas with folded up seats on the train which is more than what can be found on the smaller TTC streetcars. One thing missing is there are no PRESTO readers which means you need to tap your card at the station prior to boarding. With the potential for fare evasion at the stops in between Finch West and Humber College, I saw some Provincial Offences Officers (POO’s) on board validating fares.
At around 10:40 AM, the doors started to close with the TTC chimes, and I started my phone’s stopwatch to see how long the train ride will take. After emerging from the tunnel portal, I noticed the sidewalks were plowed but not the cycle tracks.
One frequent problem cited about the Finch West LRT is the lack of signal priority and the need to stop at red lights, along with the slow speeds through intersections. I counted eight instances of stopping at red lights with the worst case happening at Jayzel Drive where the train stopped before the light for general traffic turned red.
Despite the lack of signal timing, I found the train was making good time and even one of the POO’s remarked how this train felt faster compared to when it opened. It took 15 minutes to get to Emery Station (Weston), 25 minutes to Rowntree Mills (Islington), and 31 minutes to Albion. The ride quality was very smooth unlike the buses, though a few passengers didn’t like the cloth seats used.
Each stop has a fare vending machine, PRESTO tapping devices, and a panel showing where you are along the line and which direction the trail is heading.
The slowest part of the trip was the final curve under Highway 27 leading to Humber College.
At last, I arrived at Humber College station which has a similar design vibe as Finch West station. Both stations have public washrooms.
My stopwatch said 41 minutes upon exiting the train which was better than expected.
If there is one thing that disappoints me about Humber College station, it’s the lack of bike share. Something Bike Share Toronto needs to address given Humber Polytechnic has the potential to become a huge traffic generator.
I then took the train back a few stops to Stevenson which was the closest to where I could grab a bike share.
One quick look back at the station platforms.
Back via Bike Share
After exiting the train at Stevenson, I walked to Highfield Park to get the bike share. Before heading out, I determined an equivalent distance to the full 10.4 km LRT route would be to bike towards Downsview Park.
While the temperatures were warming up to 8’C this afternoon and some snow melted, I had to go on and off the cycle track often to avoid the snow. Not sure if the City of Toronto plans to plow the bike lanes along the Finch West LRT corridor, but they probably should. After all, the need for winter bike lane clearing does not just exist downtown.
The bike lanes were substantially completed except for this stretch between Weston and Arrow under the CP Rail line. A separate multi-use path is planned to go under the rail line, but it could take a while given how resistant CPKC have been with accommodating work impacting their right-of-way.
The path under Highway 400 was well plowed.
After taking some side streets, I finally made it to Downsview Park station.
The Verdict
The final time via bike share was 44 minutes including stops, while it took 34 minutes to get to Finch West station.
While this gives the impression that the LRT beat the bike share, there are a few caveats to share. The time biking would likely have been faster had the cycle tracks been cleared, while bike share bikes are usually slower than regular hybrid bikes (let alone road bikes). Going westbound would add some time because of the need to cross Finch twice to cross Highway 400. Finally, the performance of Line 6 is expected to be improved once full transit signal priority can be activated, while the new line is still technically operating under “soft launch” conditions until the spring.
It’s possible others who replicate this experiment will see different results, but a redo is definitely warranted in the spring to not just see how the line performs with signal priority, but also riding without obstacles such as snow.
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