The Ontario government has announced the start of construction on three of its Ontario Line transit stations – at King-Bathurst, Queen-Spadina and Moss Park.

Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria was in Toronto on September 4 to announce the news.

“Our government is one step closer to delivering a world-class transit system for the GTA,” said Sarkaria. “The stations we’re breaking ground on today will help tackle gridlock, reduce commute times and connect tens of thousands of commuters to homes and good-paying jobs each and every day.”

Construction at the three sites includes work to remove soil and bedrock to create stations of up to 40 metres deep with elevators and escalators that will ultimately connect the subways to the street. The work will also prepare for future tunnel boring machines to create the tunnels that will connect all the underground stations through the downtown segment of the Ontario Line.

“A strong public transit system will help folks in Toronto get where they need to go faster, and reliably,” said federal Infrastructure Minister Sean Fraser. “The ground-breaking of these stations is an important milestone in our work to build a stronger public transportation system across the Greater Toronto Area.”

The King-Bathurst Station will serve over 5,000 commuters during the morning rush hour, creating crucial connections between the Ontario Line and popular streetcar routes like 504 King and 511 Bathurst. The Queen-Spadina and Moss Park stations are expected to serve over 7,000 commuters each and facilitate over 5,000 transfers during the morning rush hour. The Ontario Line project will help reduce crowding on Line 1 (Yonge-University) by 15 percent and at Union Station by 14 percent.

Combined, the three stations will put more than 70,000 people within walking distance of the Ontario Line subway.

Once complete, the 15.6-kilometre Ontario Line will have 15 stations, running from Exhibition Place through the downtown core and connecting to the Eglinton Crosstown LRT.

The line will offer more than 40 connections to other subway, bus, streetcar and regional train services, bringing 227,500 more people within walking distance of transit and reducing daily car trips by at least 28,000. By 2041, it is also expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 14,000 tonnes annually and cut overall fuel consumption by more than seven million litres a year – the equivalent of nearly 120,000 fill-ups at the pump per year.