Ontario Line

Final cost estimates for the project will be refined throughout the procurement process, which is still underway.

Metrolinx is partnering with Infrastructure Ontario on procurement for major contracts. As each major contract is awarded, the cost will be posted publicly.

Construction started in December 2021 when teams broke ground on early upgrades needed at Exhibition Station. 

Stay up-to-date on progress by subscribing to the Ontario Line e-newsletter and Metrolinx News, and by following us on social media.

You can also see what work is happening across the route by viewing active construction notices.

We are committed to seeking community feedback and incorporating it into the project wherever possible. If you would like to share your feedback, please contact us or learn how you can get involved.

Station sites are being designed with communities in mind, using a set of guidelines that will make sure they are attractive and fit into the areas they will serve. We’ll be looking for opportunities throughout the planning and design process to get public feedback on certain design elements.

The names currently assigned to some stations are only meant to serve as placeholders during early planning phases, and we will seek community feedback on appropriate alternatives for those particular station names. We will work with communities to select station names that are clear and representative of the neighbourhoods they will serve. We’ll share more details on those opportunities in the future.

We always strive to reduce or avoid impacts to these kinds of properties because we know how important they are to the fabric of the city, and we know we need to do everything we can to preserve the historic character of our neighbourhoods. Making room for new transit infrastructure in a dense, urban environment does mean that some existing buildings will be impacted, but it’s our job to keep those impacts to a minimum.

If we can’t avoid certain impacts, we work with heritage specialists to see how we can reuse or incorporate heritage features, including exterior facades of buildings, and how we can commemorate their significance with permanent plaques or signs.

Property needs are being confirmed and updated as we advance planning and design work. Some will be needed on a permanent basis, while the others will only be needed temporarily. In some areas, we will only need slivers of properties, while in others we will need full properties.

Once we confirm a need for a property, we reach out directly to owners, and their tenants where possible. We gauge their needs and discuss next steps in this initial outreach, with the goal of ensuring they do not experience a loss as we deliver much-needed transit. Learn more about the property acquisition process.

We will work closely with our contractors to minimize any disruptions to communities during construction and operations.

In sensitive areas, we will continuously monitor noise levels and use necessary tools to keep levels to a minimum. We will do our best to ensure noisy activities occur during daytime and plan vehicle access routes that will minimize on-site movement and avoid travel on residential streets, where possible. Communities will be notified well in advance of any upcoming construction work.    

Once in operation, Ontario Line trains will be electric, meaning not only will they be clean and fast, but quiet too. We’ll also use noise walls and other sound-reducing tools in certain areas to keep future operations quiet and unobtrusive and to ensure the Ontario Line doesn’t result in noise and vibration levels that are significantly different than they are today.  In fact, noise levels in some areas of the route will be quieter than they are today, including the joint corridor through Leslieville and Riverside where both GO and Ontario Line trains will run.

Learn more about how we plan to reduce the sounds of passing trains in our online sound demonstration.

We are working with the community on the look, feel and features of the new walls we will be building in Riverside and Leslieville to ensure that they fit into the surrounding neighbourhoods. The goal is to create welcoming spaces around them that reflect the community’s interests and priorities.

Read more about Ontario Line plans in Riverside and Leslieville.

We are still surveying trees along the Ontario Line route. These surveys detail the nature and health of all the trees and will be completed on staggered timelines for each construction project across the route. Some of these tree surveys will not be completed until a constructor is on board for the larger construction packages.

In a built-up and growing region, some trees need to be removed to make room for new transit lines. To offset these removals, Metrolinx follows a detailed, science-based plan for planting new trees and keeping the region green. Overall, our practice is to plant more trees than we remove as we build new transit. Our goal is always to keep the number of trees we remove to a minimum and we strive to replace them in areas where they are being removed as early as we can.

Read more about our Vegetation Management and Tree Compensation Program.

Metrolinx has completed several environmental assessments for the Ontario Line including five early works reports for specific locations along the route where advance construction will start. The Environmental Impact Assessment Report, which was the last phase of the environmental assessment for the Ontario Line, was published on April 8, 2022.

