The Finch West Light Rail Transit (LRT) officially completed its testing phase and will start running to the Humber North campus on Dec. 7.
Vanessa Anna, a second-year esthetician and spa management student, said she is overjoyed to hear the Finch LRT will open.
“No way, I am happy! It's definitely going to be way easier commuting to other places. After school is going to be much more efficient because it's going to be faster, and I feel like it will be way better in general,” she said.
The LRT runs 10.3 kilometres and makes a total of 18 stops, including both the starting point at Finch West Station and the ending point at Humber Polytechnic North campus. The line will interconnect at several stops with MiWay, York Region, Brampton, and GO Transit.
Construction for the LRT began in 2019 and was expected to be completed by 2023.
The two-year delay in completion has been frustrating for commuters.
Anna uses public transit three days a week to get to campus and said taking buses has taken a lot of her time.
“I use public transit on the days I go to school, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. It has caused me to be late to certain events, whether it's work or anything I have to go to,” she said.
“It just is very time-consuming, I just hate being on the bus for so long,” Anna said.
“My commute is an hour long. I take the 50 TTC bus to Islington Station and from there, I take the Subway Line 2 to Kipling, and lastly, I take the 947 Express TTC bus to get to Humber North campus,” she said.
The federal government has contributed $333 million to the $1.2 billion Finch LRT project.
The Ontario Green Party Kitchener Centre MPP, Aislinn Clancy, an advocate for public transit, said not having enough of it to offer can be costly for students.
“If you are spending hours and hours on transit because you don't have the convenience of accessible transit, it makes your studying experience really difficult,” she said.
Commuters will save more time travelling to their destinations with this added route. The Ministry of Transportation said the LRT will travel at 60 km/h and is 34 minutes from the starting point at Finch West Station to Humber North.
Clancy also encourages methods of travel that decrease emissions into the environment.
“We know that transportation is such a huge part of our emissions because the most inefficient way to travel is by one person sitting in one car, sitting in traffic,” she said.
“The more people we can put onto transit, so they don’t have a soul-crushing commute, but they also emit less. It's a good quality of life investment but is also a good climate investment,” Clancy said.
“It's a better way to move people around. It alleviates congestion, which is a huge issue, and it is just more sustainable,” she said.
TTC communications specialist Stuart Green said TTC could not comment because the commission does not have operational control of Finch LRT yet. The Eglinton LRT is also undergoing trial testing, so Metrolinx and TTC can evaluate the safety, timing, and any additions or fixes that need to be made.
