TTC plagued by ‘gremlins’ weeks before World Cup

The service hiccups come as the city is gearing up for extra people – and a lot of outside attention – when the FIFA World Cup begins in June

Published May 01, 2026  •  Last updated 5 minutes ago  •  3 minute read

The CEO of the TTC has blamed a recent service interruption on “gremlins” in the transit agency’s software. Inset, the characters of the Gremlins film series, also disruptive but a lot more entertaining. Photo by Toronto Sun file photos

Before the city welcomes the world, the Toronto Transit Commission is trying to banish its “gremlins.”

The TTC suspended service on two subway lines for 25 minutes Thursday morning due to software glitches. It was just the latest disruption in a rough spring for transit in Toronto – and it was followed by a 40-minute rush-hour outage Friday morning between Woodbine and Broadview stations.

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Adrian Grundy, the TTC’s acting executive director of communications, said Friday that those recent events and a handful of other headline-making disruptions aren’t related.

“No two delays are the same,” Grundy told the Toronto Sun.

While Thursday’s issue was resolved pretty quickly, on Friday there was a track-level concern that took longer to rule out, he said.

But those service hiccups come as the city is gearing up for extra people – and a lot of outside attention – when the FIFA World Cup begins in June.

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Councillor Brad Bradford, who has announced he’s running for mayor, told the Sun that Toronto “can’t afford” to let the world down with shoddy transit during the tournament.

TTC CEO Mandeep Lali, speaking to CP24 on Thursday evening, blamed “gremlins” in the transit agency’s digital system for the morning disruptions to subway lines 2 and 4.

“It was a gremlin within the software, not the hardware,” Lali said. “The teams have identified the gremlin that caused the failure this morning.”

A TTC streetcar passes by the already crumbling paint in one of the city’s RapidTO lanes in December 2025. Photo by Ernest Doroszuk /Toronto Sun

But those latest gremlins only showed up after a rough few weeks for service on the TTC.

Last month, subway service was shut down on a long stretch of Line 2, from Ossington to Woodbine, when the Bloor-Danforth line saw its second oil spill in a week. More recently, the TTC’s subway stations suffered a widespread elevator outage.

And in March, a streetcar derailment scrambled another morning commute, with five routes experiencing delays of up to 15 minutes.

That’s to say nothing of all the closures related to weekend work. The city has said some of those disruptions have been timed to get the work done in time for the World Cup.

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Toronto’s leaders are promoting transit as the better way to get around during the soccer tournament, and the TTC expects to see an additional two million rides in that time span. It even has a dedicated web page on getting around during the tournament, which begins with the boast: “Toronto is welcoming the world for FIFA World Cup 2026.”

The TTC knows the pressure is on. Grundy said they’ll go before the Toronto Region Board of Trade next week, along with Metrolinx, to give a presentation on all the work being done to prepare.

“(We’re) essentially outlining the additional service that we’re providing, but more importantly what we’re doing to get the system ready and stress tested ahead of World Cup,” Grundy said.

Mayor Olivia Chow didn’t respond to a request for comment.

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‘Pay more, get fewer services’

Bradford, meanwhile, called the World Cup a “defining moment for Toronto” and said the city “can’t afford to greet the world with the same failures its residents have learned to live with.”

“After years of signal delays, construction overruns and deferred maintenance, Torontonians don’t expect the TTC to work like it’s supposed to. They just plan for when it won’t,” Bradford told the Sun in an emailed statement.

“Mayor Chow has normalized a system that asks Torontonians to pay more and get fewer services. That is unacceptable for the people of Toronto, and I will never stop fighting to change the status quo and deliver better transit.”

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