In my city, the station in the city centre has a small underground shopping mall and an underground "place to hang out" although no one hangs out there, it is full of drug dealers and homeless people. And it is creepy to go there, most people only walk through there to catch the train, not to linger around.
Fake London doesn't have anything, but it's a wholly unremarkable city anyways except for the time when we were the serial killer capital of the world.
I enjoyed visiting the PATH when visiting Toronto, and used the Réso almost daily when I lived in Montréal. Now I'm in Halifax. It has a small mostly-elevated system connecting buildings (Including Scotia Square, location of the central local bus station). Alas, they opted NOT to extend it when building the city's Covention Centre a few years back, which would have been super.
My city (Nagoya) has a couple that are really nice. Both around the Nagoya Station area and the Sakae Station area have very extensive underground pedestrian networks that also connect up to shopping malls, department stores, movie theaters, event spaces, etc. in addition to the shops in the underground itself. I'd say all the major cities in Japan have at least one such system downtown.
I'm 82, and New England winters are hard for me to cope with. I would love to live where I could shop and be a part of a community without dealing with the cold and snow. Senior housing should be connected to a protected network like this one.
That’s why they got the old people buses, which will pick you up at your front door and drop you off at the front door of the senior center, grocery store, doctors appointments, etc
@@Bobrogers99 you’re right, I’m not saying they’re perfect or an alternative to an underground system that would benefit everyone. Just saying, there is an option that exists specifically for you, which people who have to walk to a bus stop do not have the option to use.
I believe doors between buildings are also for fire control. Although it's unlikely fire itself would spread through the PATH, the risk would be that a fire within a building could be feed by air being pulled in due to the chimney effect, thus making the fire worse. You'll note that many doors between buildings that stay open are actually held open by magnets. If the fire alarm goes off, the magnets deactivate and the doors close automatically, reducing the amount of air that can be pulled in to feed the fire. I agree that the PATH is amazing and should be expanded. Thanks for the great video!
As a tourist from Arkansas I spent an entire day in the PATH system and marveled at it. I accessed it in exactly the way you presented by arriving on Amtrak at Union Station and trying to get to the Hilton downtown. As a southerner I had bought and brought all manner of cold weather gear (it was January) expecting subzero misery. Within a half hour I was drenched in sweat and peeling layers off trying to undo my over-preparation. Lol I've never been so delightfully and completely lost in my entire life. I found the wayfinding confusing but DID learn to just pop upstairs to see what landmarks I could recognize (CN Tower, TD Center, etc) and then back downstairs assured I was going the right way. I also noted it's not 100% accessible to wheelchairs which surprised and disappointed me on behalf of the disabled. Coincidentally, I've also visited Calgary and its 15+ network and agree that seeing the streets from above was pretty cool and less disorienting and dark. Here in the states downtown Minneapolis has a similar above street walkway network and in Houston a nearly identical underground PATH system which, exactly like Toronto's, is decentralized and developed by each individual building's owner and developer. Just like Toronto this leads to some parts being really nice and others being kinda dumpy, but ANYTHING that avoids Houston's stifling and oppressive heat and humidity are truly welcome.
Great video you earned a sub! But I disagree with 1 point you made. You mentioned that there should be more consistency/uniformity in design. While I agree that the wayfinding should be standardized, I feel the unique design of each space actually helps with navigation. As someone who lives within an hour of Toronto and visits around once per month, I am familiar with the buildings above ground but not the path system itself. When walking through, i am able to understand where I am in the city based on the building design. White marble and high ceilings? I must be in the BMO building. Sandstone and black accents? TD building. Burgundy literally everywhere? CIBC it is. It we took away the unique design, it would be way easier to get lost in the system.
Well, I think the best answer is actually probably in between. Common design elements with unique styling. I couldn't agree more about the color and material palettes, but it would be good to also have a common set of design elements
There is standardized signage for the PATH... each building just decides they want to add more of their own signage completely separate from the regular PATH signage. One key standardization is that the cardinal directions have their distinct accent colour.
@@RMTransit Agreed. Common and consistent Wayfinding is key in this case. You can have different styles in your airport terminals, but common wayfinding helps.
The fact that you can recognize where you are in the path based on building design is called "passive wayfinding". Because you use recognizable patterns anyone can identify instead of a manmade system of arrows and language to find your bearings. I do think that this aspect should be kept (along with the standardized signage; both should reinforce each other)
A good example of diverse spaces unified by similar common elements is the Montréal Métro system. From the day the first lines opened, the stations were designed by different architects, with very different styles, but the common elements, particularly the signage, unified the whole system.
Montreal has what's sometimes called the "underground city" I used to walk from my condo to work 100% underground in the winter which is very cold in Montreal. It was super convenient!
That reminds me of Suzanne Martel, a French-Canadian writer who wrote a well-known children's book (in French, translated into English) which I read as a child about Montreal in the future where the entire city was underground. The name had been changed to Surréal.
I just learned there are several closed off, due to high crime, underground walkways in NYC connected to the subway system. Probably has great potential if someone took an interest in making it nice and extended.
I'm not able to find the video right now but you can walk all over midtown Manhattan underground, just by underground walkways and office lobbies and underground mini malls etc
Helsinki is building a lot of underground infrastructure and facilities which also does double duty as emergency shelters. They also have a pretty impressive downtown tunnel network for service and delivery vehicles and parking.
@@nom3nnescio i think the one underground is called itäkeskus swimming hall and it seems to be on olavinlinnantie, not sure though since i dont live in Helsinki :D
The area around Shinjuku Station in Tokyo is full of underground mall spaces that connect the JR East, Tokyo Metro subway, Toei subway, Keio, Odakyu, and Seibu railway stations. Getting around them, alas, can be a nightmare even for long-time Tokyo residents.
Tokyo underperforms here, Shinjuku is armpit of Tokyo. Umeda station surrounds in Osaka or Sakae in Nagoya are the biggest underground streets in Japan. Watanabe-doori in Fukuoka is pretty rad too. Of course Hong Kong beats everybody.
I think they normally do a good job of numbering the exits in japan, both from the stations themselves and those underground areas like in Osaka, Shinjuku and Sapporo. Right from the platform level you know which exit to take and then follow the numbers for your final destination. They normally list major buildings/hotels etc and which exit number to take for them.
Minneapolis and Saint Paul also have the same sort of networks. A system of skyways that connect the 2nd story of building all throughout the downtown core. It is city owned in Saint Paul while in Minneapolis it owned by private companies that own the buildings. It is notorious though for making the city streets unwalkable because nothing is at street level.
@@bootmii98 Unfortunately the downtowns of Mlps and StP are nearly ten miles from each other with not much other than single family homes in between, so it would have to be quite a long bridge. Perhaps a more practical solution would be to adjust the light rail system to have some sort of indoor connectivity. but even then, the doors opening at all the other, outdoor stations would still require you to wear your jacket.
The disorganized aspect of the Path in the sense of aesthetic consistency, IMO, may be its best feature. The tunnels look different, which encourages a sense of local identity. The worst feature, IMO, is the occasional rat hole, small sized tunnels which when one has the tunnel to his or herself can get rather creepy (particularly the older sections). This gets particularly annoying after 8-5p business hours when you can find yourself isolated and alone. HOWEVER, when the cold bites or the downtown is 5 C after a snowstorm, the Path can be a godsend.
That kind of sounds like a good thing to me imo. (Edit) being alone in a tunnel kind of sounds like a good thing to me because there's no one else around to harm you and it's peaceful and quiet. (something I value very much)
Yeah, I think having different aesthetic features isn't a bad thing, it actually helps for wayfinding as well since you have a sense where you are now and from where you came from, it helps the sense of direction. It's like roaming around above ground in a city, you see different skylines and buildings, you know you are at this part of the city because of the structures around you. Having tunnel that all look too consistent especially when you don't see outside, may be a navigational nightmare and also eventually feels boring and too stale. I'm saying that even myself like minimalist aesthetic and design consistency. Sometimes, having sense of chaos is good, at least an organised chaos that is.
@@kornkernel2232 agreed. It would be nice if more of the path was above ground glass tunnels so the problem of boring tunnels looking bland and being a navigation issue was mitigated.
I visited Toronto 25 or so years ago, and even back then I really enjoyed exploring down there. As a kid, without necessarily a specific destination in mind, it was always exciting to see what was around the next turn.
There's a Canadian movie called waydowntown which is about office workers that have a bet on who can stay inside the longest by using only the Calgary +15 to get around. It gets very surreal and funny.
