The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) says the hydraulic fluid leak that caused the 12-hour partial subway shutdown on Line 2 earlier this week has happened seven other times this year across the transit network.
TTC CEO Rick Leary is calling for a forensic review.
“I have some real concerns and worries,” he said at a board meeting on Thursday.
“When you have one or two you say it’s not common, then when it hit three to four that’s when we said something is up … that’s when I got involved,” Leary said.
Leary said each leak incident appeared to have different causes.
There was another spill from a #TTC work car last night before today’s meeting (the 3rd in 3 days), bringing the total number of spills to 7 in 2024. pic.twitter.com/zer0Wp7mzf
— TTCriders (@ttcriders) May 16, 2024
In Monday’s incident, a work car leaked oil on the track between Bloor-Yonge and Castle Frank stations, creating “slippery track conditions” and it required manual track cleaning. This led to the closure of Line 2 between St. George and Broadview stations for nearly 12 hours.
The delay left many TTC riders frustrated, as commuters have also had to deal with several slow-speed zones this year due to various issues, as well as a cracked rail switch which forced a partial closure of Line 1 Yonge-University during the morning rush hour back in March.
“It definitely hurts (the brand). You know I can say that we’re a reliable transit system and 80 per cent of the time we are, but at 20 per cent we’re not that’s just too high,” TTC board chair and Coun. Jamaal Myers told CityNews on Tuesday.
“There is such a critical backlog of state of good repair in the TTC that we just don’t have the money to actually start making a significant dent in it, and the longer we wait the infrastructure becomes more and more expensive and harder to replace,” Myers said.
A City of Toronto report found that $26 billion is needed over the next 10 years to maintain the municipality’s existing infrastructure.
The board meeting comes as the union representing 12,000 TTC workers has requested a no-board report from the Ministry of Labour, putting them one step closer to a strike.
A legal strike could begin 17 days after a no-board report has been issued.
With files from Momin Qureshi, 680 NewsRadio Toronto; and Nick Westoll, CityNews