The Toronto Coach Terminal has served as the city’s main hub for intercity buses, being the
main point for arrivals and departures for over 90 years. Located near Bay St and Dundas
St in downtown Toronto, the building has served various bus companies over its 90 year history,
with routes from the terminal travelling across the province and the county. However, the
terminal has declined significantly in recent years, with intercity bus companies cutting
back service, and the facility becoming increasingly inadequate for the remaining bus carriers.
Today, we’re taking a final look around the structure, which closed permanently in
July 2021, documenting the final state, and exploring what the future
holds for the site. My name’s Zach, and this is the final days of the Toronto Coach Terminal.
The Toronto Coach Terminal is located in the heart of downtown Toronto, on the west side of Bay
Street, one block north of Dundas Street. Originally opened in December 1931, the terminal
has served as a hub for intercity coach lines for almost 90 years, being a gateway for bus
passengers entering the city. The terminal consists of two main parts – the main Coach
Terminal at the southwest corner of Bay and Edward, and the Elizabeth Street Terminal
one block west on Edward at Elizabeth. The Coach Terminal was constructed first, originally
opening on December 19, 1931, and servicing buses run by Gray Coach.
The two storey building contained a waiting room and ticket booths, as well as four bus
platforms on the west side of the terminal. In 1990, the building was expanded, with the
main waiting area being enlarged, more bus platforms being constructed, and an underground
tunnel constructed under Bay Street. The lower level of the terminal contained washrooms,
along with a bakery outlet for a nearby bake shop. On the main floor, various ticket kiosks
were located along the south wall of the building, providing ticketing and baggage services for
the various intercity bus companies. To the west, a waiting room provided seating for
waiting customers, with a newsstand selling snacks, and various bus departure boards displaying
trips leaving from the terminal. Lockers were also provided in the terminal, allowing for
long term storage by bus passengers. The upper level of the terminal was formerly a restaurant
space, however low patronage saw the space converted to office use in later years. Doors
from the main waiting area led into the covered bus platforms, with seven separate bays servicing
two buses each. The bus platforms are not raised from the bus driveway, with passenger
queues often stretching across the driveway itself. At the far end of the terminal, a
bus dispatch office overlooks the platforms, housing offices for dispatchers from the various bus companies.
The Elizabeth Street Terminal was constructed later
in 1968, and originally used mainly for charter and sightseeing routes. However, GO Transit
also began using the terminal with the introduction of bus service on their network, with routes
travelling to various points in the Toronto Area. GO buses served five diagonal bus
bays along the south side of the terminal, with the north side allowing for inbound buses
to unload. GO buses were gradually removed from the terminal with the development of
bus stops closer to Union Station, with the final route leaving in September 2002. At
that time, the south side bus bays were closed, with the covered north side continuing to
service bus arrivals until the terminals closure in 2021. The Elizabeth Street terminal building closed
in 2010 however, with the waiting area and newsstand no longer being accessible. Passengers
leaving the arrivals terminal must cross Elizabeth Street, however an access point to the Toronto
Coach Terminal allows passengers to walk inside behind the departure platforms to Bay Street.
Prior to its closure, the terminal serviced routes from various bus companies, which provided
trips to cities in Canada and the United States. Greyhound Canada provided service to the terminal
until May 2020, with routes running to Barrie, Buffalo, Detroit, Kitchener, London, New York,
Ottawa, Owen Sound, and Sudbury. Megabus also provided routes from the terminal until June
2021, with buses running to Buffalo, Montreal, New York, Niagara Falls, and Washington DC.
Ontario Northland was the last carrier to service the terminal, with the final buses
departing on July 3, 2021. Ontario Northland buses ran trips to North Bay and Sudbury,
servicing various towns along the way. Both Ontario Northland and Megabus have relocated
to the new Union Station bus terminal, with Greyhound’s US routes also expected to service
the new terminal when cross-border service resumes.
So what does the future hold for the property? After the last bus left the terminal on
July 3, 2021, the property was handed back to the City of Toronto by the current owners, the
Toronto Coach Terminal Incorporated. The property has been identified as an underutilized asset,
meaning that the site will likely be redeveloped for affordable housing, community use, or
other employment uses. However, the original terminal building is a protected heritage
property, meaning that the exterior façade and most likely parts of the interior will
be preserved in any future development. No specific developments have been proposed for
the site at this time, however given its prime location, we imagine that the eventual development
of the site will greatly enhance the surrounding neighbourhood.
Those were the final days of the Toronto Coach Terminal, with the final Ontario Northland
bus departing the terminal on July 3, 2021. With the closure of the terminal, buses will
be moving to the new Union Station bus terminal, sharing bays with GO Transit and TOK Coachlines.
If you haven’t already, you can check out our tour of the new bus terminal by clicking
the button in the top right corner. Feel free to leave a like if you enjoyed this video,
and comment down below to join in the discussion. My name’s Zach, and I’ll be Vanishing
Underground, until the next one.