Chicago has a similar system to this. From LaSalle street through City Hall then Millennium station to the New East Side. The two underground subway lines are directly connected and the Loop lines are pretty close. It's a Godsent in the winter. No snow slush BS to ever get your shoes wet and several work lunch options around it. Hell when polar vortex dropped everything to -25 🥶. I was still able to get to my office on new east side without needing to put gloves on. In the summer, it's great for us locals whom want to dodge all tourists between State St and Michigan Ave by the millennium park pile up.
Path in Toronto and Reso in Montreal is much better than the system in Chicago that is parking lots. We almost got hit by cars while trying to navigate it!
Superb video! While watching I was thinking, 'Are hospitals linked to the PATH system?'. At circa 7 mins you gave me the answer! Covid has meant that i have not visited Zurich for three years. I have therefore not seen the new complex which has been built just opposite the main entrance to the Airport terminal building. The complex includes offices, shops and....a Hospital! The complex can be reached from the terminal building, UNDER WHICH THERE IS AN INTERCITY AND S-BAHN STATION, without going outside. The airport's local bus and tram station has a roof, and is located directly between the terminal entrance and the entrance to the hospital.
I think Underground cities are something possible "new cities" in America or Asia. I'm Italian, and I can say that If you try to dig pretty much in any big city downtown you will end up uncovering a lot of archeological ruins. But, Yes I like them and I wish there were more.
The only place I’ve ever seen anything like this is the connections in Canary Warf in London, so on a much smaller scale but it’s still pretty cool to connect the massive high rises, mall and DLR and Jubilee lines together! One thing it does have is some pretty impressive public realm above ground aswell though.
I have heard that a lot of cities in Montana have their downtown buildings connected by over road bridges, in a similar way to the path. maybe not on the same kind of scale though.
Nice overview! I can't wait until CIBC Square and Sugar Wharf both connect up to the PATH. As for the seemingly unnecessary doors between buildings, I think the main reason is probably security. Especially since it's easy for anyone to enter the PATH at most points, each building's management wants an easy way to lock down their own block completely if needed.
The PATH network is something I took for granted when I was a little kid. Now I truly appreciate how great it is. Every Canadian city should have something like it in my opinion.
I disagree with creating more required standards for the PATH, I feel like more requirements would discourage expansion from private organizations. Organized is very attractive, but sometimes a chaotic hodge-podge is more effective.
The closest thing to the path in London, is Canary Wharf shopping centre. As it connects the Docklands Light Railway to the Tube station, as well as to the office buildings. I do not know if there is any resdential buildings connected to it. There is no underground pedestrian network in Dublin, but I wish they would do something like it in Dublin. I can think of a department store and two shopping centres that can be easily connected to each other, by an underground path.
Edmonton also has a PATH: - 20 office buildings - 4 hotels - Rogers Place - Edmonton Convention Centre - Royal Alberta Museum + Art Gallery of Alberta + symphony hall + library + 9 live theatres + 9 movie theatres - City Centre Mall (which is undergoing a massive re-construction.)
I've walked on the PATH network occasionally when popping into the downtown core whenever I came down from the other boroughs of the city. Only time I hated being in the PATH is whenever I was rushing to make it to the GO train to get back home on-time. Otherwise, whenever I just went there for an "entertaining adventure of exploring random buildings" I found the underground and slightly disorientating aspect kind of fun. Something about some buildings looking different from the others makes each section feel unique. The decentralization of some of the pathways being on different levels also makes it more exciting for the adventurer side in me. I also welcome the new connections that are above ground as a nice mix of both worlds. While I somehow prefer being underground, I don't mind a nice walkway with a view above street level. Might have to just get down sometime soon and go for another walk again. Great video.
As a regular at the PATH (I go to the office every Wednesday), here's a pro tip: The cardinal directions are colour coded on the signage. Less helpful for colourblind people, but super handy for those who know. You know where you are heading based on what the accent colour on the PATH signage is.
I lived in places, where my way to the transit hub was across a shopping mall. In winter i was going through the mall, in summer the same. Spring and autumn i was going outside. So yes, it is definitely a feature.
I've been able to use Toronto's PATH, Montreal's RESO, Calgary's +15, and even some of Hong Kong's downtown indoor/covered networks I found it so much easier to use, especially when I was going to work at different locations downtown TO. There's a podcast episode by *99% Invisible* that describes how the Minneapolis network took away some of the street life and further separated who was "supposed" to be using the indoor networks and creating a class divide as well as just ignoring those who live on the streets It's a nuanced issue but something to think about anyway, thanks!
That is a great podcast, and a great episode in particular (especially if you are a fan of the Mighty Ducks). The dynamics of the Twin Cities are very different than those of Toronto, so I'm glad that the PATH has generally thrived.
Canary whalf has a similar one in london!! It attaches the canary wharf DLR to canary wharf tube station via a underground shopping centre where the adjacent office buildings are connected!
Tokyo's underground network works similarly. Sapporo's underground is very useful during winter too. Taipei has one as well great when raining or hot outside.
Sapporo's walkways are sometimes called the "Undergound City", and runs approximately 1 km north-south and 1 km east-west. It connects the city's main station with city buildilngs and several subway stations. As a tourist it was fun to eat at eateries in the undergound city and walk it.
The problem with PATH is that it's like walking through a very large and very boring mall. It's not easy to navigate and unless you're super familiar with the downtown buildings and their names, you really have no idea where you are. It's a decent labyrinth to get lost in, although nowhere near as cool as getting lost in a place like Alfama in Lisbon. But the PATH does keep you warm in winter and cool in summer, so fair enough.
Perth in Australia uses its terrain to its advantage in this respect. You can travel on foot from the museum at ground level, over a road, the railway (through the station), another road, and a pedestrian mall, then continue through a shopping centre to come out onto a pedestrian mall at ground level, all without going up or down a single flight of stairs or any ramp of significant grade. It makes walking around the CBD so enjoyable to have all the malls, tunnels, and overpasses you can use to about crossing the road. The train station alone connects to 5 distinct areas separated by surface roads, without requiring a crossing.
Carleton university in Ottawa has a pretty mind blowing tunnel network connecting most, if not all, of the campus. Not everyone wants or needs to use, but when I did want it, it was a blessing to have. And as you mentioned, that was almost always during the frigid winter months that it was most appreciated. Didn't even have to put my coat back on for the whole day after arriving to campus in the morning! Thanks for this video, as always. You just pump out so much good, informative content, and it truly makes me want to stay in the KW area in connection to Toronto because of the growth and expansion I can imagine, especially if more people really clue in to the info you present.
Reso (Montreal's "underground city") was one of my favorite parts of living in Montreal. I could get from my apartment to work without ever stepping foot outside during the harsh winter. That commute compared to driving somewhere can't even compare.
When my daughters were toddlers, I would take them down to the PATH on Sundays during the winter and watch them just run around until they finally wore themselves out. We'd sometimes wander onto the platforms in Union Station to look at the trains,. They loved it.
Never lived in Toronto but I used to visit there often and I used PATH a lot. I never had any problem finding my way around but I've always been good with directions. Enjoyed using it quite a bit, especially in the summer when it was hot outside. I do have to mention that in the old days when I went to Toronto it wasn't nearly as easy to get into the city from the airport. There was no rail service yet. You had to take a bus to the nearest subway station, and the buses didn't run nearly often enough. It is nice that there's a train now. I even used the short-lived high speed ferry service between Rochester and Toronto a few times while it existed. Too bad the demand wasn't there to keep it going.
There is a small version of this in the Canary Wharf district in London, with three smallish shopping malls, the Underground and DLR stations (and presumably the soon to be opened Crossrail Station) all connected by an underground network of pathways. But then the original developers of Canary Wharf were Olympia & York, who were based in Toronto, so it's not hard to see where they got the idea from.
I’ve been familiar with Montréal’s “underground city” since the sixties. Some Métro stations were part of the mix. For example, Bonaventure station had a large mezzanine level right over the tracks which connected Central Station with Château Champlain and (then) Windsor Station. The path to Central Station also connected to Place Bonaventure, Place Ville Marie and the Queen Elizabeth Hotel. A number of other venues, including Place des Arts, were also connected via various stations to the system. I now live in the GTA, and my visits to the Montréal area are limited to family in suburbia. Ironically, I had more opportunity to visit that city when I was still living in the Maritimes. My visits here in the nineties reacquainted me with the sheltered city concept. But, as you mentioned, way finding back then was terrible. It was like the property owners weren’t concerned with pedestrians wanting to pass through, but wanted everyone to stop and shop. Sorry, but when I’m proceeding from the Sheraton, bound for Union Station, I want to know the quickest way.
