TTC CEO 'incredibly proud' of storm response as thousands still stranded in cold

TTC CEO Mandeep Lali says he is "incredibly proud" of the transit agency's response to a historic winter storm that dumped almost 60 cm of snow on Toronto on Sunday.

However, while there should be little argument that TTC crews have gone above and beyond to keep the city moving following the record-breaking snowfall, the CEO's statement comes as multiple major outages continue to cause chaos on the network, and thousands remain waiting in the cold, trying to huddle into cramped shuttle buses in minus-double-digit temperatures.

Lali shared the statement on social media Monday morning, as multiple outages plagued the Line 1 and Line 2 subways. Another weather-related outage affected the entire Line 6 Finch — no surprise, considering the newly-opened LRT suffered a staggering 350 outages in just its first few weeks of operation.

Statement from #TTC CEO Mandeep S. Lali on yesterday's extreme weather event

“Yesterday, Toronto saw a record amount of snow fall across the city, with some areas the TTC serves seeing as much as 60cm.
In anticipation of that storm, we had extra crews, operators and staff…

— TTC Media Relations 📰🚌🚋🚈 (@TTCNewsroom) January 26, 2026

In his statement, Lali commended the TTC's storm response, noting that the transit agency had all hands on deck with "extra crews, operators and staff standing ready to keep our service running to the very best of our collective ability" in anticipation of the storm.

"I am incredibly proud of, and grateful for, all the work our teams did under unprecedented, adverse conditions," said Lali, adding that "This work began yesterday and continues [Monday] morning."

Lali commended crews on "tireless efforts to keep buses, streetcars subways and Wheel-Trans vehicles moving" and said that these workers' dedication is "greatly appreciated and cannot be overstated."

He also addressed the elephant in the room, speaking directly to irate, shivering passengers and thanking them "for their patience and understanding, especially those who had to be accommodated on shuttle buses when subway services in the open-air areas of Lines 1 and 2 were shut down."

"I know that having to wait in those conditions is frustrating, but as shuttle buses need to be brought in from other parts of the City, delays were unavoidable," said Lali.

Lali's statement pledges that the TTC "will learn from this event," and stresses that this was a "once-in-a-generation storm" that will give the transit agency "unique opportunity to analyze our performance, identify any gaps and develop plans that would reasonably address them in the event of something similar in future."

Despite the continued transit headaches as of Monday morning, Lali did acknowledge that the City's new snow response plan did improve the TTC's operations compared to past major snow events.

"Through a new and enhanced all-hands coordinated approach, we saw our routes on major and secondary arterial roads receiving priority clearing activity. As a result, we had fewer stuck buses, and service, while obviously slower than normal, kept moving," he stated.

But that's probably little consolation to riders who rely on Line 1, 2, and 6 who are out in the cold on Monday morning, their hands probably too numb to scroll social media and see Lali's note to frustrated commuters.