After delays and cost overruns, it appears Toronto is finally getting a new LRT line — just not the one you’re probably hoping for.
The Finch West LRT has officially completed its Revenue Service Demonstration (RSD), the provincial government announced on Thursday. The completion of the RSD phase is among the final steps before the 10.3-kilometre route serving two stations and 16 stops can enter service as the TTC’s Line 6 in northwest Toronto.
The close of the RSD, described by the province as a 30-day “dry run” ahead of revenue service, sets the stage for the TTC to assume full operational control of the line within one month of the announcement, no later than Nov. 3, 2025.
Prabmeet Sarkaria, Minister of Transportation, announced the RSD phase’s completion with a promise that “The Finch West LRT will cut commute times for hundreds of thousands of riders every week, connect to transit services across the region and create new economic opportunities along the line.”
Multiple media outlets have quoted sources stating that the line is set to enter revenue service as Line 6 on Dec. 7, 2025.
Such an opening comes almost exactly eight years after the Dec. 17, 2017, opening of the Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension project added new stations to Line 1 — including the Finch West Station that will feed the new Line 6.
Once operational, the new Line 6 LRT will run along Finch Ave. W. from the existing Finch West Line 1 subway station at Keele Street to Highway 27, before turning south to serve the Humber College north campus.
Line 6 – Finch West will connect with existing TTC routes as well as regional transit networks like Brampton Züm, GO Transit, Mississauga MiWay, and York Region Transit.
Officials project that the line will eventually move over 51,000 passengers on weekdays, and could see 12 million annual riders by 2031.
The Finch West LRT is now primed to beat the delay-plagued Eglinton Crosstown LRT to the finish line. While Eglinton is also in its RSD phase, a recent collision forced a halt to testing, marking another hiccup in the decade-and-a-half-long saga.
