Largest ever expansion of Toronto’s Subway

Connecting Canada’s multicultural metropole

The Ontario Line subway will provide new rapid transit connectivity to 40+ transit options within the City of Toronto, including connections to GO train Lakeshore West at Exhibition, Lakeshore East and Stouffville lines at East Harbour, and to the Toronto Transit Commission subway at lines 1, 2 and 5. The Ontario Line will get people to their destination faster.

Toronto, Ontario, is the largest city in Canada and the fourth largest in the whole of North America with its 2.8 million inhabitants, and a regional population of 7.2 million people, which is expected to go to 8.6 million by 2031. In this vibrant, multicultural region, efficient and fast public transport is crucial in expanding a growing city and economy.

Therefore, Ontario’s provincial transportation agency, Metrolinx, is currently undertaking the largest expansion in the history of the Toronto Metro with the 15.6 km Ontario Line, which will serve 388,000 daily boardings. 

The Ontario Line will relieve crowding on popular transport routes throughout the city and bring transit to underserviced neighborhoods. Many passengers can expect to save up to 40 minutes of travel time each day. 

Cooperation in consortium with leading North American company

Metrolinx has selected three consortia with a package that includes civil, station and tunnel work for the southern portion of the new line, encompassing seven of the 15 new stations; one is above ground, and the remaining six are underground.

Amongst those consortia, COWI has been assigned by Ontario Transit Group as a prime consultant, and we are responsible for the design of two of the new stations, King-Bathurst and Queen-Spadina. 

The new stations will be situated within a 10-minute walking distance for around 50,000 residents and will create vital new local and regional connections between busy neighbourhoods. 

Detailed design and engineering of two new underground stations

COWI and its architecture company, Arkitema, are responsible for the detailed design and engineering of the King-Bathurst and Queen-Spadina stations. 

In Toronto, Arkitema’s experts are contributing their in-depth knowledge of design excellence, subway station design and customer experiences. Arkitema has also designed a series of stations for the Copenhagen Metro that served as inspiration for Metrolinx.

Global cooperation between international experts

COWI has experts working around the clock on three different continents. We draw on expertise across our business from multidisciplinary design to project management, forming one cohesive team that creates pioneering engineering and architectural designs for large-scale projects. 

Our office in Toronto with a team of local engineers leverages our local presence and knowledge with our international expertise.

A focus on collaboration, digitalisation and design excellence gives COWI a favourable position in terms of building strong relationships with the contractor, Ontario Transit Group, and the project owner, Metrolinx. 

Digital solutions and passenger analysis

An integral part of COWI's ability to cooperate seamlessly across geographies is how we have integrated state-of-the-art digital solutions into our workstream.

COWI's focus on digitalisation and design excellence is also being applied to passenger flow analysis. The Copenhagen Metro was an inspiration for Metrolinx, but the Ontario Line south stations are larger, with 100-metre-long platforms and significantly higher passenger flows.

Consequently, we are conducting a lot of passenger flow analysis as an essential part of the architectural process. By using 3D simulations, we can analyse how passengers behave, where the flows come from, and where they go. It is all about enhancing comfort and preventing bottlenecks. We have to be sure that we provide enough space for passengers in the busiest periods.

Future-proofing Toronto’s architectural heritage

Central to COWI’s work on the project is safeguarding and future-proofing the city’s heritage by seamlessly integrating the new stations into their urban surroundings while retaining the existing buildings’ historical attributes and character in the new station designs. 

The entrances to both King-Bathurst and Queen-Spadina stations incorporate existing heritage façades, which need to be preserved. However, inside the stations, we will create a modern design and customer experience, and each station will have its own colour scheme.

Since both stations are in highly dense and desirable parts of the city, the city plans to add new residential apartments and offices in the area.