Infrastructure TRANSPORT
August 08, 2025 930
Yonge North: U -Bahn expansion that will bring enormous improvements in the York region
It was announced on Wednesday, August 6, 2025, that the Tunneling Werks contract in the Yonge North U -Bahn extension was awarded 1, 8 kilometers to the north. The line ends near the terminal of the Richmond Hill Center, which is currently a fairly extensive hub for the transit of the Viva region and the Go buses, which are located in a parking lot of the Big Box Store directly on the Yonge Street and north of the Highway 407.
Yonge north subway extension map, picture of metrolinx
The allocation of this contract means that we basically exceed the point of return with this project, since it is inconceivable that its tunnels are being built without the stations, and this may be strategically the strongest of the three U -Bahn expansion projects that the Ford government has promoted since its election in 2018. Eginton Line 5 Crosstown West Extension, for which most tunnels have already been completed. This means that for all four large U -Bahn projects that drive the government – three extensions plus Ontario Line 3 – and currently in Toronto, in Toronto, in Toronto, the best of all city in North America, three extensions and at the same time in Toronto. It also seems likely that Ontario Line 3 is opened before the U -Bahn extension of Yonge North, a kind of unofficial state to further expand the overcrowded Yonge Line 1 -Ubahn further north and press even more drivers on it.
The strength of the project lies in the fact that the Yonge Street in North York and Southern York region is a very used bus corridor, with TTC buses from Steeles East and West as well as several other routes that are led into the Finch station, as well as various transit routes that also run along the Yongen corridor along the Yonge corridor. This means that the Yonge segment from Finch to the Richmond Hill Center – and especially with Steeles – actually sees a lot of bus traffic with very significant number of passengers. With a subway, the vast majority of this traffic will go underground, travel will become faster, emissions are reduced and additional development and density that is planned along the route are supported.
Representation of the future transmitter minals in the transit-oriented community of the high-tech station. Image, infrastructure ontario
As far as the actual tunneling is concerned, it seems that the project is two bored tunnels like most contemporary and railway projects in Toronto, in contrast to the Subway expansion of Scarborough, which had problems with its single larger tunnel. The northernmost route of the line above the ground next to the Richmond Hill Regional Train Line, which will connect it, will clearly commute for a modern U -Bahn extension in Toronto. It will potentially also have a small maintenance yard to store additional trains along the line that enable two northern stations in the immediate vicinity, with a huge new bus exchange on the “Bridge” being replaced to replace the Richmond Hill Center terminal and at the same time serve huge new enclosure for the area. In view of the fact that line 1 is equipped with CBTC transmission, it would be great to see that platform doors (which I previously spoke to urbantoronto) at all new stations of the expansion and active protection for you, which is carried out for other current extensions. This could possibly advance the use of the screen door via the older U -Bahn system.
The greater effects of the project's project and how you could change the situation of public transport in this part of the region is interesting. On the one hand, the York Region Transit and its Viva BRT service are notorious for their bad service, but since the U -Bahn replaces the many routes that can be done along this section of the Yonge Street -including one piece of the only reasonably frequent Viva route, the Viva Blue -at least a reasonable number of YRT service times, should be enabled again. However, one would hope that the York region would actually increase the Transit service, especially on the Viva routes of the Highway 7, which now incorporate directly into the U -Bahn from the east and west. Provision of an experience for the many people who would expect in transit -oriented (but transit) developments along the Highway 7 and the Yonge Street with a level of the Toronto residents on Finch or Steeles, every 10 minutes or better from the residents of Toronto and the residents of Steeles – and ideally despite a reduced frequency. At the end of the day, all this can hopefully coincide with the doubles to expand both the infrastructure and the service in the York region.
A mid-road YRT Viva Stop in York region, picture of Reece Martin
It is also the case that when resigning it will be quite impressive, how long line 1 has grown, with almost 45 kilometers of distance and 43 stations, 20 kilometers and 22 stations will run the Yonge Street. Yonge may be Canada's strongest corridor of transit -oriented development with important density nodes in the Richmond Hill Center, in the North York Center, in Eginton, in St. Clair and through the city center of Toronto. It is then interesting that a large part of the traffic on the line has not been leading to the city center for a long time, but to the various other subcenters along the line that have all office space and considerable development with mixed use, and some have the connections of East-West rail traffic services.
View of the southwest to the High -Tech -Tech -Transit -Oriented -Community, Richmond Hill, picture with the friendly approval of the province of Ontario
If you look at the wider network, this U -Bahn extension will end up five different frequent radial rails over the next ten years, which will extend beyond the Highway 407 and often receive the entire daily service as part of the “Go -Expansion” program. On three of them, the regional trains of Kitchener, Barrie and Stofville ends the frequent service at 407 adjacent stations, Bramalea and Unionville on the lines of Kitchener and Stofville as well as a planned concord station on the Barrie line, where this line crosses the motorway 407. From the northern and northwestern extent of the region to downtown Toronto.
It is sufficient to say that the U -Bahn extension of Yonge North should be a very effective project, not only for the expansion of the U -Bahn network, but also for the expansion and strengthening of regional and municipal bus systems with which it is connected. It was a long time ago, but the Yonge -U -Bahn will continue to the north!
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Reece Martin is a well -known lawyer for a good transit worldwide. He is based in Toronto and blogs at nextmetro.substack.
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Urbantoronto will continue to pursue progress in this development. In the meantime, however, you can find out more about this from our database file linked below. If you want, you can join the conversation in the associated threads line 5 and line 6 or leave a comment on the storage space provided on this page.
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Urbantoronto has a research service, UtPro, which delivers comprehensive data on development projects in the Greater Golden Horseshoe – from the proposal to completion. We also offer immediate reports, downloadable snapshots based on the location, and a daily subscription newsletter, New Development Insider, which pursues projects from the first application.
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