Toronto’s Pearson Airport is surprisingly easy to get to via public transit:
- Get on the Bloor-Danforth subway and ride west to the very end of the line, the Kipling station. This run takes about 25 minutes from the Bloor/Yonge station.
- At the Kipling station get on the 192 Airport Rocket bus. No need to pay another fare.
- About 20 minutes later, get off at Terminal 1 or Terminal 3.
- There is no step four.
The whole trip, from anywhere on the TTC’s network, costs only $3 a person ($2 for kids). Compare that to about $20 a person for the private airport bus, which is only 20 minutes faster, and your thrifty side will thank you. Beware that if you are traveling at rush hour you may find that the cramped TTC subway passages, filled with obstructions and inconvenient doorways, make this a more challenging trip than you would like, especially if you’re traveling with children; in this case the extra $17 might just be worth it.
Update: thanks to a Facebook comment from Nancy White, I’ve since realized that you don’t even need a transfer at Kipling, as the bus terminal is inside the “fare paid” zone, so you just exit the subway, go up the escalator, and get on the bus.