The report looks at the entire Ontario Line project footprint from Exhibition/Ontario Place all the way to the Ontario Science Centre and outlines existing environmental conditions, potential project impacts and ways to minimize or avoid them across a number of topics, including traffic, noise and vibration, and trees and vegetation, to name a few.

View the list of past environmental assessments.

An important part of the planning and design work for a major project like this involves hearing from communities about plans and integrating feedback where possible. We regularly host and participate in in-person and online discussions in communities across the project route to gather feedback. Drawing from this, we have made refinements to the project in places like Riverside, Leslieville and Thorncliffe Park.

We will continue to work with communities to ensure a comprehensive array of measures are in place to address any noise or vibration impacts and to ensure designs are sensitive and respectful of communities.

Read more about Ontario Line plans in Riverside and Leslieville.

Read more about Ontario Line plans in Thorncliffe Park.

Providing ongoing access to beloved community park space will be a top priority for us as we deliver this important project.

We know that spaces where we can relax and unwind and children can play are vital in communities, and we are committed to working with our community partners to ensure there is continued access to park and playground space as we deliver better, faster and easier transit.

While there may be some impacts to parks during construction so that we can avoid having to acquire private property, we are committed to minimizing the space we use and to working with our municipal partners to thoughtfully restore and beautify these spaces once work is complete. During construction, the safety of park spaces will be a top priority and regular communication and safety measures will be in place to keep the community and park visitors safe.

Finally bringing a rapid transit station to the rail corridor in Riverside and Leslieville will provide much-needed relief to the 501 streetcar and make it better, faster and easier for people who live and work in this vibrant area to move around the city and the region.

We also expect to improve background local air quality levels by allowing people to leave their cars at home and take transit instead.

Operating electric-powered trains will ensure that no additional emissions are introduced to the local community due to the Ontario Line. The planned electrification of numerous GO trains that run through the rail corridor in the Leslieville and Riverside area will also have a similarly positive impact. Lower levels of noise and vibration can also be expected from quieter electric-powered trains compared to the diesel-powered GO trains that are operating in the corridor today.

Noise levels in the community will be lower than they currently are in most areas of the Leslieville and Riverside communities thanks to the continuous noise walls we will be installing in this area. We will also be pursuing a wide array of other proven solutions for reducing noise and vibration at the source such as continuously welded rail, ballast mats, rail isolation systems and more. Metrolinx is working closely with the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks to ensure we meet or exceed all applicable guidelines and regulations.

Metrolinx’s top priority is to work with owners and tenants to help them relocate and continue operating within the community or nearby. We will work closely with each business or organization to ensure their continued operation and success.

When businesses and community organizations need support transitioning, our dedicated team of professionals work one-on-one with them to come up with solutions. Everyone’s needs are different, so each case is considered independently, and we challenge ourselves to come up with creative and tailored solutions.

Learn more about the property acquisition process.

We’re committed to ensuring local businesses remain accessible and successful throughout this important project.

We’ll work with the business community to provide customized supports, from making sure store fronts are clear and easy to access, to working together on promotions and shop-local incentives, to helping them relocate to other nearby locations if their properties are needed to support construction.

At our community offices, community engagement staff are available during business hours to answer questions, provide updates and help support local businesses and organizations through construction.

During major construction, Metrolinx offers a 24-hour hotline that gives the community direct access to someone who will listen to their concerns and help address any issues.

This will be an ongoing process, and we are committed to keeping an open, two-way dialogue going so we can continuously strengthen and improve our supports for local businesses.

Yes, there will be some temporary and longer-term lane and street closures. Building a subway through such a densely populated urban area is a challenge, but we’re committed to keeping people moving during construction. Our top priority is maintaining safe access for all.

We’ll be working with communities, local BIAs, the City of Toronto and the TTC on plans to maintain safe access to homes and businesses with robust safety measures and frequent communication. These plans will involve:

• avoiding or minimizing impacts to existing transit services as much as possible;
• communicating early and often about any temporary impacts to roadways and transit lines;
• looking at other projects that may be taking place to see how they might affect our plans;
• ensuring communications about any changes are clear and highly visible across many different channels.

