Time to reclaim the Sunnyside Bus Terminal: Toronto's forgotten bus station

The Toronto Coach Terminal's closure earlier this month was a reminder that the TTC used to operate an intercity bus service called Gray Coach, until it was sold off in 1990. Much like the GO Bus system today, Gray Coach served much of southern Ontario (as far west as London) and even had a route to North Bay. The Toronto Coach Terminal, known for years as the Grey Coach Terminal, was owned and operated by Gray Coach and when the bus line was sold, the TTC retained ownership of the station (ownership was transferred to the City of Toronto on July 8, 2021, days after the terminal's last bus departed.

However, what isn't generally known is that the TTC retains ownership of a second former Gray Coach Terminal at the intersection of the Queensway, Roncesvales, and Queen in Toronto's west end.

The Sunnyside Bus Terminal opened in 1936 and remained in operation until 1992 - two years after the TTC sold Gray Coach. Like its sister station on Bay Street, Sunnyside was designed in the Art Deco style and just as the Bay terminal had the Ford Hotel operating across the street, Sunnyside had the equally seedy Edgewater Hotel operating next door.

Sunnyside was originally a popular destination due to its proximity to Sunnyside Amusement Park and Bathing Pavillion as well as providing a convenient transfer to the CNR via the Sunnyside Train Station across the street. The station also served as a second Toronto stop on Gray Coach's routes between the Bay Street terminal and Niagara Falls and Buffalo. Passenger use of Sunnyside declined with the closure of Sunnyside Amusement Park in 1955 to make way for the Gardiner Expressway. With the construction of the Bloor-Danforth subway in the 1960s, Islington Station replaced Sunnyside as a stop on Gray Coach's route to Kitchener and London, Ontario In 1967, GO Transit opened and took over CN's Toronto-Hamilton route choosing to bypass the Sunnyside rail station, ending Sunnyside Bus Terminal's role as a transfer point between Grey Coach and the rail system. The station remained in service until 1992 when Gray Coach was sold to Greyhound and was ended as a seperate bus line. The TTC retained the building, which is adjacent to the Roncesvalles streetcar yard. The former bus terminal was rented out as a donut shop for several years and is now used as a McDonalds. It's a shame though. It's a charming building and could be used as a public building and rented out to, say, the West End Food Co-op which has been homeless for several years, or as a public market. Stalls could be rented out to individuals or local groups to sell food, or to farmers to sell produce, or to members of the community to sell other goods and services. It would be good if the TTC transferred ownership of the property to the city, as it has done with the Bay Street terminal, and if the city then put the building to a better community use than its present role serving Big Macs and fries. The question is, though, what are the terms of McDonald's lease with the TTC. If it's one of those 50 or 99-year leases that the city sometimes commits itself to, it may be sometime before the property could be reclaimed for public use.

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The last bus - final coach leaves the Toronto Coach Terminal

The Toronto Coach Terminal, formerly known as the Gray Coach Terminal, has come to the end of its life as a bus depot after 90 years of operation. Last night at 11:30 pm, Ontario Northland 799 trundled out of the terminal heading for North Bay. Ontario Northland was the last bus line still using the Toronto Coach Terminal, tomorrow the service will be using the new Toronto Union Bus Terminal as its Toronto terminus, joining Canada Coach which made the move on June 8th. TCT's third tenant, Greyhound Lines, suspended its service in May 2020 due to the pandemic and announced on May 13, 2021 that they were permanently ending Canadian operations. The terminal building and bus opened on December 19, 1931 though the lot itself had been used as an open air terminal since 1927. The terminal was built and has always been owned by the TTC, originally through its Gray Coach Lines subsidiary - an intercity bus line that served southern Ontario and replaced the earlier interurban radial (streetcar) service that used to connect Toronto with communities around Lake Ontario and the Niagara Peninnsula and north to Lake Simcoe. The TTC sold off Gray Coach in 1990 but kept the terminal, operating it under a TTC subsidiary - Toronto Coach Terminals Inc. On Thursday, the property's ownership transfers to the City of Toronto which, in 2019, identified the Bay and Elizabeth Street terminal properties as an asset that is underutilized, "with an opportunity to unlock value and address City needs and City building objectives, such as affordable housing, employment uses and community infrastructure.
Northland coach 5332, travelling on route 799, pulls out of the station while a small crowd of bus enthusiasts watch across the street.

Here's the terminal earlier in the day.

A few shots of the coach waiting to leave.

An old fishbowl bus with Hamilton Lakeshore destination sign idles in bus bay 1. This isn't a scheduled bus but was chartered, I believe, by the small group of bus enthusiasts who came to the terminal to watch the last coach roll out. I guess technically *this* may be the last bus to use the terminal.
The terminal building itself has been closed since Coach Canada left on June 8th. When I heard their departure was imminent, I went through the terminal (at least the parts that were still open) and took some pictures. (the lower level and tunnel to the Atrium have beeon closed since 2020, as is the upstairs level).

Greyhound and Coach Canada Toronto Operations Ltd. (GACCTO) have leased the terminal from the Toronto Coach Terminal Inc (a subsidiary of the TTC) since 2012. The lease ends on July 7, 2021 and the next day control of the terminal reverts to the TTC. The next day ownership of the property transfers to the City of Toronto due to a vote by the TCTI board last month. What will the city do with the property?

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