TTC shuts down subway service for 'emergency repairs' yet again

The TTC subway descended into chaos on Wednesday morning when the transit agency shut down a large stretch of the network with no warning, citing "emergency rail repairs."

As of 8:30 a.m., there is no subway service on Line 1 between Wilson and Lawrence West stations due to these unspecified track repairs.

Even before the full outage, the transit agency issued a notice to riders that the system was experiencing "delays between Vaughan and Finch due to emergency rail repairs" and warning that "customers will experience delays of up to 10 minutes throughout Line 1."

That delay was later updated to an outage just before 6:30 a.m., with the TTC informing commuters that there was no service between Sheppard West and Lawrence West "due to a broken power rail" and stating that shuttle buses were running between Sheppard West and Lawrence West.

Line 1 Yonge-University: No service between Wilson and Lawrence West due to emergency rail repairs. Shuttle buses are running between Wilson and Lawrence West. Alternatives: Take the 96 Wilson or 165 Weston Rd N to York Mills instead of Wilson Station.

— TTC Service Alerts (@TTCnotices) January 22, 2025

A portion of Line 1 remains out of service as of writing, and riders are encouraged to take the 96 Wilson or 165 Weston Rd N bus to York Mills instead of Wilson Station.

Similar emergency outages in 2024 caused pandemonium on the transit network, later attributed to oil residue on tracks that affected trains' braking.

The surprise outage comes just two days after the TTC revealed a staggering 38 full weekend closures, and 217 early closures were planned for 2025.

The transit agency told blogTO on Monday that there would be planned service disruptions on 293 out of the 365 days this year, or over 80 per cent of 2025.

I guess we can up that number to 294 after today's outage.

Update: Full service along the affected stretch of Line 1 was restored by shortly after 12 noon.