Pape Avenue This Fall: Less Road at Cosburn, More Buses on It

Under Metrolinx's plan for the Ontario Line's Cosburn Station, Pape Avenue between Gamble and Gowan goes down to one lane each way, with Jersey barriers between traffic and the site. The west sidewalk on that block closes, and the bus stop at Cosburn moves a block south to Gowan. The notice for this Stage 1 work is dated September 16, 2026, and lists the start as September 21.

Fifteen days earlier, on September 6, the TTC made its own change at the other end of the street. The 100 Flemingdon Park now runs down Pape Avenue to Pape Station, and southbound 72 Pape buses are back inside the station's partially reopened bus terminal. Two agencies changed the same corridor in the same month, and their changes pull in opposite directions. Pape north of Danforth is losing road at Cosburn this fall, and more bus service is being routed onto it.

Walking it south, block by block

The changes make the most sense in the order you'd hit them heading south toward Danforth.

1. Gamble Avenue. This is the north end of the work zone. The plan takes Pape down to one traffic lane in each direction from here south to Gowan, with Jersey barriers separating traffic from the site.
2. The west sidewalk. It is closed from Gamble to Gowan for the whole project. Anyone walking south on that side has to cross over.
3. Pape and Cosburn. Metrolinx's March 2026 community deck flagged turning restrictions at this intersection. It also said traffic on Cosburn would shift slightly south to make room for the site. Two-way traffic is being kept on both Pape and Cosburn.
4. Cosburn, just west of Pape. The south sidewalk here closes for about a month and the north sidewalk for about six months. The notice says three new signalized pedestrian crossovers will be activated nearby to carry foot traffic around the site.
5. Gowan Avenue. This is where the southbound Pape bus stop is being moved from Cosburn. Metrolinx says signs will be posted.

Most of this bottleneck is permanent for the life of the build. The notice lists Stage 1 as running from September 21, 2026, to March 31, 2027. The same notice says the one-lane setup on Pape will last "beyond the timeline mentioned in this notice" and stay in place throughout the project. The March 31 date marks the end of a stage. It is not the date the lanes come back.

The work hours matter if your bedroom faces Pape. The site runs Monday to Saturday, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Some overnight work between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. may be needed for a few days to set up the lane closures. Metrolinx says noise barrier walls will go up and that noise and vibration monitors will be installed before construction starts. Its March deck listed each monitor reading that spiked in February, including tree removal and soil sampling near the Cosburn North monitor, along with the fix for each.

The buses that now squeeze through it

This is the part the lane closure notices leave out. The TTC's September 6 service adjustments put more Pape Station traffic onto Pape Avenue in the same month the street was scheduled to lose lanes at Cosburn.

100 Flemingdon Park. It now runs to Pape Station via Pape Avenue and no longer uses Broadview Avenue or O'Connor Drive. Buses serve the station at Bay 2 on Lipton Avenue. If you used to catch the 100 on Broadview, it isn't there anymore.

72 Pape, southbound. Buses go back into Pape Station through the partially reopened terminal. According to transit writer Steve Munro, northbound 72 buses still load on the street outside the station. The south end of the route changed too. It now runs via Don Roadway, Lake Shore Boulevard East and Saulter Street, and the last southbound 72C stop is now Commissioners Street at Don Roadway, stop 16443.

25 Don Mills and 925 Don Mills Express. These still divert to Broadview Station. The TTC's posted diversion turns off Pape at O'Connor Drive and continues via O'Connor and Broadview Avenue. Riders coming from Don Mills don't go through the Cosburn work zone at all.

8 Broadview and 62 Mortimer. These went back to regular service at the Broadview Station bus terminal and no longer run to Hennick Bridgepoint Hospital.

87 Cosburn. The TTC's route page still lists a stop at Cosburn Avenue at Pape Avenue, stop 861. Metrolinx's notice says the bus stops at Cosburn will be moved to Gowan, while its earlier deck specifically named the southbound Pape stop. Check the posted signs before you count on any Cosburn-side stop staying where it was.

81 Thorncliffe Park. The last plan the TTC published said the 81 was suspended and that 72A and 72C buses were extended north to Thorncliffe Park to replace it. That page dates from the May 2024 terminal closure, and the September 2026 changes don't give a new routing for the 81. Treat it as the most recent published plan and check TTC service alerts before you rely on it.

Put together, the 72 and the 100 both run on Pape between Danforth and the Cosburn work zone. The 100 no longer has the Broadview and O'Connor alternative it used through the full terminal closure. Neither agency has published anything on how their changes interact, so a slower ride through the one-lane section is a reasonable expectation, not a measured one. Leave a few extra minutes for a southbound trip at rush hour.

A second gate at the south end

There's one more change near Danforth. Metrolinx has finished a 7-meter-high sound wall at a reconfigured construction gate on Gertrude Place, and its notice says the gate could start operating as early as September 28. It's an exit for trucks working on excavation at Pape Station and on the TTC underpinning. It can run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the notice lists its expected duration as September 28, 2026, to September 29, 2028. Metrolinx expects no traffic disruption from it, and the sidewalks at Muriel Avenue and Gertrude Place were fully restored as part of the work. More construction vehicles are still expected around it.

Two dates frame the next couple of years on Pape. The Gertrude gate runs into fall 2028. Metrolinx's March deck put support of excavation at the Cosburn site at 21 months, starting in winter 2026. The work wraps the station at both ends of the strip.

What goes in the hole at Cosburn

The construction corner becomes the station entrance. Metrolinx puts it at the northwest corner of Pape and Cosburn, with a plaza out front on Cosburn Avenue. Cosburn is part of the line's northern tunneled section, so the station is underground. There's no firm opening date. In February 2026, Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay told CBC Toronto the line would open in the "early 2030s" and would not commit to a date.

The strip is still open

Metrolinx says all businesses in the work area stay open during this phase, with signs showing how to get in. The Pape Village BIA held its Block Party on September 19 and 20 on Pape between Mortimer and Cosburn, with live music, food from local restaurants and vendor markets. That was the weekend before Stage 1 began. The festival site already lists September 18 and 19, 2027, for next year. The BIA's channels at papevillage.ca, Facebook and Instagram are the most direct way to see what's happening on the strip between now and then.

For questions about the site, Metrolinx's Ontario Line team takes calls at 416-202-5100 and email at [email protected]. It also runs a community office at 810 Danforth Ave.

If you own a home within a few blocks of Pape and Cosburn and want to know how years of station construction will figure into its value, Blue Door Realty Group can walk you through it. Request your free home valuation and we'll tell you what buyers are weighing near the site right now.