AODA Alliance
ACCESSIBILITY FOR ONTARIANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT ALLIANCE
NEWS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Disability Advocates Ask Metrolinx Why There is No Elevator at the Finch West Station for Transit Riders with Disabilities to Get Up from Line 6 to Line 1, Only a 261-Foot Ramp that Requires a Paralympian’s Strength
July 22, 2026 Toronto: The grassroots non-partisan AODA Alliance just wrote Metrolinx (letter below), to find out why Metrolinx did not install an elevator at the newly renovated Finch West station, for passengers with disabilities to get from Line 6 to Line 1. For them, the station only has a ridiculous 261-foot long ramp (with only two landings) that requires a Paralympian’s upper body strength to go up.
Earlier this week, the AODA Alliance shone a public spotlight on this ramp, by releasing an online YouTube video that condemns it as the stupidest ramp in the world. Watch the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr67d5bJMLk. Metrolinx properly included an elevator at the Cedarvale station to get up from Line 5 to Line 1, but inexplicably and inexcusably chose not to do the same at Finch West to get from Line 6 to Line 1.
“The Ontario Government’s Metrolinx owes the public a full explanation for this failure, especially since it committed that Line 6 would be accessible to riders with disabilities,” said AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky, who takes viewers up this ramp in this new video. “We commend Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay for meeting us last month to discuss serious problems with wayfinding in new Line 5 stations to assist blind passengers to navigate through Line 5 station that our earlier video revealed, and we’re eager to find out now why yet another serious disability barrier was designed into Line 6.”
In addition to fixing this accessibility blunder, the AODA Alliance is calling for two solutions to the recurring accessibility failures in new public infrastructure. First, it calls on Metrolinx to engage an independent accessibility audit of Lines 5 and 6, with its report and recommendations to be made public. Second, the AODA Alliance has pressed the Ford Government since taking office to strengthen Ontario’s weak accessibility laws for the built environment, such as the outdated Ontario Building Code.
“In 2005, the Ontario Legislature unanimously passed the landmark Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act after we tenaciously campaigned for it for a decade,” said Lepofsky. “This ramp is further proof how the Ford Government disobeyed that legislation by failing to lead Ontario to become accessible to people with disabilities by 2025.”
Contact: AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky at aodafeedback@gmail.com
Twitter: @aodaalliance
Learn more at the AODA Alliance website’s transportation page.
Text of the AODA Alliance’s July 21, 2026 Letter to the Metrolinx CEO
Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance
United for a Barrier-Free Society for All People with Disabilities
Web: www.aodaalliance.org Email: aodafeedback@gmail.com Twitter: @aodaalliance
July 21, 2026
To: Michael Lindsay, President & CEO
Via email: michael.lindsay@metrolinx.com
Metrolinx Corporation
97 Front Street West
Toronto, Ontario M5J 1E6 Canada
Dear Sir,
Re: Accessibility Barriers Facing Passengers with Disabilities on the New Finch West Transit Line (Line 6)
As you have requested, we have reached out to your staff to arrange for efforts to rectify the wayfinding problems we identified last month for transit riders with vision loss on the new Eglinton Crosstown transit line (Line 5). We look forward to meeting with them.
We wish to widen discussions with you and Metrolinx to also deal with accessibility problems facing transit riders with disabilities on the new Finch West transit line (Line 6) which Metrolinx designed and built. At our helpful June 23, 2026 meeting with you and your team, You commended our earlier videos as effective in showing accessibility problems in new construction. Yesterday, we made public a new such video. In under 5 minutes, it shows a large serious accessibility barrier at the newly renovated Finch West station.
As this video shows, Metrolinx did not include an elevator for transit riders with disabilities to go from Line 6 to Line 1, if they wish to transfer lines. Line 1 is one floor or 11 feet above. They must either go up a flight of stairs, or (which is an obvious barrier) an absurd 261-foot-long ramp. The ramp only has two landings. As we explain in the video, you’d need a Paralympian’s upper body strength to be able to wheel your own wheelchair up that ramp. An elevator is important as well for people with chronic fatigue or chronic pain. It is also important for parents pushing a baby stroller.
Why did Metrolinx not include an elevator at the Finch West station for riders with disabilities to transfer from Line 6 to Line 1? Metrolinx is well aware that an elevator is needed to switch between two lines that are on different floors. For example, Metrolinx properly installed just such an elevator at the newly renovated Cedarvale station, for passengers with disabilities transferring from Line 5 to Line 1.
We very much appreciated your candor at our June 23, 2026 meeting, when we discussed the problems that our earlier video had raised regarding tactile wayfinding on Line 5, to guide blind riders through those labyrinthian stations. You included in our meeting people involved in the design decision that Metrolinx had made, and with which we have real problems. We had an open discussion with you about the wisdom of that decision, and the process Metrolinx had used to reach it.
We ask for the same opportunity regarding the Finch West ramp and the failure to include an elevator to transfer from Line 6 to Line 1. Can we arrange a meeting with you, and with the people who actually made that decision and those who had input into it? Can we hear the accessibility advice Metrolinx received on whether a ramp but no elevator would be sufficient, and on how the ramp was designed? It would also be very helpful to you and us if we can obtain the written accessibility advice Metrolinx received from any source.
You are to be commended for asking us at our June 23, 2026 meeting for advice on how to prevent these accessibility problems from recurring. This is especially important since new public transit stations are now in the process of being developed and built. For us to have this requested meeting, with the people present whom we ask for, in order to discuss the Finch West station situation, would provide a vital way to assist you in finding out what happened, and how avoid the creation of new accessibility barriers in the future.
Finally, are you prepared to agree to have an independent accessibility audit conducted, with the resulting report and recommendations to be made public? We believe that an independent accessibility audit is essential and needs to include both Lines 5 and 6. We discussed our request one month ago at our June 23, 2026 meeting. We hope and trust that you have had sufficient time to consider this request.
We look forward to hearing back from you and following up with you.
Sincerely,
David Lepofsky CM, O. Ont
Chair Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance
Twitter: @davidlepofsky
CC: Marcia Yale, President AEBC president@blindcanadians.ca