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Shuttle buses are operating in the west end of Line 2 on Friday, April 26, 2024 after a fire at track level at the TTC's Islington station. JANE STEVENSON/TORONTO SUN torsun It could be a few days before regular subway service resumes in the city's west end due to a fire that broke out at TTC's Islington station on Thursday.

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So far there is no known cause of the fire that erupted at track level around 3:30 p.m. and there are no Line 2 trains running between Kipling and Jane stations due to investigations by the TTC, the Toronto Police and Toronto Fire.

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"It was just off to the side," TTC spokesman Stuart Green said Friday of the blaze. "It's the open cut area and there's fencing there, and then there's this box that contains all this cabling and that's what sort of caught fire but we don't know how."

"We don't know if it started externally, like, was is a spark or something? Was it a short circuit?' We don't know," he added.

Still, Green said the TTC was working on reducing the number of subway stations closed in the short term.

"What we're working on now is reducing the scope of the closure," said Green. "We might be able to get it down to Islington and Kipling only, which would of course be a big relief because Bloor is quite congested with shuttle buses. Hopefully we'll have some good news to share."

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Subway stops at Kipling, Islington, Royal York, Old Mill, and Jane (the turnaround point) initially had to be closed affecting "tens of thousands" people.

Shuttle buses were running and the scene mid-morning on Friday at Islington station was pretty quiet although rush-hour between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. was quite busy.

TTC information workers were telling commuters it could be as late as Tuesday before full service resumes.

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Green said Fridays and Mondays are typically lower ridership days, so that helped.

"There are typically fewer people riding on those days anyway," he said. "At one point we had about 70 to 75 shuttle buses running, but it's not ideal because of the capacity issue."

"A subway moves a thousand people. A bus moves fifty. So it's not an ideal situation," Green explained.

The TTC advised commuters to consider taking the GO train from Kipling or on Lakeshore West on TTC fare as an alternative, or UP Express from the airport to get downtown.

"We apologize for this inconvenience and thank customers for their patience," the TTC said.

jstevenson@postmedia.com

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