The massive new East Harbour Transit Hub planned for east of downtown Toronto took a huge step towards fruition on Friday, when the provincial government announced that a construction contract for the multimodal station has been awarded.
The station will be the crown jewel in the redevelopment of the sprawling former Lever Brothers soap factory site, which is being razed in advance of Cadillac Fairview’s colossal East Harbour development.
Ontario’s newly re-elected PC government touts the project as a significant element in its plan to improve transit connectivity across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA), and said in a news release that the station serving stops on GO Transit and the Ontario Line will serve approximately 100,000 transit users every day and support over 50,000 jobs once complete.
“The Metrolinx team is proud to work with partners in government and industry to deliver more transit options, reduce commute times and ease congestion,” said Michael Lindsay, interim president and CEO of Metrolinx.
“East Harbour station will be one of the most important nodes on the region’s transit map. It will connect the Ontario Line to an expanded GO network in a way that will completely re-shape how we move through Toronto and beyond.”
The project will also ease congestion at Union Station by providing a new transfer point between transit lines east of the city centre, and provincial estimates predict the hub will divert as many as 14,000 people from Union Station at peak periods, cutting down on crowding at the station by up to 14 per cent.
“The investments we are making in transit and infrastructure are helping fight gridlock and speed up commutes for millions of people across Ontario, including the 100,000 transit users who are expected to use the East Harbour Transit Hub every day,” said Minister of Transportation Prabmeet Sarkaria.
Sarkaria echoed Premier Doug Ford’s successful re-election platform of public works projects to support Ontario’s economy amid unprecedented economic threats.
“By making these investments, we are also supporting thousands of good-paying jobs in Ontario’s construction sector at a time when, in the face of U.S. tariffs that are taking direct aim at Canada’s economy, it’s never been more important to help keep our workers on the job,” said Sarkaria.
Construction work has been awarded to a joint venture of AtkinsRéalis and Bird Construction, leading alongside Hatch Ltd.
