The $3.2B, 8.6-kilometre subway extension from Downsview Park Station to the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre is set to open Dec. 17.

The Toronto-York Spadina Subway will lengthen the existing TTC Line 1 and include six new subway stations, three new commuter parking lots and GO bus terminals.

Commuters will be able to go from the extension’s start at Sheppard West Station to its end at the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre station in 14 minutes. A subway trip from Vaughan to Union Station in downtown Toronto — which can take close to two hours by car during peak traffic periods — will take 43 minutes.

“Today we are just 30 days away from a momentous rapid transit milestone that will benefit Toronto residents, students and businesses,“ Toronto Mayor John Tory said in a city news release to mark the one-month countdown in mid-November. “The opening of the TTC's Line 1 Extension will reduce congestion on our roads and get people moving."

The TYSSE project is jointly funded by the Government of Canada ($697M), the Province of Ontario ($879M), the City of Toronto ($904M) and The Regional Municipality of York ($604M).

To mark the upcoming opening, Tory, Ontario Minister of Transportation Steven Del Duca and other government and TTC dignitaries recently took a tour of the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre and Downsview Park stations.

“When the new subway extension opens, students and residents across the region will be able to get where they need to be sooner,” Del Duca said. “We’ve reached today’s milestone as a result of our partnership with all three levels of government and the hard work of the many contractors that built the subway extension.”

One major immediate beneficiary of the subway extension to Vaughan is SmartREIT's adjacent Vaughan Metropolitan Centre, a 100-acre office and residential development that was kick-started by the approval of the subway extension.