Love these "underground" cities. Can be daunting for the "directionally challenged". Have gotten turned around in Montreal's underground city, and just finding the entrance to the below ground stores can be challenging, even when guided by a native. But, in sub-zero winter, they're great!
In Japan, this kind of thing is called Chika-gai (underground city). Some of chika-gais are big enough to connect multiple train and metro stations such as Shinjuku, Tokyo, Namba, Osaka and Odori, Sapporo.
When we lived at Yonge and Eglinton in Toronto, our apartment building was connected to Yonge Eglinton Centre (a mall) by a tunnel. From there we could connect to the Eglinton Station and take the subway to PATH downtown. We could leave our apartment in the depths of winter without a coat and access quite an impressive array of shops, restaurants and other amenities. Of course we never actually did go out in winter without coats, BUT WE COULD HAVE if we chose to, and that's what's important. 😉
the no coat is fun, until you get a fire alarm (or other emergency). I had a boss who would drive in from her home garage to underground office. She would leave her coat in the car until the day we evacuated outside in -10. She had to walk in the cold with just her jacket to hang in closest coffee shop. She then started having a "spare" coat in her office.
@@mremumerm Exactly. I mean, we always did wear a coat, in case we wanted to leave PATH or any of the areas it connected to, for any reason. Including a fire or other emergency. Or just to go somewhere else, for serendipitous reasons. But the thought that we could have gone coatless was always tempting.
Rather than "decentralized," I would say "privately owned." In some cases by business rivals who do not want to cooperate. And in other cases by companies who dug out their basements at different depths long before the Underground City was a thing.
I remember my first time in Toronto, I had no clue the PATH was a thing. I went to what I thought was the entrance to the Hockey Hall of Fame underground, and then just started wandering north. I kept thinking, “Is there just one giant mall underneath Downtown? When will this end?” By the time I surfaced, I was all the way at Dundas Station and was enthralled by the PATH.
We moved to Ottawa a few years ago, I miss the PATH. I spent about 10 years downtown between Ryerson and then work. I was in the PATH every day and knew every square inch of it. Such a cool space.
Nice video about this interesting pedestrian network connecting subway stations. Maybe I missed something, but did you mention its history? PATH stunned (and confused) me already back in 1988, when I visited Toronto, and Wikipedia reveals that the network already started in the 1960s. I remember having encountered subway-connecting underground malls also in Tokyo and, at a smaller scale, in Beijing.
more cities in north should build completely indoor connected public pathways. especially if there is an expectation that there will occasionally be major snow events that might be too big to plow
5:33 yo, that wall is awesome. 10:03 I feel like the areas' design not being consistent is a good thing - it's like walking down different downtown streets - it helps with giving you a sense of where you are, and it gives every area a different character, rather than being this boring homogeneous tunnel. Perhaps there are downsides I don't know about, not having walked it myself. Also, I'm surprised you didn't mention Asian subway underground station complexes - some of which, such as in Tokyo, can be absolutely huge, big enough for me to consider it a network, although not on this scale. They connect stations with many, many different buildings and streets, and sometimes when stations are close enough they connect stations too. Although it's not a single network, I think if you added up Tokyo's 'transit oriented tunnels', it would be much longer than 'the path'. Not to say the path isn't great - of course the interconnected nature has many advantages.
Chicago has a pretty big network of underground and covered walkways connecting a ton of buildings in the Loop. I know of its existence, but I'm embarrassed to say I don't think I've ever been inside it except at one point where it also serves as the transfer point between two subway lines. I should probably check it out at some point.
I remember visiting St Johns on a school trip and staying in the University of Newfoundland during summer holidays. The whole thing was covered with these underground passages, which were mostly filled with student lockers. It was a deeply, deeply liminal experience. Some of those hallways looked like they went on forever.
One of the big reasons for doors between buildings in the PATH network is fire safety. If there's a fire in one building, there's a degree of isolation from surrounding connected buildings. You often see signs above these doors saying "Fire - Do Not Enter" that light up if there's a fire alarm.
Chicago has a shortish underground pedestrian network from the Millenial Station. It's a bit grungy and could use some extension, but one can go from the Metra Electric/South Shore Line to the Red and Blue lines of the Chicago El.
Definitely feeling "transit envy" after watching this. Canadian cities have so many transit options. US cities build a light rail (if you're lucky) and then just call it a day.
From someone that does not live there: I love the changing look from building to building; it should allow you to orient yourself much better when you're there often. It also looks like some International Space Station that rivaling space agencies built not looking at each other's plans :D
Toronto's PATH System reminds me of the pedestrian tunnels we have down here in Houston. Comes in handy since summers in Houston is face meltingly HOT!
Having explored both the PATH and the RÉSO, I think Toronto's version has a big edge in terms of having a consistent grade. In Montreal it seemed much more common to have to take an escalator down a flight, walk under a street, and then take an escalator back up again to get to the next building. Most of the system isn't really deep enough to be below street level. Whereas in Toronto, other than some notable exceptions like the south end of the TD Centre which you showed, you can largely between move buildings on the same level, with just an occasion ramp or small flight of stair here or there. Like you can walk from Scotia Plaza to First Canadian Place to TD Centre to Commerce Court without going up or down in any real noticeable way.
Cincinnati, Ohio used to have an expansive Skywalk system in downtown. I remember parking on the northern side of downtown and having to walk only 2 blocks outside to get to a ball game. Enough people complained about foot traffic on the street that it has been demolished. Only a few large Fortune 500 level companies retained their skywalk
I wonder if any city has done a budget version of this: covered sidewalks. It would make sense in Seattle or Portland where the weather is generally pretty temperate but it also rains a ton.
When Regent St in London was built in the early C19th it had covered sidewalks, but they were removed later because they became a centre of prostitution. Older still are the Chester Rows, in Chester in NW England, that date back to the Middle Ages.
The series of malls and passages spanning out from Taipei Main station is quite impressive. It doesn't cover as much distance as the Toronto Path or Montreal Reso, but I'd wager that the number of services, businesses and homes attached is about the same. Anyway it was my favourite place to escape the face-melting summer heat
I've visited some systems like this in Asia, with large ones in Shanghai and particularly Taipei. I think they're pretty great, especially for these places with quite extreme weather. I'm not a huge fan of the weird private public space thing though, because it can lead to the building owners taking advantage of the power that they have over what should be public space. 99% invisible did a good episode on the raised pedestrian network in Minneapolis which addressed these issues well.
Reminds me of the situation in some parts of Singapore where you realize that the only safe way to cross the street is to go two stories up into a shopping mall, walk through some winding passages kind of designed to get you lost in a maze of commerce, and descend to street level.
The University of Minnesota has a mostly underground network called the Gopher Way - ‘cause that’s the school mascot, and gophers live underground. Get it? Not so useful in days of Covid, unless you have card access to the buildings. Doors between buildings are for fire suppression and security.
The same could be said and applied in my nearest big city, Kuala Lumpur. The equatorial, tropical climate here is always hot and humid, add in the hilly terrain that Kuala Lumpur is plagued and you get one hell of a walking nightmare. This however was partially solved with some implementations of overhead walking corridors, especially between KLCC (Financial area) and Bukit Bintang (Entertainment area). I do wish to see an inclusion of a similar project like the one in Calgary, where overhead corridors are available between buildings, providing an escape from the tropical heat while also adding a new way to enjoy the city.
sometimes they do things well in KL (like My Town shopping mall /Cochrane Station/Sunway Velocity shopping mall walkways above/over ground) but sometimes the pedestrian connections are awful. For years (two decades?) there was no pedestrian connection from Abdullah Hukum station to The Gardens/Mid Valley even though the straight line distance is about 100m. The walking route took about 20mins (if anyone was brave enough to walk). Only recently did they link them with a walkway.
VERY VERY INTERESTING!! There is a US city that is PED bridge that connect. I think it called the Skyway. It the southern US states not sure if that is needed. Great video!
Reece, A lot of those little "Doors" you mentioned (10:20) between buildings, they have small or short tunnels. Those are usually where the tunnel is going underneath or "across" the STREET above!! So they had to be built in in order to support the street and all the traffic that drives along that street.