View the interactive map of the Ontario Line, which is updated with traffic plans as they become available.

Browse community notices to see what construction is underway, and what to expect while work is carried out.

The Ontario Line will be underground by the time it reaches Pape Avenue Public School so the school won’t be impacted.

We're working closely with the school and parent council on plans to keep the area safe for students and faculty during construction while also protecting the building and playground. For families who choose transit, the nearby station at Gerrard will make getting to and from school much simpler.

Building an elevated guideway in this area will help us minimize impacts to sidewalks or roads by avoiding large excavation sites that would otherwise be needed for tunneling.

While there may be some impacts to roads and sidewalks during construction, we will strive to keep them to a minimum. We’ll be working with communities, local BIAs, the City of Toronto and the TTC on plans to maintain safe access to homes and businesses with robust safety measures and frequent communication. These plans will involve:

• avoiding or minimizing impacts to existing transit services as much as possible;
• communicating early and often about any temporary impacts to roadways and transit lines;
• looking at other projects that may be taking place to see how they might affect our plans;
• ensuring communications about any changes are clear and highly visible across many different channels.

View the interactive map of the Ontario Line, which is updated with traffic plans as they become available.

Browse community notices to see what construction is underway, and what to expect while work is carried out.

We’ll make sure that construction disruptions are minimal, with most work happening on weekdays and weekends between 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. However, some work will need to be done overnight, like tunnelling. We’ll communicate early and often with communities as soon as we know about any planned overnight construction work.

Current plans have the guideway placed to the side of the roadway on both Overlea Boulevard and Don Mills Road, but plans for the public area under the guideway could include a multi-use path. We will work with the City of Toronto and seek public input on how to best use this space to serve the community, and we’ll share updates on these opportunities throughout the course of the project.

The Ontario Line is expected to feature modern, automated, electric trains like the ones used in Vancouver, London, Paris and Singapore. This technology will allow for a higher frequency of service (up to 40 trains per hour) with as little as 90 seconds in between trains.

Yes, all Ontario Line stations will have platform edge doors that will open and close in sync with vehicle doors.

Decisions around the route and the elevation of the Ontario Line have been made with the whole network in mind, but they’re also tailored to the specific communities the line will serve. That’s why it will run in tunnels, along existing railways, and on elevated structures where it makes sense to do so.

When determining the Ontario Line’s route and elevation, planners balanced considerations like:

• how many people could be served;
• how much travel time could be saved;
• how many connections could be made to other major rapid transit lines;
• how quickly and effectively the line could be built;
• how effectively any local impacts could be managed; and
• how to ensure the best possible use of taxpayer dollars.

In the newer, northern part of the city where there are wider roadways and streets, the Ontario Line will run on modern, elevated structures because there’s room for them, and construction will be faster and less impactful. In places where there are existing rail corridors, like Leslieville, Riverside and near Exhibition place, the line will fit into an existing rail corridor, giving surrounding communities the benefits of faster and less impactful construction by building mostly in land we already own and avoiding complex and time-consuming tunnelling. These above-ground sections have the added benefit of providing faster and easier connections to and from surface transit, because the stations aren’t deep underground.

In other dense parts of the city with narrow roadways and no available rail corridors, tunnelling is the only choice.

For the sections that run on or above the surface, we know we can significantly cut down on property impacts, introduce effective, well tested noise and vibration solutions, create new and welcoming public spaces, and build best-in-class infrastructure that is safe, attractive and designed with communities in mind.

We considered whether it would be possible to bring the Ontario Line underground just east of the proposed surface station at East Harbour, where Ontario Line trains will connect seamlessly with above-ground GO trains. We looked at several options and planners determined going underground in this area would not be practical for a variety of reasons, most of which are related to the disruptions it would cause in the community and the benefits that would be lost with being above ground.

