TTC descends into absolute chaos amid subway outage blamed on oil spill

Toronto's Thursday morning commute descended into total chaos when the TTC shuttered a portion of Line 2 Bloor-Danforth between St. George and Broadview stations.

The TTC announced around 6:30 a.m. on Thursday that there would be no service on the busiest stretch of Line 2, citing oil on the tracks. 

Line 2 Bloor-Danforth: No service between St George and Broadview due to oil on the tracks. Shuttle buses are running between St George and Broadview. https://t.co/4M9VUDkEOR

— TTC Service Alerts (@TTCnotices) September 19, 2024

The transit agency later stated that the oil in question is a mechanical lubricant applied to track joints.

Meanwhile, shuttle buses are running to cover today's gap in service. However, these replacement buses are not equipped to move the same volume of passengers, especially in mixed traffic.

No subway between St. George and Broadview stations due to an oil leak on the tracks. Shuttle buses running. Very busy here at St George. #TTC pic.twitter.com/1X5idb54oF

— Kevin Misener (@Kevin_Misener) September 19, 2024

Frustrations are already boiling over as rush hour reaches its peak. Some commuters have reported that shuttle buses are not arriving on portions of the route. One X user wrote, "Shuttle buses are not running. Not one shuttle bus has come."

If the reason for your commuting nightmare sounds familiar, that's because an almost identical outage caused pandemonium back in May, when "slippery rail conditions" caused by an oil spill shuttered the exact same stretch of track.

This is the result of lubricant that is intentionally applied to keep track joints flexible making its way on to the top of the track. We’ll investigate how.
Meanwhile, subway service is suspended to allow us to clean it off in an abundance of caution.
65 buses running… https://t.co/FKRqRwnMLv

— TTC Media Relations 📰🚌🚋🚈 (@TTCNewsroom) September 19, 2024

Service would remain shuttered for 11 hours during that outage, spanning both the morning and evening rush hour.

However, the TTC appears to have learned from that experience, and this cleanup proved a much quicker process.

The transit agency issued an update just after 8 a.m. stating that the oil spill had been cleaned, and that there would be an investigation into the service hiccup.