Ontario Line

Alignment

The Ontario Line is a 15.6 km automated subway with 15 stations. Its western terminus is Exhibition, beside the Exhibition GO station. From there, twin tunnels about 6 km long run northeast under King Street, with a station at King West (Bathurst Street). They then run east under Queen Street through Chinatown (Spadina Avenue), Osgoode and Queen (both transfers to Line 1), and Moss Park (Sherbourne Street). The tunnels then turn south to Distillery District (formerly Corktown) near Front and Parliament streets, and surface east of Cherry Street near the Don Yard. The line crosses the Don River on a new bridge and runs beside the GO Lakeshore East tracks through East Harbour, Leslieville and Gerrard.

North of Gerrard Street it drops into a second tunnel, about 3 km long, under Pape Avenue, with underground stations at Pape (a transfer to Line 2) and Cosburn. It comes out at the Minton portal in the Don Valley. From there an elevated guideway crosses the valley to Thorncliffe Park, passes the maintenance and storage facility north of Overlea Boulevard, crosses the valley again, and follows a hydro corridor east to Flemingdon Park on Don Mills Road. It ends at Don Valley, a transfer to Line 5 Eglinton at Eglinton Avenue and Don Mills Road. The line also connects with the GO Lakeshore West, Lakeshore East and Stouffville lines. Metrolinx expects 388,000 daily boardings, trains as often as every 90 seconds at peak, and an end-to-end trip of 30 minutes or less.

The work is split into four main contracts. Connect 6ix (Hitachi Rail, Transdev, Plenary and Webuild) supplies the trains and systems and will operate and maintain the line. Ontario Transit Group (Ferrovial and Vinci) builds the southern tunnels and stations. Pape North Connect builds the Pape tunnel and its two stations. Trillium Guideway Partners (Acciona and AMICO) builds the northern elevated guideway and stations.

Updates

2026-10 — Guideway piers rising along Don Mills Road

At an October 14 community meeting, Metrolinx reported that crews had built columns for several elevated guideway piers at the Flemingdon Park and Don Valley station sites. They had drilled 74 piles at Flemingdon Park and 44 of 48 planned foundation piles at Don Valley’s north entrance building. Excavation at Flemingdon Park is expected to start in early 2027.

2026-08 — Pape tunnel contract signed; cost estimate reaches about C$34B

On August 5, Metrolinx signed a C$4.32B target-price agreement with Pape North Connect (Webuild, FCC, Arcadis and AECOM). It covers twin 3 km tunnels under Pape Avenue and the Pape and Cosburn stations, and follows a two-year development phase under a progressive design-build model. Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay then put the line’s cost at about C$34B, up from C$29.7B in June and more than triple the 2019 estimate. He said the total cannot be finalized until the elevated guideway contract is priced, and that the budget remains “under pressure.”

2026-04 — Tunnelling begins downtown

The province announced that two tunnel boring machines had started work from a launch shaft near Exhibition station. They will bore twin tunnels of about 6 km each, up to 40 m deep, east toward the Don Yard. At the time, CP24 reported the estimate as C$29.5B, including a C$4B federal contribution.

2026-02 — Ground broken on the northern elevated section

Officials broke ground on the elevated guideway from Thorncliffe Park through Flemingdon Park to Don Valley, along with four northern stations including Cosburn. Lindsay said civil construction was “trending toward the early 2030s,” with testing and commissioning to follow, which could push the opening later. Metrolinx no longer gives a target opening date. Global News put the cost at more than C$27B at the time.

2024-02 — Partners chosen for the Pape tunnel and the elevated guideway

Metrolinx selected Pape North Connect as development partner for the Pape tunnel and underground stations in January 2024, and Trillium Guideway Partners for the elevated guideway and stations in February. Both are progressive design-build contracts, with the final price set after a development phase. In June 2024 the estimated cost to build and operate the line rose to C$27.2B.

2022-11 — First major contracts awarded

Metrolinx awarded the C$9B rolling stock, systems, operations and maintenance contract to Connect 6ix, covering construction plus 30 years of operation and maintenance. It also awarded the C$6B southern civil, stations and tunnel contract to Ontario Transit Group. The overall estimate was then C$17–19B, including financing and operations, with service projected for 2031.

2022-03 — Groundbreaking at Exhibition

The province held the official groundbreaking at Exhibition Place on March 27, 2022, before the major construction contracts had been awarded.

2019-04 — Province announces the Ontario Line

The Ontario government announced the Ontario Line in April 2019, estimating C$10.9B and an opening in 2027. By late 2020 the target had moved to 2030.