Make Toronto’s First Impression a Great One

Summary

First impressions matter. The first 90 minutes in a city shape whether visitors see it as competent, welcoming, and easy to understand. For Toronto, that impression is inconsistent: airport transfers don’t feel effortless, Union Station orients locals but not newcomers, and the PATH — one of the world’s largest indoor networks — is a hidden maze rather than a clear advantage. Subconsciously, visitors take away the message that Toronto is harder to use than it should be.

The stakes are economic as much as experiential. Toronto’s fragmented arrival experience acts as a hidden productivity tax worth an estimated $500 to $700 million a year in lost time, congestion, and missed visitor spending per our analysis below. Even modest improvements could unlock $1 to $1.4 billion in annual GDP gains, driven by faster transfers, better wayfinding, and higher local spending. 42% of visitors to Canada begin their journey in Toronto¹, meaning that fixing the city’s first 90 minutes is not just good design, it is national economic strategy.

This memo outlines how to turn that opportunity into action. Extending the 509 Waterfront LRT into Billy Bishop, making UP Express the obvious downtown connection, reimagining Union Station as a true arrival hall, and expanding TO360 with PATH integration would transform how Toronto presents itself. Together, these steps would make the city instantly legible, creating a first-90-minutes standard that tells every visitor they have arrived in a city that values their experience.

Bold Goal
By 2030, deliver a unified first-90-minutes standard for Toronto that makes airports, Union Station, TO360, and the PATH work together to eliminate $500–700 million in annual productivity losses and unlock over $1 billion in new economic activity each year.

‍

Background & Motivation

First impressions decide whether a city feels competent or chaotic. Lee Kuan Yew built Singapore’s playbook around that idea: a visitor’s first 60 to 90 minutes must be seamless, legible, and welcoming, because that window shapes decisions to return, invest, study, or stage events. For Toronto, those impressions carry even greater weight — roughly half of all inbound travel to Canada begins here, funnelling an estimated $8–10 billion in GDP each year through the city’s visitor economy². When the first 90 minutes go smoothly, that money multiplies; when they don’t, it leaks away to cities that make a stronger first impression.

The first hour in Toronto is fractured. At Pearson, wayfinding from baggage to the right mode is not single-threaded. The UP Express is fast and now supports simple credit-card tap, but the cues that make it the obvious choice are weak, and the path from customs to the platform is cluttered by equal-weight options for taxis and shuttles. Billy Bishop is physically close to downtown yet lacks a dedicated, high-reliability link to Union. A first-time visitor exits the tunnel into a thicket of options that feel improvised, and traffic outside often makes the “short hop” unreliable. Union Station itself is a world-class hub, but as an arrival gateway it still behaves like a transfer machine. Maps are plentiful, but there is no single “you’ve arrived” layer that tells a newcomer how to reach the Waterfront, the Distillery, or the museums. Too often, the simplest next step is not the clearest one.

‍

Toronto’s fragmented arrival experience creates a hidden productivity tax. If even 20 percent of visitors lose twenty minutes navigating transfers or unclear signage, that adds up to more than 330 million minutes (or 5.5 million hours) wasted each year, the equivalent of roughly $350 million in lost GDP based on Canada’s average labour productivity. Only 10 percent of Pearson arrivals use public transit like the UP Express³, despite it being faster and cleaner than taxis; clearer wayfinding that increase ridership would reduce congestion and delays, generating further time savings for residents and business travellers. Poor legibility also compresses visitor spending. If five million international visitors arriving through Toronto each spent just $50 less due to confusion or lost time, that’s another $250 million in foregone GDP. Taken together, Toronto’s first 90 minutes likely depresses output by $500 to $700 million each year, even on conservative assumptions.

These gaps have real economic consequences. Tourism alone contributed roughly $130 billion to Canada’s GDP in 2024, supporting 1 in 10 jobs⁴. Toronto captures about a quarter of that activity. Even small improvements in arrival flow and wayfinding could yield hundreds of millions in new local spending each year. Business travel amplifies the effect: over 400,000 business delegates came to Toronto in 2018⁵ — people that seed investment, trade, and talent attraction. Every confusing connection, long taxi line, or missed cue quietly depresses conversion rates for tourism and FDI alike.

