Transportation in the Canadian city of Toronto forms the hub of the road, rail and air networks in the Greater Toronto Area and much of southern Ontario. There are many forms of transport in the city, including railways, highways, and public transit. Toronto also has an extensive network of bicycle lanes and multi-use trails and paths.

Railways

Toronto is a major rail transportation hub in Canada and central North America, with most commercial rail freight operations carried out by two Class I railways, Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway. Both companies operate major yards and intermodal facilities in various parts of Toronto to serve manufacturing and logistics customers. Although at one time both railways saw most of their operations based out of the waterfront area, over time they have shifted to facilities in suburban Toronto or adjacent municipalities. Most waterfront trackage has been scaled back and abandoned in favour of real-estate development, with the remaining main lines in this area being almost the exclusive domain of passenger carriers. Significant portions of the railway network in the City of Toronto have been sold by the commercial railways to GO Transit, the provincial commuter rail operator.

Toronto is served by inter-city Via Rail to other Canadian cities and Amtrak's daily New York City trains through Union Station, a grand neoclassical structure in the heart of the city's downtown, which is shared with GO Transit's commuter trains.

The Union Pearson Express, an airport rail link from Toronto Pearson International Airport to Union Station and the central business district, started operation on June 6, 2015. It was completed in time for the 2015 Pan American Games.

Bus terminals GO Transit operates all of its commuter bus services into and out of downtown Toronto from the Union Station Bus Terminal, a terminal owned and operated by GO Transit and adjacent to Union Station. This bus terminal was opened in 2020, replacing an earlier Union Station GO Bus Terminal. GO Transit also operates the Yorkdale Bus Terminal at Yorkdale Shopping Centre and several terminals at subway stations, including Finch Bus Terminal, Scarborough Centre Bus Terminal and York Mills Bus Terminal.

Most intercity coach services operate out of the new Union Station Bus Terminal after relocating from the decommissioned Toronto Coach Terminal at Bay and Dundas in 2021. Intercity coach companies operating services out of the Union Station Bus Terminal include Ontario Northland, Megabus, Rider Express, Flixbus, and Greyhound Lines.

Roads and highways

Highways There are a number of freeways that serve both the city proper and the Greater Toronto Area. Bisecting the city from west to east across its inner suburbs, Highway 401 (or simply, "the 401") acts as a bypass of the downtown core, and is both the busiest and widest highway in Canada. At its interchange with Highway 400, where it spans 18 lanes, it sees over 400,000 vehicles on an average day, making it one of the world's busiest highways.

At the western edge of the city, the 401 meets Highway 427, an important north–south artery between Toronto Pearson International Airport and the Gardiner Expressway. It mainly serves the airport and the western suburbs outside the city of Toronto. In the same area, the short length of Highway 409 connects the airport directly to the traffic flow of the 401. Moving east, the 401 then intersects Highway 400, which leads north to Barrie, the recreational areas of Ontario's "Cottage Country" and beyond, to the northern reaches of the province. East of the 400, the 401 meets Allen Road, the Don Valley ParkwayHighway 404, and finally Highway 2A before continuing eastwards out of Toronto into the suburbs of Pickering, Ajax, Whitby, and Oshawa.

Allen Road is an expressway from Eglinton Avenue to Sheppard Avenue north of the 401. The Don Valley Parkway is a north–south expressway that links downtown Toronto to the 401. Beyond the 401, this route is known as Highway 404, and connects the more distant outer suburbs of Markham, Richmond Hill, Aurora, and Newmarket to the 401.

The Gardiner Expressway (or colloquially, "the Gardiner") roughly follows the northern shore of Lake Ontario, and connects the western suburbs to the downtown core. West of Highway 427, the Gardiner becomes Queen Elizabeth Way (often called the QEW, or simply "The Q.E."), which heads towards Hamilton, Niagara Falls, and Fort Erie (and the Canada–United States border in the vicinity of Buffalo).

Allen Road, the Don Valley Parkway, the Gardiner Expressway, and Highway 2A are municipal expressways, meaning they are maintained by the city through the Toronto Transportation Services rather than the provincial government through the Ministry of Transportation. The other highways serving the city (the 400-series highways) are maintained by the provincial Ministry of Transportation.

Highway 407 ETR is not located within Toronto proper, but is a major highway in the Greater Toronto Area that acts as a secondary bypass around the northern end of the city, stretching from Burlington in the west to Pickering in the east. It is an electronic toll road with no physical toll booths, instead depending on automatic recognition of vehicle plates or electronic toll collection.

Roads

Toronto has approximately 10,000 roads spanning a total of across the city. Roads in the city are maintained by Toronto Transportation Services. The street network downtown mostly consists of a dense network of four-lane arterial and collector roads typical of an older North American city. Outside the downtown core, most arterial roads have two or three lanes of traffic in each direction.