As a Vancouverite, I'm actually kind of jealous of Toronto/Montreal/Calgary systems. In Vancouver, there seems to be this idea that underground spaces are bad. The underground space around Granville and Granville (Expo Line), City-Centre (Canada Line) and Waterfront really should have been linked up properly when they built the Canada Line... but there isn't even a great transfer, requiring you to go through the Bay The Fastest transfer is still at ground level and across two crosswalks. I know Vancouver doesn't have bitterly cold or swelteringly hot weather, but the rain in the winter definitely would make a a moderate amount of underground space very welcome. Even if this is just corridors connecting a few of the stations in the CBD.
Cincinnati Ohio had a similar thing, but it was all overhead pathways. It was privately funded with the purpose of supporting retail. However as I recall the building owners decided to dismantle it, as it split retail traffic between the street level and the second level, and made each of them less sustainable. (Plus they could lease the second floor as offices if it wasn’t retail.) I do remember enjoying it and being able to get to several coffee shops without going outside. It was quite nice.
A friend of mine who walks every day finds the PATH a good way to get in some kilometres during winter. In addition there access to many washrooms. He often meets me at Union Station as I travel in from Montreal. I don't use it frequently enough to get my bearings.
I wish I knew this when I visited! I got so lost in that system thinking it was solely a subway and questioning how I ended up in residential buildings. Most of my trip was spent in west Toronto so I didn't get to utilize the PATh much.
Doors can aid in air pressure control in these tall buildings. This is why you sometimes feel "wind" when opening the doors. Due to heating, if there is leakage at higher floors, the heat will rise and the building can draft upwards like a chimney, creating a negative pressure (and thus airflow through the entrances) at the bottom.
Your summary at the end really made me think of my trip to Minneapolis. I love the city but their downtown is pretty dead for pedestrians on the street. Their elevated walkways have all of the restaurants and other shops that normally would be downtown, but they are also kind of tacky and very confusing in places. It was weird to walk from my hotel to get a burger and have to go inside another building and down a hall to enter a restaurant that looks out on the sidewalk I was just on.
Not related to this but something you could keep an eye open on. The last train on the Orangeville Brampton railway ran on Friday. I wonder if there’s any plans to run any transit up along that way or if it’s destined to become just another trailway at best. Regardless it’s sad to see another short line abandoned
I used to live in the Montreal area and one thing I have missed dearly is its underground city or Reso. It is one of the best in the world especially with the connections to its subway lines and the REM (opening soon). You can actually live in a high-rise that is connected to the system and go to a CEGEP (1) or universities (4) for school, go to a movie theatre or a live theatre or go to the bus, airport or train stations, or watch a game either in an arena or a stadium or see a concert. Also, there is the endless shopping and eating.
It would be nice to see the light of day here and there to know whether it's light or dark out and what the weather is. Sunlight is also healthy. But yes, in a city with harsh winters it is quite convenient to be able to make most ways without getting wet or cold (as long as you find your way).
Imy biggest critique is that the PATH it's taken a lot of pedestrian traffic and the vibrancy that comes with it to a mostly corporate underground complex away from city public spaces at street level. I'd much rather have a network of nice pedestrianized streets that connect to various parts of downtown than a maze of corporate chains
The PATH is awesome in Toronto. I've used it for many years for work & walking adventures. The only problems I have with it is that the shops shut down too early during the week & most are not open on the weekends. Its basically a ghost town on weekends when you get to the towers . FWIW the doors are for fire code & for security reasons. I also like the changing aesthetics of the space as it relates to the buildings above............to have The PATH corridors all the same would be bland & boring.
i lived in Toronto for fifteen years, and worked in Eaton Centre for five of those years and i use the six stations connected to the path fairly regularly and i’ve gone to buildings connected to the path hundreds of times. but i only remember using the path for walking from a to b twice, and for meals only twice; i always go the surface and walk even if there is path connection. i’m so well oriented at street level, and so disoriented in the path that i don’t think rain and hail are enough of a deterrent for me haha. I bet that the vast majority of footsteps in the path are from regulars who always take the same route (and yes they eventually learn different places within the path but they have one basic route as a reference) and the rest of us Torontonians don’t really have much use for it. But you know what, those regulars are a considerable population. There’s something like 250,000 workers in buildings connected to the PATH so even if only half of them are the only ppl who ever use it, it’s still worth it.
I once stayed in Metrotown, a TOD above Tiu Keng Leng MTR in HK. As in Toronto, you could land at the airport, take the train to Downtown, shop at 2IFC, etc., without leaving an air conditioned paradise. Hong Kong is likely more muggy than New Orleans!
I was about to say something silly about how we should link Toronto's underground with Montreal's underground with a very long tunnel, but you mentioned how one could hop on a train to go from one network to the other. You would need to really hate "The Outside" to do that though!
the thing about these networks is that that were kind of created for car dependency to keep pedestrians off the real streets. They also usually have lots of police who attack homeless people just for sleeping there. They also rarely have any small businesses or restaurants, it is mostly just big businesses. Eko gecko has a very good video on this mallification
the doors between buildings on the path network and other similar systems are there for fire control and the doors if held open will automatically close if the fire alarm in ether building goes off
The City of London had an attempt at this, but it was elevated rather than underground - Pedways were the name. Some still exist but they’re not the success that was hoped of them in the 1950s
Minneapolis did elevated paths better, but most of the shops and offices are closed on the weekend when I usually use it for Viking's games, so best case these downtown pathways require regular office use and frigid temperatures. Minneapolis gets very cold like Toronto
Different styles and quality of buildings helps with navigation. In my, admittedly fictional, space colonies I do that on purpose to avoid people getting lost, board and going insane. Sydney Australia has a new subway system that has even an underground garden on one station.
Doors between buildings are used by property owners to close and secure their part of the PATH at late at night (think like 11p-6am). This helps to secure the premise and keep out the homeless at night.
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Does your city have an underground pedestrian network? What do you think of them?
In my city, the station in the city centre has a small underground shopping mall and an underground "place to hang out" although no one hangs out there, it is full of drug dealers and homeless people. And it is creepy to go there, most people only walk through there to catch the train, not to linger around.
My city does not!
Fake London doesn't have anything, but it's a wholly unremarkable city anyways except for the time when we were the serial killer capital of the world.
I enjoyed visiting the PATH when visiting Toronto, and used the Réso almost daily when I lived in Montréal.
Now I'm in Halifax. It has a small mostly-elevated system connecting buildings (Including Scotia Square, location of the central local bus station). Alas, they opted NOT to extend it when building the city's Covention Centre a few years back, which would have been super.
My city (Nagoya) has a couple that are really nice. Both around the Nagoya Station area and the Sakae Station area have very extensive underground pedestrian networks that also connect up to shopping malls, department stores, movie theaters, event spaces, etc. in addition to the shops in the underground itself. I'd say all the major cities in Japan have at least one such system downtown.
I'm 82, and New England winters are hard for me to cope with. I would love to live where I could shop and be a part of a community without dealing with the cold and snow. Senior housing should be connected to a protected network like this one.
A lot of senior housing complexes in cold areas have a sort of mini indoor mall for that purpose.
@@Croz89Hard to find in New England. I've looked, and they just don't seem to exist anywhere near my area.
That’s why they got the old people buses, which will pick you up at your front door and drop you off at the front door of the senior center, grocery store, doctors appointments, etc
@@Pizza64564 The senior buses are not available in many areas, and where they do run, scheduling can be a problem.
@@Bobrogers99 you’re right, I’m not saying they’re perfect or an alternative to an underground system that would benefit everyone. Just saying, there is an option that exists specifically for you, which people who have to walk to a bus stop do not have the option to use.
I believe doors between buildings are also for fire control. Although it's unlikely fire itself would spread through the PATH, the risk would be that a fire within a building could be feed by air being pulled in due to the chimney effect, thus making the fire worse. You'll note that many doors between buildings that stay open are actually held open by magnets. If the fire alarm goes off, the magnets deactivate and the doors close automatically, reducing the amount of air that can be pulled in to feed the fire.
I agree that the PATH is amazing and should be expanded. Thanks for the great video!
I personally think the doors are fine. Plenty of good reasons to keep them.
@@neurofiedyamato8763 They also give you a kind of "gateway" into each zone.
there is nothing good in this pass - - it is garbage///
As a tourist from Arkansas I spent an entire day in the PATH system and marveled at it.