Other cities have proven the upside of getting this right. London’s Legible London program unified wayfinding citywide and helped to produce a 5% increase in walking trips to retail corridors⁶, valued in the hundreds of millions of pounds annually. Singapore’s Changi Airport is consistently ranked #1 globally for arrival satisfaction, and local business councils explicitly credit its seamless experience as a factor in foreign investment. Tokyo’s multilingual and redundant signage systems transformed a once-daunting network into a model of clarity and reliability. Together, these examples show that a 0.5% uplift in visitor conversion or business travel — easily within reach — could mean $400–500 million in additional GDP for Toronto each year.

Toronto already has most of the ingredients in place: UP Express is fast, TO360 is a strong foundation, and Union has the space to function as a true arrival hall. What’s missing is choreography — the assembly of these parts into a first-hour standard that every gateway adheres to. The prize is not only a smoother experience but a stronger economy: a city that welcomes visitors, attracts talent, and quietly adds a billion dollars a year to Canada’s bottom line by simply making sense.

‍

Real-World Solutions

Singapore – Seamless arrivals as a standard
Singapore’s Changi Airport makes the first steps into the city unmistakable. Wayfinding from customs to rail is direct, contactless tap works across all modes, and staff are visible before pinch points. The Land Transport Authority even tracks curb-to-rail times to guarantee reliability.

London – A unified wayfinding language
London created Legible London, a single visual system that spans thousands of signs. Maps are oriented to the viewer, show walking rings, and use the same symbols everywhere. During major events, temporary overlays and volunteers follow the same design, extending the brand of clarity.

Tokyo – Multilingual cues and redundant help
Tokyo transformed a once daunting system with signage in four languages, numbered exits, and redundant cues at every decision point. Touchscreen kiosks hand directions off to a visitor’s phone, and bold gateway markers announce which district you have entered.

‍

What Must Be Done

Turn Union Station into Toronto’s arrival hall
Union Station is already Canada’s busiest hub, but for first-time visitors it reads as a transfer point rather than an arrival hall. The station should provide a true orientation layer: clear routes and time estimates to the Waterfront, Distillery, Entertainment District, and museum corridor, backed up with staffed multilingual help. Union must be the place where visitors can understand how to reach Toronto’s cultural core in minutes.

• Direct Metrolinx and the City to install unified “arrival maps” in Union’s Great Hall with route directions and travel times to major destinations
• Require wayfinding to highlight direct walking routes and nearby transit connections in plain language
• Establish a staffed visitor desk with multilingual support and QR codes linking maps and routes to mobile devices
  
  

Extend the 509 Waterfront LRT into Billy Bishop
Billy Bishop is Toronto’s closest airport, but today’s surface shuttle is unreliable and exposed. A weather-protected extension of the 509 Waterfront LRT directly into the terminal would create a predictable, legible, and high-capacity link to Union. The project should be jointly funded and delivered as part of a broader agreement with PortsToronto, the City, the Province, and the federal government.

• Develop a joint plan with PortsToronto for extending the 509 LRT into the terminal
• Ensure the extension is weather-protected and terminates directly inside the airport precinct
• Brand and sign the LRT extension as the official Billy Bishop–Union connection, consistent with Union Station and TO360 wayfinding
  
  

Make UP Express the clear and seamless choice
Pearson is Toronto’s main gateway, but the airport journey only works if UP Express is the obvious way downtown. Today, the train is fast and accepts open payments, but signage and wayfinding leave many visitors defaulting to taxis or shuttles. The experience should be re-engineered so that every passenger moves naturally from customs to UP, with travel times promoted and options studied to make the service even faster.

