Toronto Pearson International Airport ground transport

Pearson handled 47.3 million passengers in 2025 across two terminals that are genuinely separate buildings, and the first thing worth knowing is how they connect. The free Terminal Link train runs around the clock between Terminal 1, Terminal 3 and Viscount station, taking two to eight minutes. That matters because the UP Express — the fast train downtown — has its station at Terminal 1 only. Anyone landing at Terminal 3 rides the Link first, and it is the detail most first-time arrivals miss. The UP Express itself leaves every fifteen minutes, seven days a week, and reaches Union Station in the heart of downtown in about 25 minutes. A standard adult fare is CAD 12.35, but tapping a PRESTO card drops it to CAD 9.25 and children under twelve travel free. PRESTO is the region's shared payment card and works across the TTC, MiWay, GO Transit and UP Express, so it is worth buying on arrival if you are staying more than a day. The budget alternative is the TTC's route 900 Airport Express, which runs to Kipling subway station for a single city fare of CAD 3.30 — cheap, but an hour or more to downtown once you add the subway. GO Transit buses fan out to North York, Mississauga, Oakville, Richmond Hill and Hamilton, and MiWay's route 7 covers Mississauga locally. For taxis, the airport authority sets flat rates by zone: the dispatcher confirms your destination and hands over a waybill that fixes the price before you set off, with a CAD 10 surcharge on airport pickups. Beyond the city, Niagara Falls is the single most common onward trip — 128 kilometres and roughly ninety minutes by road, with direct coaches from the terminals.