I accessed it in exactly the way you presented by arriving on Amtrak at Union Station and trying to get to the Hilton downtown. As a southerner I had bought and brought all manner of cold weather gear (it was January) expecting subzero misery. Within a half hour I was drenched in sweat and peeling layers off trying to undo my over-preparation. Lol
I've never been so delightfully and completely lost in my entire life. I found the wayfinding confusing but DID learn to just pop upstairs to see what landmarks I could recognize (CN Tower, TD Center, etc) and then back downstairs assured I was going the right way. I also noted it's not 100% accessible to wheelchairs which surprised and disappointed me on behalf of the disabled. Coincidentally, I've also visited Calgary and its 15+ network and agree that seeing the streets from above was pretty cool and less disorienting and dark.
Here in the states downtown Minneapolis has a similar above street walkway network and in Houston a nearly identical underground PATH system which, exactly like Toronto's, is decentralized and developed by each individual building's owner and developer. Just like Toronto this leads to some parts being really nice and others being kinda dumpy, but ANYTHING that avoids Houston's stifling and oppressive heat and humidity are truly welcome.
I'm pretty sure it is fully accessible, just a pain to use
Welcome to Toronto! Were you there for a conference?
Great video you earned a sub! But I disagree with 1 point you made. You mentioned that there should be more consistency/uniformity in design. While I agree that the wayfinding should be standardized, I feel the unique design of each space actually helps with navigation. As someone who lives within an hour of Toronto and visits around once per month, I am familiar with the buildings above ground but not the path system itself. When walking through, i am able to understand where I am in the city based on the building design. White marble and high ceilings? I must be in the BMO building. Sandstone and black accents? TD building. Burgundy literally everywhere? CIBC it is. It we took away the unique design, it would be way easier to get lost in the system.
Well, I think the best answer is actually probably in between. Common design elements with unique styling. I couldn't agree more about the color and material palettes, but it would be good to also have a common set of design elements
There is standardized signage for the PATH... each building just decides they want to add more of their own signage completely separate from the regular PATH signage. One key standardization is that the cardinal directions have their distinct accent colour.
@@RMTransit Agreed. Common and consistent Wayfinding is key in this case. You can have different styles in your airport terminals, but common wayfinding helps.
The fact that you can recognize where you are in the path based on building design is called "passive wayfinding". Because you use recognizable patterns anyone can identify instead of a manmade system of arrows and language to find your bearings. I do think that this aspect should be kept (along with the standardized signage; both should reinforce each other)
A good example of diverse spaces unified by similar common elements is the Montréal Métro system. From the day the first lines opened, the stations were designed by different architects, with very different styles, but the common elements, particularly the signage, unified the whole system.
Montreal has what's sometimes called the "underground city" I used to walk from my condo to work 100% underground in the winter which is very cold in Montreal. It was super convenient!
Not fun to get lost in though
That reminds me of Suzanne Martel, a French-Canadian writer who wrote a well-known children's book (in French, translated into English) which I read as a child about Montreal in the future where the entire city was underground. The name had been changed to Surréal.
The system in Montreal is very similar to the Path
@@mattbosley3531 yeah i read that in school! That was when there was a theory that Mt. Royal was an extinct volcano with underground caves
@@RMTransit Which one is bigger?
I just learned there are several closed off, due to high crime, underground walkways in NYC connected to the subway system. Probably has great potential if someone took an interest in making it nice and extended.
Same thing exists in Philadelphia
I'm not able to find the video right now but you can walk all over midtown Manhattan underground, just by underground walkways and office lobbies and underground mini malls etc
6.5 avenue
Helsinki is building a lot of underground infrastructure and facilities which also does double duty as emergency shelters. They also have a pretty impressive downtown tunnel network for service and delivery vehicles and parking.
yes, including a underground swimming hall and carting track :D
@@niklasxl exactly where is this swimming hall? Yrjönkatu?
@@nom3nnescio i think the one underground is called itäkeskus swimming hall and it seems to be on olavinlinnantie, not sure though since i dont live in Helsinki :D
@@niklasxl that's nowhere near metro, totally different building
@@niklasxl I live in Helsinki
The area around Shinjuku Station in Tokyo is full of underground mall spaces that connect the JR East, Tokyo Metro subway, Toei subway, Keio, Odakyu, and Seibu railway stations. Getting around them, alas, can be a nightmare even for long-time Tokyo residents.
Tokyo underperforms here, Shinjuku is armpit of Tokyo. Umeda station surrounds in Osaka or Sakae in Nagoya are the biggest underground streets in Japan. Watanabe-doori in Fukuoka is pretty rad too. Of course Hong Kong beats everybody.
Yep there's a ton there, which is part of why it ranked high on my best stations list haha
There are large underground transit/mall spaces in Osaka around Umeda and downtown Teipai. First places that came to mind when the video started.
I think they normally do a good job of numbering the exits in japan, both from the stations themselves and those underground areas like in Osaka, Shinjuku and Sapporo. Right from the platform level you know which exit to take and then follow the numbers for your final destination. They normally list major buildings/hotels etc and which exit number to take for them.
In Houston, you'd be insane to build underground with how often there's flooding. So yes, they went and built an underground pedestrian network.
ahhhh houston…
I love Houston’s underground network. It’s a shame everything in it shuts down so early, though. That Whataburger should be 24 hours.
Houston has to be the most successful anti-city ever
Minneapolis and Saint Paul also have the same sort of networks. A system of skyways that connect the 2nd story of building all throughout the downtown core. It is city owned in Saint Paul while in Minneapolis it owned by private companies that own the buildings. It is notorious though for making the city streets unwalkable because nothing is at street level.
Maybe they should build a pedestrian bridge between the closest biggest indoor destinations across the Mississippi River 🤔
@@bootmii98 Unfortunately the downtowns of Mlps and StP are nearly ten miles from each other with not much other than single family homes in between, so it would have to be quite a long bridge. Perhaps a more practical solution would be to adjust the light rail system to have some sort of indoor connectivity. but even then, the doors opening at all the other, outdoor stations would still require you to wear your jacket.
The disorganized aspect of the Path in the sense of aesthetic consistency, IMO, may be its best feature. The tunnels look different, which encourages a sense of local identity. The worst feature, IMO, is the occasional rat hole, small sized tunnels which when one has the tunnel to his or herself can get rather creepy (particularly the older sections). This gets particularly annoying after 8-5p business hours when you can find yourself isolated and alone. HOWEVER, when the cold bites or the downtown is 5 C after a snowstorm, the Path can be a godsend.
That kind of sounds like a good thing to me imo.
(Edit) being alone in a tunnel kind of sounds like a good thing to me because there's no one else around to harm you and it's peaceful and quiet. (something I value very much)
Yeah, I think having different aesthetic features isn't a bad thing, it actually helps for wayfinding as well since you have a sense where you are now and from where you came from, it helps the sense of direction. It's like roaming around above ground in a city, you see different skylines and buildings, you know you are at this part of the city because of the structures around you.
Having tunnel that all look too consistent especially when you don't see outside, may be a navigational nightmare and also eventually feels boring and too stale. I'm saying that even myself like minimalist aesthetic and design consistency. Sometimes, having sense of chaos is good, at least an organised chaos that is.
@@kornkernel2232 agreed. It would be nice if more of the path was above ground glass tunnels so the problem of boring tunnels looking bland and being a navigation issue was mitigated.
@@kornkernel2232 This is called "passive wayfinding". I agree
I visited Toronto 25 or so years ago, and even back then I really enjoyed exploring down there. As a kid, without necessarily a specific destination in mind, it was always exciting to see what was around the next turn.
There's a Canadian movie called waydowntown which is about office workers that have a bet on who can stay inside the longest by using only the Calgary +15 to get around. It gets very surreal and funny.
Chicago has a similar system to this. From LaSalle street through City Hall then Millennium station to the New East Side. The two underground subway lines are directly connected and the Loop lines are pretty close. It's a Godsent in the winter. No snow slush BS to ever get your shoes wet and several work lunch options around it. Hell when polar vortex dropped everything to -25 🥶. I was still able to get to my office on new east side without needing to put gloves on.
In the summer, it's great for us locals whom want to dodge all tourists between State St and Michigan Ave by the millennium park pile up.
Path in Toronto and Reso in Montreal is much better than the system in Chicago that is parking lots. We almost got hit by cars while trying to navigate it!
@@Esperantisto parking lots????? The Pedway system is an underground and elevated network of pedways
@@Esperantisto what cars are in the Pedway system?