Firstly, a portal would need to be built between Eastern Avenue and Queen Street to ensure Ontario Line trains remain above ground as planned at East Harbour. Creating a quick and easy interchange here is critical in tackling congestion at Union Station, where crowding could go down by as much as 14 per cent – or 14,000 fewer people – during the busiest hour. Moving the portal would also result in:

• Extended journey times: If the Ontario Line were tunneled in this area, stations would need to be nearly 40 metres deep to go under the Don River, maintaining a similar depth up until Gerrard where large sewer mains would need to be avoided. That would be as deep as a nine-storey building is tall, requiring three separate escalators to get to the trains and adding as much as 4.5 minutes to customers’ journeys. This would ultimately discourage people from transferring to and from GO trains at East Harbour and result in less crowding relief at Union Station.
• Longer – and more – construction: Building a portal in this area would prolong construction and cause significant and lengthy community disruption from soil excavation, utility relocation, concrete pouring and many other construction activities. For example, one dump truck going in and out every 20 minutes, 24 hours a day for plus daily deliveries of building materials like concrete and reinforcing steel would go on for years.
• Additional property impacts: Moving the portal would require the acquisition of numerous homes along McGee and Saulter streets and have significant impacts on most of the parks in the area and nearby small businesses and community organizations.
• Permanent street closures, loss of Queen Street station: Trains need to safely move from above ground to below. The maximum track grade, or steepness, of a subway track that goes underground is 4.5 per cent – anything steeper is more than what most subway vehicles in the world can manage. At this grade, a portal would need to be built in the area of Eastern Avenue and extend as far as Queen Street. Significant excavation would be needed to build a portal and retaining walls for the shallow tunnel structure. This would result in a permanent closure of Eastern Avenue or Queen Street, disrupting existing traffic and transit services. There would also not be enough room for the planned station at Queen and De Grassi. To avoid that closure and still build a station, the streets and the existing bridges that run above them would need to be raised by at least two metres. If this were done, there would not be enough space for a customer concourse in the station at Queen and De Grassi – only platforms. Eliminating the station would greatly reduce customer benefits – especially for people living in the immediate vicinity – and the much-needed relief for the 501 streetcar will be lost. The additional costs of this approach would exceed $800 million.

The analysis has shown that being above ground through Riverside and Leslieville will result in far fewer community impacts and deliver significantly more benefits.

Wherever Ontario Line trains will run on a joint rail corridor – as they will through Riverside and Leslieville – they will do so on their own dedicated tracks that will be completely separate from other rail operations. We will use a dedicated, Ontario Line-only signalling system that will use the latest signalling and monitoring technology. This system will ensure trains are in constant communication with one another, tracking their precise locations at all times and keeping them at a safe distance from one another. With sensors that can detect objects on the tracks, trains will also automatically stop if there is something blocking the way.

Train doors will also automatically open and close in sync with platform edge doors that will be installed at all stations, keeping both passengers and objects safely separated from moving vehicles.

We’re working closely with the TTC on how to best meet future transit needs and make sure customers have easy access to both the Ontario Line and TTC services at Exhibition Station.

Exhibition Station will be an important transit hub for customers using the Ontario Line as well as GO Transit and TTC services. GO and Ontario Line customers will use a shared concourse, making for seamless and quick transfers between the two services.

The maintenance and storage facility is a critical part of any public transit operation. It’s where trains are housed and maintained to keep them clean and safe for our customers each and every day.

To support the 388,000 daily trips the Ontario Line is expected to accommodate by 2041, a large site will be needed to store and service the trains.

After an extensive study of nine different sites across the route, the site in Thorncliffe Park was selected because our studies showed that it best met all of the technical needs for the project while clearly demonstrating the least impact to local jobs and businesses.

At the same time, we determined that we could help impacted businesses and community organizations relocate within the community or nearby if they chose to do so. This was the most critical requirement as we looked for a site in such a built-up urban environment that could accommodate a facility like this.

We're now working one-on-one with property owners and tenants in the area to make sure they continue to thrive and deliver the services their customers and clients rely on each day.

Read more about Ontario Line plans in Thorncliffe Park.

Metrolinx is working with the Islamic Society of Toronto to bring a new Darus Salaam Mosque and community hub to Thorncliffe Park.

Read more about this community partnership and the future facility.