Manitoba boasts the world’s biggest snow maze. Ontario boasts one of the world’s biggest sub-snow mazes.
In a city known for structures that reach up and not down, Toronto’s “PATH” was until recently the world’s largest pedestrian subway network/underground shopping complex. Emphasis on “complex.” (PATH was surpassed for the Guinness World Record in 2023 by none other than Montreal’s RÉSO network, with over 32 kilometres of tunnels.)
The PATH links more than 75 downtown buildings and 1,200 businesses. About 200,000 people navigate it each weekday; on weekends, maybe 20.
PHOTOS BY Gord Mackintosh / Free Press
The bright, multi-levelled PATH pedestrian network runs through Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto.
Margie and I once tried to explore this improbable 30-km-long weatherproof walkway. Off Bay Street, a PATH sign pointed down some stairs. Another sign then pointed toward doors. We ended up in a parkade. And just gave up.
This winter, Toronto’s record snowfall and biting cold made the PATH more enticing. We wisely hired a tour guide.
Nick from Buzz Tours eagerly greeted us at Union Station’s Great Hall. He explained that PATH is not an acronym. (For kicks, Nick asks tourists to guess what it stands for.)
While Nick might ask silly questions, he also hears some. Pointing to a row of payphones, a 12-year-old recently asked him, “What are those?”
Nick highlights landmarks with fun facts, sometimes one floor up or outdoors. Although the PATH is mostly subterranean, we started from Toronto’s stunning curved glass-and-metal SkyWalk. Then at Scotiabank Arena, Nick said its big sign changes colour depending on whether the next event features the Maple Leafs (blue), Raptors (red) or a concert (multi-coloured). Similarly, the adjoining Real Sports Apparel store switches its gear on main display depending on the next event, even rotating walls of merch.
Gord Mackintosh / Free Press
Toronto’s SkyWalk: an above-ground PATH segment.
Nick has an endearing penchant for automatic door-openers while noting the PATH’s unusual number of underground print shops and especially dentists. I asked how many doughnut shops lurk (for some reason). He replied, “Lots! That maybe explains the dentists.”
For the birds
Up an escalator, we stood gobsmacked in Brookfield Place’s cathedral-like Allen Lambert Galleria. Nick reports that five sparrows thrive inside among the sweeping arches in Brookfield’s nearby Sam Pollock Square but leave when its fountain goes off in December. Once it’s back on, they return through a downstairs loading dock.
Commerce Court’s logo resembles a pile of pick-up sticks. I assume this celebrates how PATH’s hallways diverge and scatter into Toronto’s bowels. PATH tunnels actually present about 60 junctions, a.k.a. “decision points” — to excite neurotics, marital relations and ditherers seeking the dentist. Nick explained that most workers just repeat routes to their office and back — what he calls “their mouse trails.”
From the late 1980s until the late 2010s, PATH featured a colour-coded wayfinding scheme, with each of the four colours of the letters in its name on signage representing a cardinal direction — blue for north, orange for west, red for south and yellow for east.
Commerce Court’s compass offers guidance where five PATH tunnels intersect.
With security guards deployed depending on each building’s management, and the City of Toronto overseeing connecting hallways, Nick says the few folks here who are unhoused, sellers or promoters know what side of a corridor to occupy. Buskers must apply for a city permit.
Nick pointed out several distinctive PATH destinations like Modern Golf (with a virtual course to assist with club fitting), House of Fine Writing (with fountain pens), plus the Hockey Hall of Fame (without Paul Henderson). When I quizzed the Hall’s ticket agent about this oversight, he intuitively deflected, “I don’t know about that.”
Our tour ended outside Toronto city hall. To return to our hotel, we embraced our newfound PATH mastery and headed back down. We ended up in a library. And just gave up.
Back on Earth’s windswept surface at -20 C, Bay Street’s salt-laden paths nonetheless re-instilled a sense of direction, efficacy and vitamin D.
Rejecting defeat, the next day we embarked on the PATH’s unexplored northern reaches. We found our way down using a time-honoured technique: asking for directions. Seeing a PATH intersection, Margie pointed and insisted, “This way!” I calmly assured, “We go this way.” How I guessed it right this one time, I’ll never know.
Gord Mackintosh / Free Press
Warmer, or cooler, than Yonge Street.
Food-court capital
The PATH hosts an extraordinary variety of intriguing independent and chain stores. Plus, it contains untold exotic globe-spanning eateries.
Nick says the PATH accesses 40 food courts, some with drinky-poos. Starting at Eaton Centre’s sub-subterranean food court, we glimpsed compelling, unfamiliar offerings like momo, onigiri, bao, bap. Poutine empanada!
Outlet names lyrically include Mos Mos, HoGa, KoHa. Others pretend they’re outside, like Moon Palace, Thai Island, Forest Hill Farmhouse. Cute brands include Curryosity, Wat Ah Jerk, Soup Nutsy, Nutbar, Sushi-Q. I also nominate the PATH as the world’s food-court capital.
I asked a security guard, “You get many questions?” She exclaimed, “Everyone gets lost! It’s a maze.” It’s reportedly a rite of passage for locals to get lost here. My Toronto pal’s family won’t allow him to enter, fearing his disappearance.
Tour guide Nick explains a PATH map.
Beyond online maps, a misunderstood app and my built-in inoperative compass, I should have constantly relied on the PATH’s big wall maps. The maps mark your location with a red “HERE.” (Vintage quip: “How did they know where I am?”) And, yes, we emerged from the PATH at somewhere unexpected and unknown, asking for directions.
Our server at the Duke of York pub later told us, “You should see when I bring my 90-year-old mother there.” I thought, “Heck, you should see us there.” But Eric at Barbarian’s Steak House regaled us about joining pals on cold days in the PATH for Hawaiian pub crawls, decked out in flip-flops, shorts and aloha shirts. I’m impressed! I couldn’t find my way sober.
Next time in Toronto, go below for some basement a-maze-ment.
gordmackintosh9@gmail.com
Gord Mackintosh / Free Press
A quiet midday in a PATH tunnel.
Margie Mackintosh risks disappearing under Toronto.
Gord Mackintosh / Free Press
Commerce Court’s logo — celebrating the PATH’s 60 junctions?