Tunnel to link Dundas West, UP stations

$23-million project will connect the nearby but separate TTC and Union Pearson Express hubs

The riddle of the missing link has finally been solved.

Metrolinx is expropriating land so that the Dundas West subway station will be connected to the Bloor UP Express and GO Transit station, located 270 metres away, through an underground pedestrian tunnel.

It’s a $23-million plan that should help bewildered travellers who are often seen wandering around the Dundas St. W and Bloor St. W intersection looking for either the TTC station or the Union-Pearson hub.

“Negotiations were complex with multiple stakeholders, so it took much longer than we hoped, but we’re excited to finally move forward,” Metrolinx’s Anne Marie Aikins said Thursday.

“Seamless convenient connections between GO, UP and the TTC are really important to customers,” added Aikins, noting UP ridership is rising and is now more than 300,000 per month.

“We’ve been negotiating with the property owners on the Crossways (residential and commercial) property for the past four years as we need access to some of the property in the underground parking lot to make the connection,” she said.

“There will be no impact on residents living in the Crossways,” said Aikins, referring to the rental apartment buildings at 2340 Dundas St. W, which are adjacent to the Bloor UP Express station.

“Our goal is to have control of the property interest by summer 2018. Once the property has been acquired, the design will go through public consultation,” she said, noting the $23-million tab includes the cost of the land, property, design and construction of the link.

A date for its opening will be set after the expropriation process is completed.

The lack of a weather-protected connection between the TTC station at the northwest corner of Dundas West and Bloor and the UP/GO station has baffled users since the airport express rail line opened in 2015.

Currently, a small sign directs wayward travellers from the subway station onto Dundas — where they must steer their suitcases across streetcar tracks — forcing them to wheel their luggage more than a quarter kilometre east on Bloor.

Gaining access through the parking garage beneath the Crossways complex will make for a better transit experience, said Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca.

“It’s very positive news. I know there’s a great deal of demand in the west end of Toronto to see that physical connection that had long been promised now one step closer to being delivered,” Del Duca said.

“It’s all part and parcel of the broader plan to build a seamless and integrated transit network right around the region.”