Ontario Line stops are finally starting to look like real subway stations

Construction is racing along for the 15.6-kilometre Ontario Line through Toronto, and parts of the new line are already starting to look like actual subway stations.

The 15-stop subway route, with its ever-expanding price tag now clocking in at $34 billion, has made extensive progress over the summer — though much of that momentum has occurred deep below ground, far from the prying eyes of passersby.

Six of the Ontario Line's stations in downtown Toronto will be situated dozens of metres underground, including four "mined" stops carved through bedrock. And while there's not much to see at street level at the sites of these excavated caverns, the views below are among the most impressive anywhere on the Ontario Line route as of 2026.

Among the four mined stations, the future Chinatown Station (formerly Queen-Spadina) will eventually serve the busy Chinatown, Queen West shopping district, and Kensington Market areas with increased transit capacity. 

At street level, preserved building facades and construction hoarding are the only real signs of the massive undertaking occurring below, but a recent Metrolinx update reveals that the station is really starting to look like, well, a subway station.

According to Metrolinx's latest August construction update on the station, rebar installation, formwork, and concrete pours are ongoing for the lining walls for the southern of the two station access sites. Work on this base slab is scheduled to continue through September.

But the images of what's happening within the future platform level really help paint a picture of the station's final aesthetic. 

The actual platform level will sit within a large cylindrical void etched from rock, which is now being lined with waterproof membranes.

Formwork is now in place ahead of station platform construction, with the future path of trains now clearly visible in Metrolinx photos.

Twin tunnel boring machines, which recently departed from a launch site near Exhibition Place, will gradually work their way towards this cavern before punching through the holes now in place at either end of the space.

The Ontario Line is projected to open in the early 2030s, a somewhat vague timeline adjustment from the previously announced completion window of 2031.