TTC CEO Andy Byford says a degraded cable at Yonge Station is to blame for major disruptions on Line 2 this morning.
Subway service was suspended between St. George and Pape stations at around 6 a.m. this morning following what Toronto Fire Services described as a small fire at track level at Yonge Station.
Byford said a smouldering cable at Yonge Station led to the service disruption.
Full service resumed at around 9:15 a.m.
"We are checking everything to make sure nothing else has been damaged," Byford told reporters outside Yonge Station on Wednesday morning.
He said that the root cause of the issue is not known.
"I know it is frustrating for customers. We take no chances," Byford said.
"I will always instruct that we suspend the service… rather than put customer safety at risk."
Byford added that the TTC is a "very safe system."
"I find it intensely frustrating because every time something like this happens, it knocks back the work that we’ve been doing. Over five years we’ve worked really hard to improve the service and to cut out incidents like this," he said.
"Most journeys go completely without incident. Obviously we’ll get to the bottom of this. We need to understand what it was that caused that cable to smoke. Cables don’t just do that."
Nearly 90 shuttle buses were operating to supplement service.
Byford said that two TTC employees suffered some minor smoke inhalation during the incident but they declined to go to the hospital.
"We want to make sure they are well looked after," he said.
While service was down, TTC riders can were able to use their TTC fare to ride GO Transit.
TTC employees were also unable to get trains at the Greenwood Yard out to the west end due to the service disruption, TTC spokesperson Brad Ross said.
As a result, Toronto rocket trains supplemented service on west-end routes.
Another fire investigation caused delays on the Scarborough RT this morning at Lawrence East Station but that has now cleared.
