91Ô­´´

Construction is scheduled to be done by 2031 but it all begins here and now. The Star trekked the entire 15.6 km of the future transit line, from Exhibition Place through downtown and East York to the Ontario Science Centre. Here’s what we saw — and didn’t see.

Exhibition Grounds

The journey begins at the Exhibition Loop, through the GO station’s underground tunnel and out at the tail end of Atlantic Avenue, where I’m greeted by fences covered with “danger deep excavation” signs and black screens draped over fencing with pink Ontario Line slogans in French.

There’s a hole in the ground next to an orange excavator, and crews prepare to tunnel for the largest station on the Ontario Line. Its entrance is being built farther north on Atlantic. A temporary pedestrian bridge to the east will connect commuters to the north and south GO platforms as well as Liberty Village during construction. The bridge’s entrance looks like it’s made of giant Lego blocks. According to Metrolinx, it opens this spring.

Queen and Spadina

I marched more than an hour through Liberty Village and the Fashion District (the latter of which will be home to King-Bathurst Station but for now is a construction nightmare). On the outskirts of Grange Park, a web of yellow beams wraps around an old red-brick wall, stone columns and ornate embellishments. This former CIBC branch will be the entrance of the Queen-Spadina Station, incorporating heritage walls commissioned by the Bank of Hamilton in 1902. 

To preserve the building during construction, workers used these yellow retention towers to keep the façade in place, as well as dividing some of the façade into panels, removing them with a crane, to be reinstalled later. On the southwest side, it’s hard to miss the two green piling drill rigs protruding from behind tarped fences like giant praying mantises.

Queen and University

Heading east into the heart of downtown along Queen, I see more yellow braces as I approach University Avenue, this time they hug a limestone wall held up by Doric columns built in 1929 for the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. The heritage walls will eventually make up the future entrance of Osgoode Station, a street-level concourse that will connect directly to the TTC’s Line 1. According to Metrolinx, this will be the Ontario Line’s smallest station.

On University, I realize I no longer hear the sound of bubbling fountains; also missing is the landmark obelisk, the South African War Memorial, which is now stored off-site until construction is done. Near Osgoode Hall, about 75 metres of the historical black wrought iron fence is replaced with more tarped fencing; the fence is expected to be restored once construction is done. Also gone: the lineup of Osgoode Hall trees that sparked high-profile court battles and a public outcry last year.

Queen and Yonge

Traffic is in turmoil near the Eaton Centre, where Queen Street is closed for several years. This is one of the biggest disruptions the city faces and, combined with other projects, adds an extra half-hour to drive across downtown. Pedestrians are forced to navigate an ugly, tight labyrinth of concrete barriers and can’t-peer-over-it fences, zigzagging across the sidewalk and the road, not knowing if they’ll end up at the Eaton Centre or the subway.

The strip is deprived of animation — there’s no space for admiring the Hudson’s Bay storefront. It’s an out-of-sight thing now because it’s blocked by wooden boards and green-tarped fences to protect people from open excavation.

Queen and Sherbourne

Entering Moss Park, the row of now-fallen trees next to the Armoury has been replaced by tall black-tarped fences surrounding wide swaths of dirt, gravel and dirty gravel. There are plans to restore most of the park once construction is done, but all that’s left for now is the baseball diamond and tennis courts. The homeless encampment is gone, too: some residents said it has moved to the only other green space available in the neighbourhood at Allan Gardens.

From a rooftop across the street, I can see why workers need that much space despite the station being only a portion of the park: there’s a crane that looks like the incline of a roller-coaster, rows of trailers, material being stored, and cars or other machinery moving around. Queen Street East would not have survived that kind of disruption.

Lewis and Eastern

Through Corktown (where a plot of gravel-filled land will be another station at Berkeley and King), the Distillery District then over the Lower Don Bridge, the Ontario Line will pop above ground for the first time since the Exhibition Grounds. It will arrive at what was until recently a massive factory but is now an empty field.

This is the future home of East Harbour Station, a massive transit hub with ridership traffic second only to the TTC’s Union Station. There’s a minicity being built around it too, since this will be one of the five transit-oriented communities on the Ontario Line with highrise condos and ground-level retail. For now, it’s mountains of dirt, orange tarps, a disarray of materials, and lots of signs telling cars to slow down and us not to trespass.

Queen and McGee

Running above ground past the homes of Leslieville, the Lakeshore East rail corridor that runs along Jimmie Simpson Park is getting a makeover: portions of the rail bridges over Eastern, Queen and McGee, Dundas and Wardell, and Logan are being demolished and replaced. There’s concrete breaking, saws roaring, cutting torches blazing — and piles of material.

