TORONTO

After almost seven years, there’s light at the end of the subway tunnel for TTC riders travelling north of Eglinton Station.

TTC officials announced Friday that the Yonge subway line will stop closing early north of Eglinton starting next Friday, Dec. 18.

Normal service — where the subway stops operating just before 2 a.m. — will be back between Eglinton and Finch stations.

Since June 2008, the TTC has been closing subway service north of Eglinton Station nightly Sunday to Friday starting at 12:30 a.m. and putting shuttle buses out to run until the rest of the subway shuts down for the night.

The early closure allowed the TTC to repair the concrete tunnel liners along that stretch of the line. Officials said the normal overnight maintenance window wasn’t long enough to carry out the work.

“While this critical project has inconvenienced our patient customers, the TTC is taking decisive action to do important repair and maintenance work that has been neglected for years in order to ensure we have reliable service for the future,” TTC Chair Josh Colle said in a statement.