An east-end Toronto subway station reopened just before 4 p.m. ET Friday after a lengthy investigation into the fatal stabbing of a young man aboard a subway car more than 12 hours before.

A Toronto transit worker discovered the man bleeding in a subway car after it pulled into Kennedy station to go out of service around 1:40 a.m.

Kennedy station on the Bloor-Danforth line reopened after morning rush hour wrapped up. The station two stops to the west, Victoria Park, remained closed until shortly before the busy afternoon commute because of at least one bloody footstep discovered there.

The closure meant tens of thousands of commuters were shuttled on buses to other stations.

The identity of the victim, who is believed to be in his 20s, has not been released as police try to contact his family.

Coun. Adam Giambrone, who chairs the Toronto Transit Commission, said homicide investigators didn't arrive on the scene until four hours after the body was found.

Toronto police spokesman Mark Pugash said delays were "unavoidable" because the force was dealing with another homicide and a shooting.

"Nobody wants to inconvenience anyone, but what it comes down to is maintaining a crime scene or, in this case, letting someone get away with murder," he said.

Giambrone acknowledges police forensic teams were stretched to the limit, but wonders if extra staff could have been called in.

"It's just a nightmare … when you have to close down a station," Giambrone told a local TV station Friday morning.

Every minute counts when a part of the transit system in Canada's largest city grinds to a halt, delaying tens of thousands of commuters, he said.

The TTC currently works with Emergency Medical Services to ensure crews can help those who are sick or injured while keeping transit flowing smoothly, Giambrone said.

Teen killed at Kennedy station in 1996

After Friday's homicide, Giambrone is considering such an arrangement with police, although he insists the TTC is in no way seeking to speed up or affect the integrity of investigations.

Giambrone insisted the system is safe and said it's been years since a murder has taken place in a subway station.

Kennedy subway station was the scene of a killing 11 years ago, in January 1996, when a 15-year-old was stabbed to death by another teenager.

Friday morning's stabbing was the second homicide in less than four hours in Toronto.

Around 10 p.m. Thursday, a 30-year-old man was shot in the stomach in a second-floor apartment in a building on Danforth Road north of Eglinton Avenue East. He died in hospital.

He has been identified as Bradley Frank of Toronto.