Massive Ontario Line Stations Taking Shape Underground
The 15.6-kilometre subway line linking Exhibition Place to Line 5 Eglinton is on track for first passengers in the early 2030s.
The day's top stories, food & events — every morning at 7. Unsubscribe anytime.
Toronto's Ontario Line is moving rapidly underground, with station excavations and tunnel boring underway across multiple sites as the $27-billion, 15-station subway project progresses toward completion in the early 2030s.
The 15.6-kilometre line will connect Exhibition Place with Line 5 Eglinton, closing a critical gap in the city's transportation network and relieving pressure on overcrowded interchange stations between Lines 1 and 2. Metrolinx has shared recent updates showing the scale of construction across the downtown core and eastward.
At Queen and Spadina—expected to be one of the busiest stations on the line—crews are waterproofing and constructing station walls. The future station will stretch approximately 10 metres long by 23 metres wide. Metrolinx has playfully compared the site's current appearance to a pig snout as crews prepare for the arrival of tunnel-boring machines nicknamed Libby and Corkie.
Work is further along west of the Don River. At the Cosburn site, crews are constructing guide walls, shallow concrete structures that align and stabilize the excavation area before deeper work begins. Work at Pape Station is even earlier in its construction phase, with road restoration ongoing along Danforth Avenue following ground improvement work.
Tunnelling commenced this spring near Exhibition Station, with twin tunnel-boring machines gradually carving through the downtown core and terminating at the Don River. Two bridges will carry trains across the river: a steel arch structure already in place spanning the waterway, and the much larger Don Valley Crossing bridge, whose enormous concrete piers are beginning to rise from the valley floor.