Yonge North Subway Extension

Alignment

The extension continues TTC Line 1 almost 8 km north from its current terminus at Finch. Twin tunnels about 6.3 km long run north under Yonge Street to underground stations at Steeles (Steeles Avenue), Clark (Clark Avenue) and Royal Orchard (Royal Orchard Boulevard). Along this stretch Yonge Street forms the boundary between the City of Vaughan to the west and the City of Markham to the east. North of Royal Orchard the line rises to the surface south of Langstaff Road, curves east, and runs beside the GO Richmond Hill line (the CN Bala Subdivision) to two surface stations.

Bridge station sits between Highway 407 and Highway 7, next to Langstaff GO, and connects with GO and York Region Transit Viva buses. High Tech station, the new terminus, is just to the north in Richmond Hill. The surface works also include a train storage facility and the tunnel portal. Metrolinx expects the extension to add more than 90,000 daily trips and cut some travel times by up to 22 minutes, and says it will open after the Ontario Line is complete.

Earlier plans called for six underground stations, including Cummer/Drewry and a terminus at Richmond Hill Centre. That version’s cost rose from C$5.6B in 2017 to C$9.3B by 2021, so the province cut it back to the current five-station design with a surface section along the rail corridor.

Updates

2026-10 — First tunnel boring machine arrives

The first of two tunnel boring machines arrived at the York Region launch site in late October. Crews are assembling it above ground before lowering it into the shaft piece by piece, and the second machine is expected soon. Part of Yonge Street is being diverted around the work until at least 2028.

2026-08 — Bids close for stations, rail and systems work

The request-for-proposals stage for the stations, rail and systems contract closed with submissions from the shortlisted teams. Metrolinx expects to name one partner for each of the three work packages in 2027. The partners will form an alliance to refine the design during a development phase, after which Metrolinx can choose to accept a proposal that sets the final design, cost and schedule.

2026-07 — Tunnel launch shaft completed

Crews finished excavating the launch shaft for the northbound tunnel boring machines. The shaft is more than 10 m deep, required removing almost 70,000 cubic metres of soil, and used about 11,000 cubic metres of concrete. Utility relocations still have to be finished before tunnelling can start.

2026-06 — Stations, rail and systems RFP issued

Infrastructure Ontario and Metrolinx invited 11 shortlisted teams to bid on three packages. Underground works covers Steeles, Clark and Royal Orchard stations and the Finch transition box. Surface works covers Bridge and High Tech stations, the train storage facility and the portal. The third package is design and systems integration. The work uses a progressive owner-formed alliance model. The 2025 qualifications call had estimated about C$4B for this scope alone.

2025-08 — C$1.4B tunnelling contract awarded

Metrolinx and Infrastructure Ontario awarded a C$1.4B fixed-price contract to North End Connectors (Aecon, FCC and Ghella, with designers EXP and TYPSA). The contract covers twin 6.3 km tunnels from Finch Station to south of Langstaff Road, including launch and extraction shafts and station headwalls.

2023-12 — Early works at Finch Station completed

Metrolinx finished early upgrades at Finch Station in December 2023, the project’s first construction work.

2021-05 — Federal funding committed to the revised plan

Ottawa committed to cover 40% of four GTA subway projects, up to C$10.4B in total, including the Yonge North extension at an estimated C$5.6B. Federal funding for this project was conditional on Treasury Board approval. That year the province adopted the five-station design, after the fully underground version’s cost had risen to C$9.3B.