• Direct GTAA and Metrolinx to create a single-threaded path from arrivals to UP Express, removing competing signage
• Require multilingual digital boards and staff to promote UP as the fastest downtown option
• Establish and publish “baggage-to-train” time targets as a service standard
• Study the feasibility of adding nonstop Union–Pearson express trips during peak periods, reducing travel times from 25 minutes to about 20 minutes without cutting service to Bloor and Weston
  
  

Expand TO360 as a tourism network, not just a transit tool
Toronto’s TO360 wayfinding system is modern and well-designed but incomplete. Expansion should focus first on the neighbourhoods most visited by tourists — Kensington, St. Lawrence, the Waterfront, the Danforth, and the museum corridor. Every sign should help a newcomer understand neighbourhood identity, cultural attractions, and routes to nearby PATH connections and hotels.

• Accelerate TO360 coverage in all central and visitor-heavy neighbourhoods
• Require each sign to include neighbourhood names, gateways, and cultural points of interest, plus clear routes to PATH entrances and hotels
• Integrate multilingual QR codes and digital handoff into every map
  
  

Unlock the PATH as a first-90-minute asset
Toronto’s underground PATH system is the world’s largest indoor walkway, but most visitors either never discover it or quickly get lost. In winter, this is a missed opportunity to showcase connectivity between Union, hotels, and attractions. Better signage, clearer mapping, and stronger integration with TO360 and digital platforms would make PATH a visible advantage rather than a hidden maze.

• Extend TO360 standards into PATH maps and entrances, ensuring consistency with street-level wayfinding
• Install clear signage at PATH access points showing the major destinations and hotels reachable underground
• Work with Google, Apple, and other digital platforms to ensure PATH routes are mapped and recommended as indoor walking options
• Review opportunities to improve PATH integration at street level, making entrances easier to spot and more welcoming to first-time users
  
  

Measure and publish first-90-minute performance
Visitors judge the city by their first 90 minutes, yet Toronto has no standards for how long this journey should take. The City and its partners should set clear metrics: baggage-to-train at Pearson, terminal-to-Union at Billy Bishop, wayfinding success at Union, and walking access to cultural districts. Results should be published annually to prove progress.

• Establish shared first-90-minute metrics across GTAA, PortsToronto, Metrolinx, and the City
• Publish annual results on transfer times, wayfinding clarity, and visitor satisfaction
• Tie future funding for upgrades to measurable improvements in the first-90-minute experience

‍

Common Questions

Isn’t this too focused on tourists when residents also need better transit
The same improvements that make Toronto easier for visitors also make it easier for residents. Clearer Union maps, better PATH integration, and expanded TO360 signage all serve commuters and shoppers as much as tourists. Investments in UP Express and the 509 extension add capacity and reliability for everyone.

Won’t extending the 509 to Billy Bishop be too expensive
Any transit link to the airport will require new investment, but the extension is a short connection with outsized benefits. It would replace a slow surface shuttle with a reliable, weather-protected service and can be jointly funded as part of a broader agreement with PortsToronto, the City, Province, and federal government.

Why prioritize UP Express when it already works
UP is fast, but many visitors do not use it because the path from customs is confusing and the train is not promoted as the default. Improving wayfinding and adding peak-time express trips that cut the journey to about 20 minutes will make it the clear choice.

Isn’t the PATH too complicated to fix
The PATH is already one of Toronto’s biggest assets in winter; the problem is that it is hidden. Linking PATH entrances to TO360, marking which hotels and attractions are connected underground, and integrating the routes into Google Maps will make it easy to use without a redesign.

Won’t more signs just clutter the city
Wayfinding is most effective when it is consistent and unified. Expanding TO360 means fewer random, mismatched signs and a single, clear visual language across the city. For visitors and residents alike, this reduces clutter by replacing noise with order.

‍

Conclusion

Toronto cannot afford to leave first impressions to chance. Today the first 90 minutes are often confusing: a train that is not clearly signed, a shuttle that feels improvised, a station that orients locals but not newcomers, and a PATH system hidden in plain sight.

The solutions are clear. Extending the 509 Waterfront LRT into Billy Bishop, improving UP Express wayfinding and service, turning Union into a true arrival hall, and expanding TO360 with clear PATH integration would make the city instantly legible. With coordination between the City, Province, federal partners, and PortsToronto, Toronto can deliver a first 90 minutes that shows every visitor they have arrived in a city that works.

‍