@@tylerkochman1007 it sounds like they got lost on lower wacker
@@ThatcherChannel yeah
Superb video! While watching I was thinking, 'Are hospitals linked to the PATH system?'. At circa 7 mins you gave me the answer! Covid has meant that i have not visited Zurich for three years. I have therefore not seen the new complex which has been built just opposite the main entrance to the Airport terminal building. The complex includes offices, shops and....a Hospital! The complex can be reached from the terminal building, UNDER WHICH THERE IS AN INTERCITY AND S-BAHN STATION, without going outside. The airport's local bus and tram station has a roof, and is located directly between the terminal entrance and the entrance to the hospital.
Yeah that's fantastic from a convenience and accessibility pov
I think Underground cities are something possible "new cities" in America or Asia.
I'm Italian, and I can say that If you try to dig pretty much in any big city downtown you will end up uncovering a lot of archeological ruins.
But, Yes I like them and I wish there were more.
The path was great when I lived in Toronto! I used to walk it around the downtown to keep warm in winter and keep cool during the hot summer!
The only place I’ve ever seen anything like this is the connections in Canary Warf in London, so on a much smaller scale but it’s still pretty cool to connect the massive high rises, mall and DLR and Jubilee lines together!
One thing it does have is some pretty impressive public realm above ground aswell though.
I have heard that a lot of cities in Montana have their downtown buildings connected by over road bridges, in a similar way to the path. maybe not on the same kind of scale though.
Singapore has a lot of underground pedestrian tunnels too
I think even small path networks can be a big boost to a district like Canary Wharf!
You see, when you say PATH my mind immediately thinks of the PATH train in NJ/NY, lol
Same here
It certainly comes to me too haha
Nice overview! I can't wait until CIBC Square and Sugar Wharf both connect up to the PATH. As for the seemingly unnecessary doors between buildings, I think the main reason is probably security. Especially since it's easy for anyone to enter the PATH at most points, each building's management wants an easy way to lock down their own block completely if needed.
Yeah. that and fire control as other suggested!
The PATH network is something I took for granted when I was a little kid. Now I truly appreciate how great it is. Every Canadian city should have something like it in my opinion.
Who else is binging this wonderful channel on Christmas day 2021?
In Houston too there is an underground thing similar to Toronto. It is used for summers tho obviously.
Very interesting, I've gotta visit!
@@RMTransit It is very small tho(obviously as Houston Downtown is small and is surrounded by Suburbia).
I disagree with creating more required standards for the PATH, I feel like more requirements would discourage expansion from private organizations. Organized is very attractive, but sometimes a chaotic hodge-podge is more effective.
Chaotic hodge podge also IMO is more interesting and for pedestrians, interesting things to look at is always good.
I think the benefits of the system are large enough that we can implement standards and developers would be fine with it
@@neurofiedyamato8763 Yeah I like how the path is completely different in every different part of it.
A marvel of modern engineering. I love PATH. Come discover amazing Toronto.
The Path during after hours/weekends are a literal ghost town in my opinion
Basically it needs office foot traffic for the businesses can survive
Oh? How many ghosts have you seen?
It depends on the day
COVID probably hasn't done the system any favours
The closest thing to the path in London, is Canary Wharf shopping centre. As it connects the Docklands Light Railway to the Tube station, as well as to the office buildings. I do not know if there is any resdential buildings connected to it. There is no underground pedestrian network in Dublin, but I wish they would do something like it in Dublin. I can think of a department store and two shopping centres that can be easily connected to each other, by an underground path.
Edmonton also has a PATH:
- 20 office buildings
- 4 hotels
- Rogers Place
- Edmonton Convention Centre
- Royal Alberta Museum + Art Gallery of Alberta + symphony hall + library + 9 live theatres + 9 movie theatres
- City Centre Mall (which is undergoing a massive re-construction.)
Edmonton's is awesome! So convenient and I like the above ground style more than underground.
I've walked on the PATH network occasionally when popping into the downtown core whenever I came down from the other boroughs of the city. Only time I hated being in the PATH is whenever I was rushing to make it to the GO train to get back home on-time. Otherwise, whenever I just went there for an "entertaining adventure of exploring random buildings" I found the underground and slightly disorientating aspect kind of fun. Something about some buildings looking different from the others makes each section feel unique. The decentralization of some of the pathways being on different levels also makes it more exciting for the adventurer side in me. I also welcome the new connections that are above ground as a nice mix of both worlds. While I somehow prefer being underground, I don't mind a nice walkway with a view above street level. Might have to just get down sometime soon and go for another walk again. Great video.
You might find the Minneapolis skyway network interesting as well, although that’s less transit related
As a regular at the PATH (I go to the office every Wednesday), here's a pro tip: The cardinal directions are colour coded on the signage. Less helpful for colourblind people, but super handy for those who know. You know where you are heading based on what the accent colour on the PATH signage is.
I lived in places, where my way to the transit hub was across a shopping mall. In winter i was going through the mall, in summer the same. Spring and autumn i was going outside. So yes, it is definitely a feature.
I've been able to use Toronto's PATH, Montreal's RESO, Calgary's +15, and even some of Hong Kong's downtown indoor/covered networks
I found it so much easier to use, especially when I was going to work at different locations downtown TO.
There's a podcast episode by *99% Invisible* that describes how the Minneapolis network took away some of the street life and further separated who was "supposed" to be using the indoor networks and creating a class divide as well as just ignoring those who live on the streets
It's a nuanced issue but something to think about
anyway, thanks!
That is a great podcast, and a great episode in particular (especially if you are a fan of the Mighty Ducks). The dynamics of the Twin Cities are very different than those of Toronto, so I'm glad that the PATH has generally thrived.
Sidewalks in Toronto are crowded even with the PATH system.
Canary whalf has a similar one in london!! It attaches the canary wharf DLR to canary wharf tube station via a underground shopping centre where the adjacent office buildings are connected!
Tokyo's underground network works similarly. Sapporo's underground is very useful during winter too. Taipei has one as well great when raining or hot outside.
Sapporo's walkways are sometimes called the "Undergound City", and runs approximately 1 km north-south and 1 km east-west. It connects the city's main station with city buildilngs and several subway stations. As a tourist it was fun to eat at eateries in the undergound city and walk it.
I didn't know this kind of things existed, so cool !
The problem with PATH is that it's like walking through a very large and very boring mall. It's not easy to navigate and unless you're super familiar with the downtown buildings and their names, you really have no idea where you are. It's a decent labyrinth to get lost in, although nowhere near as cool as getting lost in a place like Alfama in Lisbon. But the PATH does keep you warm in winter and cool in summer, so fair enough.
Perth in Australia uses its terrain to its advantage in this respect. You can travel on foot from the museum at ground level, over a road, the railway (through the station), another road, and a pedestrian mall, then continue through a shopping centre to come out onto a pedestrian mall at ground level, all without going up or down a single flight of stairs or any ramp of significant grade. It makes walking around the CBD so enjoyable to have all the malls, tunnels, and overpasses you can use to about crossing the road. The train station alone connects to 5 distinct areas separated by surface roads, without requiring a crossing.
Always thought a nice addition would be for the PATH to go right into the Rogers Centre!
Carleton university in Ottawa has a pretty mind blowing tunnel network connecting most, if not all, of the campus. Not everyone wants or needs to use, but when I did want it, it was a blessing to have. And as you mentioned, that was almost always during the frigid winter months that it was most appreciated. Didn't even have to put my coat back on for the whole day after arriving to campus in the morning!
Thanks for this video, as always. You just pump out so much good, informative content, and it truly makes me want to stay in the KW area in connection to Toronto because of the growth and expansion I can imagine, especially if more people really clue in to the info you present.
Reso (Montreal's "underground city") was one of my favorite parts of living in Montreal. I could get from my apartment to work without ever stepping foot outside during the harsh winter. That commute compared to driving somewhere can't even compare.
When my daughters were toddlers, I would take them down to the PATH on Sundays during the winter and watch them just run around until they finally wore themselves out. We'd sometimes wander onto the platforms in Union Station to look at the trains,. They loved it.
Never lived in Toronto but I used to visit there often and I used PATH a lot. I never had any problem finding my way around but I've always been good with directions. Enjoyed using it quite a bit, especially in the summer when it was hot outside. I do have to mention that in the old days when I went to Toronto it wasn't nearly as easy to get into the city from the airport. There was no rail service yet. You had to take a bus to the nearest subway station, and the buses didn't run nearly often enough. It is nice that there's a train now. I even used the short-lived high speed ferry service between Rochester and Toronto a few times while it existed. Too bad the demand wasn't there to keep it going.
