How do you get between Terminal 1 and Terminal 3 at Pearson?

The Terminal Link train, in practice

Pearson's two passenger terminals sit far enough apart that the airport built a rail link between them. The Terminal Link is an automated, driverless train with three stops — Terminal 1, Terminal 3, and Viscount, which serves the Value Park garage and the ALT hotel — and it costs nothing to ride.

Service is continuous: trains come every few minutes at busy times and the line runs 24 hours, so a 2 am terminal switch is as feasible as a 2 pm one. Platforms are reached by elevators and moving walkways, and luggage carts can come aboard, which makes the crossing painless even fully loaded.

Follow the 'Terminal Link' signage from either terminal — from the Terminal 3 side, the station connects near the Sheraton Gateway hotel — and you'll be on a platform within a few minutes' walk of the doors.

• Free, driverless train: Terminal 1 ↔ Terminal 3 ↔ Viscount
• Runs 24/7, trains every few minutes
• The inter-terminal ride itself takes just a few minutes
• Carts and luggage welcome; elevators to every platform

The situations that put you on it

The classic case is the terminal mix-up: you were dropped at Terminal 1 and your airline checks in at Terminal 3, or vice versa. Air Canada and Star Alliance carriers live at Terminal 1; WestJet, Air Transat, Delta, American, British Airways and most others use Terminal 3. Catch the error at the curb and the train fixes it in well under half an hour, doors to doors.

Second case: split itineraries. Landing with one airline and departing on another can mean arriving at one terminal and flying out of the other — common when a sun carrier and a network carrier share one holiday booking.

Third: the Viscount stop's little ecosystem. Parked in the Value Park garage or staying at the ALT hotel, the train is your link to both terminals; staying at the Sheraton Gateway, you're already attached to Terminal 3 and only need the train for Terminal 1 flights.

How much time to allow

The train ride is short; the ends are what add up. Getting from an airline counter to the platform, waiting out a headway, riding across and walking back up into the other check-in hall is comfortably done in 20–30 minutes with luggage — budget that, not the few minutes of the ride itself.

Doing it mid-journey — landing at one terminal, flying onward from the other — means adding that crossing on top of normal arrival formalities and the second airline's check-in cutoff. Ninety minutes between flights on separate bookings is brave; two-plus hours is sane.

The good news is that the link never closes and never surges: at any hour, the crossing costs the same predictable minutes.

• Budget 20–30 minutes doors-to-doors with bags
• Separate-booking connections across terminals: allow 2+ hours
• 24-hour service means the plan works at any hour

In a booked car, the problem disappears upstream

Passengers in a chauffeured car rarely meet the Terminal Link at all, because the terminal question is settled before the trip: the booking notes your airline, the chauffeur confirms the terminal, and the car stops at the correct curb. The fare is identical either way — Pearson is one destination, not two prices.

Arriving passengers get the mirror-image protection: your pickup is booked with a flight number, so the chauffeur knows which terminal your flight actually reaches and meets you on that side, tracked to the real landing time.

Where the train and the car cooperate: if your plans changed inside the airport — a rebooked flight now leaving from the other terminal — ride the link across, and if your pickup or drop-off needs to move with it, the booking can be edited via the self-serve link up to 12 hours out, or by phone any time after.

• Chauffeur confirms your airline's terminal and drops at the right curb
• Same fare for Terminal 1 and Terminal 3
• Pickups follow the flight — including its terminal