From the ground on Queen and McGee, future home of the Riverside-Leslieville station, I see GO trains above still running on the rail corridor while workers poke at the decrepit-looking wood on the bridge. Metrolinx says workers have shifted about 3,500 metres of rail track onto an adjacent, temporary bridge to keep those trains running during construction.

Gerrard and Carlaw

Further north near Riverdale, residents are angry that they’re losing a local shopping centre entirely by the end of May. A busy No Frills, closing this weekend, has been a convenient and affordable go-to for many residents and elderly people: a sign that it’s relocating went up recently.

Other stores in the shopping centre have already put up notes that they’ve moved. Others are advertising large sales before shutting down permanently, like Carpet Mill after more than three decades in business.  

This will be the home of the future Gerrard Station, where the train will come out of its underground tunnel under Pape Avenue.

Pape and Danforth

In the heart of Greektown on Danforth, several long-standing businesses had to go to make way for the connection with Line 2. Only shadows remain of the letters that once made up the name above Akropolis Pastries, a Greek-owned business in operation for 44 years. The red and grey brick Eton House anchoring that strip for almost three decades now has an empty marquee and a sign on the side of the building that reads, “S’agapo Danforth. Love always, the Eton House family.” 

Behind these storefronts, there’s a mountain of white bags filled with demolition waste of the houses that once also occupied this block. Beyond it are piles of bricks, metals and other ruined building material — the interior and exterior substances of what once made up the four walls of these local homes. 

Cosburn and Pape

Further north in Pape Village, the future home of Cosburn Station will require the demolition of more small businesses. Construction hasn’t started yet, so this intersection is my first break from giant machinery. But you can see clues of what’s to come: Red Stone Boutique has covered its windows and posted a thank-you note to its customers, local home goods store B.A. & M. Trading Ltd. has similar paper wrapping its storefront windows and a farewell note.

On the northwest corner is a building with its windows draped with brown paper. On its door, advocacy group Danforth Residents for Appropriate Development has left a plea for residents and a warning for Metrolinx that concerned residents are “watching closely” whether this area’s transit-oriented community will be affordable and inclusive.

Millwood and Overlea

North of Pape, I head toward the Millwood Overpass Bridge that’s above the Don Valley and its parkway. From here, the Ontario Line will no longer be underground, but elevated on concrete platforms, including above the freeway, all the way to the Ontario Science Centre.

West of the bridge, trails are carved where the subway will cross the Lower Don. From the bridge, I see little beige dots sprinkled across the hillside, the stumps of thousands of trees whose felling enraged environmentalists last year. Looking down from the north, I see trunks lying on the ground like corpses. Leftover tree stumps, yellow markings and dirt are all that remain of this forest as workers make way for construction.

Overlea and Thorncliffe Park

Now we’ve arrived in the Thorncliffe Park neighbourhood, where change is more obvious since the trains will be running through the area above ground. A massive plaza on Thorncliffe Park Drive, anchored by a popular halal grocery store, is now a string of shuttered businesses and empty parking lots with Metrolinx signs  telling residents shops will be vacated by April.

The plaza will be demolished later in the year and eventually turned into the Ontario Line’s maintenance and storage facility — a rail yard that sparked an uproar from the area’s economically marginalized residents. Thorncliffe Park Station will be right at this intersection.

The Islamic Society of 91Ô­´´ remains open for now, with the masjid’s call to prayer still echoing across the lot. But it will soon relocate, with the transit agency reaching a deal in 2022 to help fund a new religious and community centre. Nearby at 20 Overlea, that construction is well underway with four walls already partly up: it’s roughly five times the size of the current facility.

Don Mills and Gateway

Heading into Flemingdon Park, I’m expecting to walk alongside the heads of trees from the E.T. Seton Woods below. Then I see a gap with a clear view of a carpet of twigs and E.T. Seton Park Archery Range. Another giant, muddy chasm has opened. I’m standing on the edge and you can clearly see where the elevated Ontario Line will cut through the woods that no longer exist and run next to the archery range before crossing into Thorncliffe Park. 

Diagonally across the Flemingdon Park Shopping Centre is a parking lot next to the Ontario Science Centre where the future Flemingdon Park Station will be. But the final stop will be a bit farther north on Don Mills at Eglinton, where the Crosstown LRT will meet the Ontario Line’s Science Centre Station. There are no signs of construction or excavation just yet — my final reprieve from heavy machinery and depressing fences.

Update - April 22, 2024

This article was updated to include additional information about the locations of the Ontario Line’s King-Bathurst Station and Corktown Station.