There is a small version of this in the Canary Wharf district in London, with three smallish shopping malls, the Underground and DLR stations (and presumably the soon to be opened Crossrail Station) all connected by an underground network of pathways. But then the original developers of Canary Wharf were Olympia & York, who were based in Toronto, so it's not hard to see where they got the idea from.
I’ve been familiar with Montréal’s “underground city” since the sixties. Some Métro stations were part of the mix. For example, Bonaventure station had a large mezzanine level right over the tracks which connected Central Station with Château Champlain and (then) Windsor Station. The path to Central Station also connected to Place Bonaventure, Place Ville Marie and the Queen Elizabeth Hotel. A number of other venues, including Place des Arts, were also connected via various stations to the system.
I now live in the GTA, and my visits to the Montréal area are limited to family in suburbia. Ironically, I had more opportunity to visit that city when I was still living in the Maritimes. My visits here in the nineties reacquainted me with the sheltered city concept. But, as you mentioned, way finding back then was terrible. It was like the property owners weren’t concerned with pedestrians wanting to pass through, but wanted everyone to stop and shop. Sorry, but when I’m proceeding from the Sheraton, bound for Union Station, I want to know the quickest way.
Love these "underground" cities. Can be daunting for the "directionally challenged". Have gotten turned around in Montreal's underground city, and just finding the entrance to the below ground stores can be challenging, even when guided by a native. But, in sub-zero winter, they're great!
In Japan, this kind of thing is called Chika-gai (underground city). Some of chika-gais are big enough to connect multiple train and metro stations such as Shinjuku, Tokyo, Namba, Osaka and Odori, Sapporo.
When we lived at Yonge and Eglinton in Toronto, our apartment building was connected to Yonge Eglinton Centre (a mall) by a tunnel. From there we could connect to the Eglinton Station and take the subway to PATH downtown. We could leave our apartment in the depths of winter without a coat and access quite an impressive array of shops, restaurants and other amenities. Of course we never actually did go out in winter without coats, BUT WE COULD HAVE if we chose to, and that's what's important. 😉
the no coat is fun, until you get a fire alarm (or other emergency). I had a boss who would drive in from her home garage to underground office. She would leave her coat in the car until the day we evacuated outside in -10. She had to walk in the cold with just her jacket to hang in closest coffee shop. She then started having a "spare" coat in her office.
@@mremumerm Exactly. I mean, we always did wear a coat, in case we wanted to leave PATH or any of the areas it connected to, for any reason. Including a fire or other emergency. Or just to go somewhere else, for serendipitous reasons. But the thought that we could have gone coatless was always tempting.
Rather than "decentralized," I would say "privately owned." In some cases by business rivals who do not want to cooperate. And in other cases by companies who dug out their basements at different depths long before the Underground City was a thing.
I remember my first time in Toronto, I had no clue the PATH was a thing. I went to what I thought was the entrance to the Hockey Hall of Fame underground, and then just started wandering north. I kept thinking, “Is there just one giant mall underneath Downtown? When will this end?” By the time I surfaced, I was all the way at Dundas Station and was enthralled by the PATH.
I'm hopeing that at some point downtown Vancouver will also connect up all their underground minimalls and shops and what not into a network too
We moved to Ottawa a few years ago, I miss the PATH. I spent about 10 years downtown between Ryerson and then work. I was in the PATH every day and knew every square inch of it. Such a cool space.
hello .... how can I get my car down there ????? are they any parking lots underground ???
Informative video! I love the PATH!
Nice video about this interesting pedestrian network connecting subway stations. Maybe I missed something, but did you mention its history? PATH stunned (and confused) me already back in 1988, when I visited Toronto, and Wikipedia reveals that the network already started in the 1960s. I remember having encountered subway-connecting underground malls also in Tokyo and, at a smaller scale, in Beijing.
more cities in north should build completely indoor connected public pathways. especially if there is an expectation that there will occasionally be major snow events that might be too big to plow
5:33 yo, that wall is awesome.
10:03 I feel like the areas' design not being consistent is a good thing - it's like walking down different downtown streets - it helps with giving you a sense of where you are, and it gives every area a different character, rather than being this boring homogeneous tunnel. Perhaps there are downsides I don't know about, not having walked it myself.
Also, I'm surprised you didn't mention Asian subway underground station complexes - some of which, such as in Tokyo, can be absolutely huge, big enough for me to consider it a network, although not on this scale. They connect stations with many, many different buildings and streets, and sometimes when stations are close enough they connect stations too. Although it's not a single network, I think if you added up Tokyo's 'transit oriented tunnels', it would be much longer than 'the path'. Not to say the path isn't great - of course the interconnected nature has many advantages.
5:33 is the elevated walkway to union's bus terminal
Chicago has a pretty big network of underground and covered walkways connecting a ton of buildings in the Loop. I know of its existence, but I'm embarrassed to say I don't think I've ever been inside it except at one point where it also serves as the transfer point between two subway lines. I should probably check it out at some point.
I remember visiting St Johns on a school trip and staying in the University of Newfoundland during summer holidays. The whole thing was covered with these underground passages, which were mostly filled with student lockers. It was a deeply, deeply liminal experience. Some of those hallways looked like they went on forever.
One of the big reasons for doors between buildings in the PATH network is fire safety. If there's a fire in one building, there's a degree of isolation from surrounding connected buildings. You often see signs above these doors saying "Fire - Do Not Enter" that light up if there's a fire alarm.
I’m a Toronto resident and I absolutely love the PATH! I wish there were more mini PATHs in other locations like North York or Yonge and Eglinton.
Chicago has a shortish underground pedestrian network from the Millenial Station. It's a bit grungy and could use some extension, but one can go from the Metra Electric/South Shore Line to the Red and Blue lines of the Chicago El.
Definitely feeling "transit envy" after watching this. Canadian cities have so many transit options. US cities build a light rail (if you're lucky) and then just call it a day.
From someone that does not live there: I love the changing look from building to building; it should allow you to orient yourself much better when you're there often. It also looks like some International Space Station that rivaling space agencies built not looking at each other's plans :D
Toronto's PATH System reminds me of the pedestrian tunnels we have down here in Houston. Comes in handy since summers in Houston is face meltingly HOT!
Having explored both the PATH and the RÉSO, I think Toronto's version has a big edge in terms of having a consistent grade. In Montreal it seemed much more common to have to take an escalator down a flight, walk under a street, and then take an escalator back up again to get to the next building. Most of the system isn't really deep enough to be below street level. Whereas in Toronto, other than some notable exceptions like the south end of the TD Centre which you showed, you can largely between move buildings on the same level, with just an occasion ramp or small flight of stair here or there. Like you can walk from Scotia Plaza to First Canadian Place to TD Centre to Commerce Court without going up or down in any real noticeable way.
Cincinnati, Ohio used to have an expansive Skywalk system in downtown. I remember parking on the northern side of downtown and having to walk only 2 blocks outside to get to a ball game. Enough people complained about foot traffic on the street that it has been demolished. Only a few large Fortune 500 level companies retained their skywalk
That’s sad
I wonder if any city has done a budget version of this: covered sidewalks. It would make sense in Seattle or Portland where the weather is generally pretty temperate but it also rains a ton.
Singapore due to torrential rains and high temperature/sun exposure
When Regent St in London was built in the early C19th it had covered sidewalks, but they were removed later because they became a centre of prostitution. Older still are the Chester Rows, in Chester in NW England, that date back to the Middle Ages.
It definitely could and should be done more widely honestly, and yeah it does exist in some places, but often not widely
I think 99% invisible has an episode on under-the-sidewalk tunnels in either Portland or Seattle!
The series of malls and passages spanning out from Taipei Main station is quite impressive. It doesn't cover as much distance as the Toronto Path or Montreal Reso, but I'd wager that the number of services, businesses and homes attached is about the same. Anyway it was my favourite place to escape the face-melting summer heat
I've visited some systems like this in Asia, with large ones in Shanghai and particularly Taipei. I think they're pretty great, especially for these places with quite extreme weather. I'm not a huge fan of the weird private public space thing though, because it can lead to the building owners taking advantage of the power that they have over what should be public space. 99% invisible did a good episode on the raised pedestrian network in Minneapolis which addressed these issues well.
