It is one of the biggest underground spaces in the world, but does Toronto’s PATH system offer a solution to crowded, dense megacities?

When Toronto transit riders disgorge on any number of subway platforms in the downtown business district, they enter a realm that knows no season. A vast subterranean network of passageways connect dozens of office towers, attractions, hotels and shops. On a recent winter afternoon, swarms of office workers, purposeful in their step and comfortably dressed for temperature-controlled comfort, moved through one maze-like mall after another, while the snow howled through concrete canyons above.



Perhaps there should be a coat check when entering Toronto’s PATH system, but most people don’t exit where they enter. It’s more a conveyance than destination.



Increasingly though, this web of 30 kilometres (19 miles) of interconnected commercial space (what the Guinness World Records calls the largest underground shopping complex in the world) is catching attention for its novelty and becoming a tourist attraction in its own right.



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“PATH promotes walkability and is all about choice: nobody’s forcing anyone to turn into mole people,” said James Parakh, manager of urban design for Toronto, who frequently leads PATH tours for city planning delegations from the Middle East, Scandinavia and China.



The explosive growth of Canada’s largest metropolis, evident from a nest of cranes toiling on a skyline where more high-rise towers are under construction than any other North American city, is fuelling expansion of the PATH system in lockstep. Developers view the connection as a powerful enticement to attract tenants.



“It’s been very successful, but it’s not an organised entity and there is no governing body or set of rules,” says Grant Humes, executive director of the Toronto Financial District Business Improvement Area, (BIA). “So effectively what you have are huge numbers of people walking through the basements of different private properties.”



Easing crowded streets

This expansion, which began in 1900 with a tunnel linking a department store and its annex and blossomed with Mies van der Rohe’s Toronto-Dominion Centre in the 1960s, has its detractors who lament a missed opportunity to create something grander, more unified and coherent than what exists today.



“These pedestrian concourses don’t have any relationship either to the street grid nor give you visual glimpses or clues about where you are or your orientation,” said Toronto architect Jack Diamond.



The PATH has also been accused of sucking the life from the sidewalk. In a city that strictly limits above grade pedestrian bridges between buildings for this very reason as well as for the visual clutter they cause the urge to beaver down goes seemingly unchecked. “The PATH has killed some retail at the surface, but it hasn’t done away with it altogether, like some people like to claim,” says Craig White, of the city-watching blog, urbantoronto.ca.



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Humes argues that street presence in the financial district “is all about the presence of banks and major office lobbies. The streets are narrow here and sidewalks are narrow, so there’s no room for the kind of retail environment we would like to see. So we’ve created one underground.”



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Toronto’s underground network is now expanding above ground with pedestrian walkways Photograph: Paul French

In a city where infrastructure has not kept pace with development, the overtaxed transit system is a constant source of grief for many commuters. This past February, the coldest on record, saw frequent subway malfunctions. City councillors continue to talk about adding a “relief” subway line, though after years of discussion it is still not on the drawing boards.

“The PATH has effectively become the city’s relief line,” said commuter Brad Hindson. “You can walk faster than the subway at times.”



More than 200,000 people a day course through the polished stone, Muzak-enhanced netherworld beneath the city, supporting 1,200 businesses that employ some 6,000 workers.



On the weekends, it’s an entirely different story. “When they dim down the lights and it feels pretty deserted, it’s not a place you want to be because there’s not much happening,” said Humes. Yet lately the retail mix is changing to reflect the influx of residents in the core: now, around 10% of shops and services are open on weekends where there used to be none.

“I can’t think of any reason you’d go down there unless you worked there,” said Toronto resident Patricia Williams, whose daily commute is not on the PATH route. “I get lost and I’d rather look at the landmarks.”

From Toronto to Riyadh

Love it or loathe it, there’s a promise the next phase of PATH will be an improvement. For one thing, it is coming above ground. As the network heads south towards new developments sprouting near the shores of Lake Ontario, elevated sections now animate the dreary underbelly of a crosstown highway on stilts. Another section will be enclosed at street level beside a railway embankment.



“When we planned this new section of the city, it was a chance to start all over again,” said Parakh. “We made sure we have sidewalks that are wide and trees and streetscapes, but also thought it important to extend the PATH system to give people the choice.”



Once discovered, does PATH offer a transferable solution to tame other crowded urban cores? “I believe [underground pathways] should form an important part of an urban centre’s pedestrian network,” Parakh adds. “There are similar networks in North America and elsewhere and it can work in both cold weather climates like Canada and hot weather environments like Riyadh.”



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