2020: A State-of-the-Art Bus Terminal is Introduced in Downtown Toronto

December 5, 2020

In the Canadian province of Ontario, an intercity bus terminal in the downtown section of Toronto was officially opened. The Union Station Bus Terminal (USBT), which is operated by the government-owned company Metrolinx, is connected via pedestrian walkways to Union Station (a major railway facility and Canada’s busiest transportation hub). USBT serves buses operated by GO Transit, a public transit system serving that region of Ontario; and also long-distance bus travel options provided by companies such as Coach Canada, Greyhound Lines, and Ontario Northland Motor Coach Services.  

“After more than three years of construction, the new state-of-the-art GO bus hub has opened at Union Station in Toronto,” reported the local edition of City News Everywhere on the day of USBT’s formal debut. “The new 23,000 square foot [2,136-square meter] Union Station Bus Terminal is located on the north-east corner of Bay Street and Lake Shore Boulevard and has the look and feel of an airport terminal.”

USBT was built to replace two facilities that had been in operation in that vicinity of the capital of Ontario and Canada’s most populous city. Those facilities were the Toronto Coach Terminal, which was the city’s central bus station for nearly nine decades; and a terminal on the north side of the Union Station Rail Corridor, a series of tracks running both through and alongside Union Station.

Caroline Mulroney, who was Ontario’s minister of transportation from 2019 to 2023, highlighted the advantages and amenities of USBT at the time of its opening. “Our government is building accessible, modern transit infrastructure, and making public transit a safe and attractive option,” asserted Mulroney. “The opening of the new Union Station Bus Terminal demonstrates our government’s promise to bring a better travel experience to the everyday lives of Ontarians.”

Photo Credit: Canmenwalker (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en)

For more information on Toronto’s Union Station Bus Terminal (USBT), please check out  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Station_Bus_Terminal

Additional information on the opening of USBT is available at https://www.masstransitmag.com/bus/infrastructure/press-release/21165444/metrolinx-metrolinx-announces-torontos-new-union-station-bus-terminal-opens-door-for-first-time https://toronto.citynews.ca/2020/12/05/new-union-station-bus-terminal-opens-in-toronto/

A video featuring USBT the day after its debut can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyrZ27qVwlk