Reminds me of the situation in some parts of Singapore where you realize that the only safe way to cross the street is to go two stories up into a shopping mall, walk through some winding passages kind of designed to get you lost in a maze of commerce, and descend to street level.
The University of Minnesota has a mostly underground network called the Gopher Way - ‘cause that’s the school mascot, and gophers live underground. Get it? Not so useful in days of Covid, unless you have card access to the buildings. Doors between buildings are for fire suppression and security.
The same could be said and applied in my nearest big city, Kuala Lumpur. The equatorial, tropical climate here is always hot and humid, add in the hilly terrain that Kuala Lumpur is plagued and you get one hell of a walking nightmare. This however was partially solved with some implementations of overhead walking corridors, especially between KLCC (Financial area) and Bukit Bintang (Entertainment area). I do wish to see an inclusion of a similar project like the one in Calgary, where overhead corridors are available between buildings, providing an escape from the tropical heat while also adding a new way to enjoy the city.
sometimes they do things well in KL (like My Town shopping mall /Cochrane Station/Sunway Velocity shopping mall walkways above/over ground) but sometimes the pedestrian connections are awful. For years (two decades?) there was no pedestrian connection from Abdullah Hukum station to The Gardens/Mid Valley even though the straight line distance is about 100m. The walking route took about 20mins (if anyone was brave enough to walk). Only recently did they link them with a walkway.
VERY VERY INTERESTING!! There is a US city that is PED bridge that connect. I think it called the Skyway. It the southern US states not sure if that is needed. Great video!
Yeah but remember it can be good during extreme heat or harsh weather too!
Reece, A lot of those little "Doors" you mentioned (10:20) between buildings, they have small or short tunnels. Those are usually where the tunnel is going underneath or "across" the STREET above!! So they had to be built in in order to support the street and all the traffic that drives along that street.
As a Vancouverite, I'm actually kind of jealous of Toronto/Montreal/Calgary systems. In Vancouver, there seems to be this idea that underground spaces are bad. The underground space around Granville and Granville (Expo Line), City-Centre (Canada Line) and Waterfront really should have been linked up properly when they built the Canada Line... but there isn't even a great transfer, requiring you to go through the Bay The Fastest transfer is still at ground level and across two crosswalks.
I know Vancouver doesn't have bitterly cold or swelteringly hot weather, but the rain in the winter definitely would make a a moderate amount of underground space very welcome. Even if this is just corridors connecting a few of the stations in the CBD.
Cincinnati Ohio had a similar thing, but it was all overhead pathways. It was privately funded with the purpose of supporting retail. However as I recall the building owners decided to dismantle it, as it split retail traffic between the street level and the second level, and made each of them less sustainable. (Plus they could lease the second floor as offices if it wasn’t retail.)
I do remember enjoying it and being able to get to several coffee shops without going outside. It was quite nice.
A friend of mine who walks every day finds the PATH a good way to get in some kilometres during winter. In addition there access to many washrooms. He often meets me at Union Station as I travel in from Montreal. I don't use it frequently enough to get my bearings.
I wish I knew this when I visited! I got so lost in that system thinking it was solely a subway and questioning how I ended up in residential buildings. Most of my trip was spent in west Toronto so I didn't get to utilize the PATh much.
In transit, PATH to me means Port Authority Trans Hudson in New York.
Under the Hudson River from New Jersey to New York. Manhattan Island, of course.
Doors can aid in air pressure control in these tall buildings. This is why you sometimes feel "wind" when opening the doors. Due to heating, if there is leakage at higher floors, the heat will rise and the building can draft upwards like a chimney, creating a negative pressure (and thus airflow through the entrances) at the bottom.
They can help control fires and smoke from fires too.
Very good point yeah
Your summary at the end really made me think of my trip to Minneapolis. I love the city but their downtown is pretty dead for pedestrians on the street. Their elevated walkways have all of the restaurants and other shops that normally would be downtown, but they are also kind of tacky and very confusing in places. It was weird to walk from my hotel to get a burger and have to go inside another building and down a hall to enter a restaurant that looks out on the sidewalk I was just on.
Not related to this but something you could keep an eye open on. The last train on the Orangeville Brampton railway ran on Friday. I wonder if there’s any plans to run any transit up along that way or if it’s destined to become just another trailway at best. Regardless it’s sad to see another short line abandoned
I used to live in the Montreal area and one thing I have missed dearly is its underground city or Reso. It is one of the best in the world especially with the connections to its subway lines and the REM (opening soon). You can actually live in a high-rise that is connected to the system and go to a CEGEP (1) or universities (4) for school, go to a movie theatre or a live theatre or go to the bus, airport or train stations, or watch a game either in an arena or a stadium or see a concert. Also, there is the endless shopping and eating.
The Minneapolis skyway system is really similar! But relies on skybridges between skyscrapers instead of being underground
It would be nice to see the light of day here and there to know whether it's light or dark out and what the weather is. Sunlight is also healthy. But yes, in a city with harsh winters it is quite convenient to be able to make most ways without getting wet or cold (as long as you find your way).
Imy biggest critique is that the PATH it's taken a lot of pedestrian traffic and the vibrancy that comes with it to a mostly corporate underground complex away from city public spaces at street level. I'd much rather have a network of nice pedestrianized streets that connect to various parts of downtown than a maze of corporate chains
I used the PATH the last time i was in Toronto. After almost getting hit by a few cars, i used it to avoid crossing streets.
The PATH is awesome in Toronto. I've used it for many years for work & walking adventures. The only problems I have with it is that the shops shut down too early during the week & most are not open on the weekends. Its basically a ghost town on weekends when you get to the towers . FWIW the doors are for fire code & for security reasons. I also like the changing aesthetics of the space as it relates to the buildings above............to have The PATH corridors all the same would be bland & boring.
i lived in Toronto for fifteen years, and worked in Eaton Centre for five of those years and i use the six stations connected to the path fairly regularly and i’ve gone to buildings connected to the path hundreds of times. but i only remember using the path for walking from a to b twice, and for meals only twice; i always go the surface and walk even if there is path connection. i’m so well oriented at street level, and so disoriented in the path that i don’t think rain and hail are enough of a deterrent for me haha. I bet that the vast majority of footsteps in the path are from regulars who always take the same route (and yes they eventually learn different places within the path but they have one basic route as a reference) and the rest of us Torontonians don’t really have much use for it. But you know what, those regulars are a considerable population. There’s something like 250,000 workers in buildings connected to the PATH so even if only half of them are the only ppl who ever use it, it’s still worth it.
I once stayed in Metrotown, a TOD above Tiu Keng Leng MTR in HK. As in Toronto, you could land at the airport, take the train to Downtown, shop at 2IFC, etc., without leaving an air conditioned paradise. Hong Kong is likely more muggy than New Orleans!
Haha yeah Hong Kong is HOT
Winnipeg's is nice too for their wicked winters
I was about to say something silly about how we should link Toronto's underground with Montreal's underground with a very long tunnel, but you mentioned how one could hop on a train to go from one network to the other. You would need to really hate "The Outside" to do that though!
The various underground and above ground metro station path and mall network in Hong Kong always left an impression on me. it's so nice
the thing about these networks is that that were kind of created for car dependency to keep pedestrians off the real streets. They also usually have lots of police who attack homeless people just for sleeping there. They also rarely have any small businesses or restaurants, it is mostly just big businesses. Eko gecko has a very good video on this mallification
the doors between buildings on the path network and other similar systems are there for fire control and the doors if held open will automatically close if the fire alarm in ether building goes off
The City of London had an attempt at this, but it was elevated rather than underground - Pedways were the name. Some still exist but they’re not the success that was hoped of them in the 1950s
Minneapolis did elevated paths better, but most of the shops and offices are closed on the weekend when I usually use it for Viking's games, so best case these downtown pathways require regular office use and frigid temperatures. Minneapolis gets very cold like Toronto
The is actually a system in Edmonton called the pedway!
Different styles and quality of buildings helps with navigation. In my, admittedly fictional, space colonies I do that on purpose to avoid people getting lost, board and going insane. Sydney Australia has a new subway system that has even an underground garden on one station.
Path now crosses QEW through Scotia Bank Arena from Union Station all the way to Harbourfront. Awesome.
I think the Toronto underground city is more recent than the Montreal one.
Doors between buildings are used by property owners to close and secure their part of the PATH at late at night (think like 11p-6am). This helps to secure the premise and keep out the homeless at night.