Toronto PATH

The Toronto PATH: No, it’s not some new-age philosophical program. It’s an underground (and in one case, overhead) system designed to save you from freezing in a Canadian winter.

Getting from A to Z

The PATH, which runs for 27 km (16 miles), is a network of tunnels, much of it lined with retail space, linking more than 50 office towers and shopping malls in downtown Toronto.

It runs from Dundas and Bay in the north (the bus station) to the Toronto Convention Centre in the south, and from the Rogers Centre in the west to the Yonge-Dundas Square in the east.

Although most of it is underground, there is an exception; the overhead part of the system is a footbridge called Skywalk that starts in Union Station and leads you over the train tracks to Metro Toronto Convention Centre and the Rogers Centre. If you’re into urban vistas, this is a wonderful one – both the glass-and-steel structure itself and the tracks below (which look like some kind of abstract art).

Underground business

It’s estimated that there are around 1,200 businesses and about 5,000 people employed in the shops and services lining the PATH. You can eat, buy clothes, get your hair cut, or get your shoes fixed here. (Just don’t call the workers moles or comment on their pasty skin; they’re touchy about that.)

History

Although the PATH really took off in the 1970s, underground passages existed in Toronto before then. In 1900, Eatons built a path between its main store and its annex across the street. Another famous path was the one built between Union Station and the Royal York Hotel in 1927, which is still used regularly.

For a Map and More Information

You can print off a map of the Toronto PATH and learn more about it at: http://www.toronto.ca/path

return from Toronto PATH to Union Station

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