A train derailed on Line 3 of the TTC’s SRT caused four passengers to end up in the hospital on Monday night.

The SRT was set to be decommissioned in November after 38 years in service. Due to the derailment, the SRT has been shut down for an unknown time with plans to decommission the trains earlier following the incident.

“I want to apologize to all those impacted by this incident. And to assure our customers that safety is always paramount to all we do. I have spoken to my executive team and ordered an immediate review of this incident, using outside help and expertise as necessary,” says Rick Leary, TTC CEO, in a statement an hour after the derailment.

To cover the loss of Line 3, there are currently over 40 buses running to compensate for the loss of the line. Before the pandemic, the ridership of the SRT was 35,000 customers daily with a 30 per cent drop in ridership during the pandemic.

Monday’s tragedy was not the first time a TTC train has derailed. In 1995, the Russell Hill subway incident occurred in which a train on Line 1 derailed resulting in three deaths. Following the fatal incident the State of Good Repair initiative was started in the TTC to make sure the TTC is well maintained so incidents like Russell Hill would never happen again.

“State of good repair projects deal with keeping the system and its infrastructure safe and reliable,” says the TTC regarding Kipling station's state of good repair work

“It was just so shocking to see an accident like this on the TTC. This accident could have been so much worse, we still don't know the cause. But if it had happened at a different point on the track, or the train had been going faster, there could have been, you know, much worse consequences,” says Shelagh Pizey-Allen, executive director of commuter advocacy group TTC Riders.

Pizey-Allen found out about the incident through social media posts and a photo of the derailment that was sent to them. She says that the first two things that ran through her mind were the condition of those in the accident and of the Russell Hill incident.

Pizey-Allen says that due to this incident there is a lot that the TTC needs to get done to accommodate the Line 3 ridership for the foreseeable future. Pizey-Allen is a somewhat frequent rider of the SRT. She says that commute times have been doubled with it now taking her 20 minutes to get to Scarborough centre from the original 10 minutes.

“I was on the SRT on Saturday. Today is Wednesday. So just a few days before the derailment. I take it regularly…The SRT has been under invested in. Anyone who rides it knows that it is rickety. Like I've seen it, certain parts of it being held together with tape. I'm not kidding. I mean cosmetic stuff, right. But it's far past its designed lifespan,” says Pizey-Allen.

The SRT is currently out of service until further notice.

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