Toronto's roads are largely built along a grid-based road system. The grid of major city roads was laid out by a concession road system, in which major arterial roads are apart (with some exceptions, particularly in Scarborough and Etobicoke, as they used a different survey). Major east–west arterial roads are generally parallel with the Lake Ontario shoreline, using Queen Street as a baseline, and major north–south arterial roads are roughly perpendicular to these streets, though slightly angled north of Eglinton Avenue. Toronto's grid north is approximately 17° to the west of true north. Many arterialsparticularly north–south ones, due to the city originally being within the former York Countycontinue beyond the city into the 905 suburbs and further into the rural countryside.

Toronto's road grid is sometimes broken by geographical features, most notably the Don River ravines. For example, Lawrence Avenue and St. Clair Avenue are both split into two sections by the Don Valley, and, in the case of St. Clair Avenue, the distance between the two sections is . Roads sometimes change names, and the 1998 amalgamation caused some doubling in road names, although this is usually confined to smaller, more residential roads. The grid system is also occasionally broken by historical roads. These include streets such as Davenport Road and Vaughan Road, which follow an old native trail, while others, such as Kingston Road, were originally constructed to link Toronto with other settlements in Ontario.

Roads in Toronto are often potted with potholes due to freezing and thawing in the winter and spring seasons. On average, there are 100 major potholes reported with a high of 1000. Potholes are repaired by city crews. Full paving is done by contractors when the need arises.

Toll roads No Toronto roads have been tolled since 1896; the closest is Highway 407 in Durham Region, York Region and Peel Region; the expressway runs northeast, north and northwest of the city, respectively.

From 1820 to 1896, tolls were collected on roads leaving the old city boundaries:

Yonge and King Yonge and College/Carlton Yonge Street and Bloor Street Yonge Street at Gallows Hill Queen Street West and Ossington Avenue

Public transportation

Within the city, the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) operates an extensive system of subways, buses, and streetcars, covering of routes. A single flat fare applies for any trip within the city regardless of distance or transfers required with the exception of contracted routes that travel outside of the city and downtown express routes. The TTC is the third busiest transit agency by ridership in North America (after the Mexico City Metro and New York City's New York City Transit Authority).

Buses and streetcars

The rest of the city is primarily served by a network of about 150 bus routes, many of them forming a grid along main streets. Most bus routes connect to one or more subway stations, save a few routes that serve bus depots or GO stations. A more distinctive feature of the TTC is the streetcar system, one of the few remaining in North America with a substantial amount of in-street operation. The city of Toronto has the largest streetcar system in the Americas.

Rapid transit

The backbone of the TTC is the Toronto subway system with 5 lines: Line 1 Yonge–University, Line 2 Bloor–Danforth, Line 4 Sheppard, Line 5 Eglinton, and Line 6 Finch West. Lines 5 and 6 use light rail technology and are owned by Metrolinx, while the others are considered heavy rail and are owned by the TTC. Line 3 Scarborough closed in July 2023.

Commuter rail Inter-regional commuter rail and bus service is provided by GO Transit. GO trains and buses connect the city to the rest of the Greater Toronto Area. Ontario Northland Motor Coach Services operates buses to destinations in northern Ontario.

Airports

Toronto Pearson International Airport

Toronto's primary airport is Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ), straddling Toronto's western boundary with Mississauga. Pearson's air traffic is over 41million passengers in 2015, and it is the world's largest originator of air traffic into the United States. It is the busiest airport in Canada and is the largest hub for Air Canada. It is the world's 15th busiest airport by flights as of 2014.

Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport (Island Airport) The city also has a small commercial airport, the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport (YTZ), commonly known as the "island airport" on Toronto Island, southwest of downtown. The airport is used for civil aviation, medevac flights, and regional airlines using STOL-type turboprop aircraft. Since 1984, regional carriers have included City Express, Jazz Air and since 2006, Porter Airlines. Airport access is via a short ferry ride or tunnel. 508,574 passengers used the airport in 2008, making it the busiest one-airline served airport in the world. In 2009 it surpassed Thunder Bay International Airport to become the 3rd busiest air facility in Ontario (after Toronto-Pearson and Ottawa International) serving 770,000 passengers, and growing to handle 2.3million passengers in 2014.

Nearby airports The Hamilton International Airport is an alternate, relief airport to Pearson. Situated in Hamilton, southwest of Toronto, it is also a terminus for low-cost carrier, charter airline, and cargo traffic.

Travellers from Toronto to the United States alternatively travel from Buffalo Niagara International Airport, located outside of Buffalo, New York, United States. The lower airfares offered for U.S. destinations make travelling from Buffalo a cost-effective alternative, despite the time needed to make the trip by motor vehicle from Toronto.