Ontario Highway 407
King's Highway 407, commonly referred to as Highway 407 and colloquially as the "four-oh-seven", is a 400-series highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. Comprising a tolled privately leased segment and a publicly owned segment, the route spans the entire Greater Toronto Area around the city of Toronto, travelling through the suburbs of Burlington, Oakville, Mississauga, Brampton, Vaughan, Markham, Pickering, Whitby, and Oshawa before ending in Clarington, north of Orono and Newcastle. At long, it is the fourth-longest expressway in Ontario's 400-series network, after Highways 417, 400, and 401. The tolled segment between Burlington and Brougham in Pickering is leased to and operated by the 407 ETR Concession Company Limited and is officially known as the 407 Express Toll Route. It begins at the Freeman Interchange between the Queen Elizabeth Way and Highway 403 in Burlington; the highway travels across the urban GTA to Brock Road in Pickering. East of Brock Road, the freeway continues east as Highway 407, a route operated by the provincial government and formerly tolled, for to Highway 35/115 in Clarington. The route interchanges with nine freeways in Ontario: the QEW, Highway 403, Highway 401, Highway 410, Highway 427, Highway 400, Highway 404, Highway 412, and Highway 418. 407 ETR is an electronically operated toll highway; there are no toll booths along the route. Distances are calculated automatically using transponders or automatic number-plate recognition, which are scanned at entrance and exit portals.
Highway 407 was planned in the late 1950s as a freeway bypassing Toronto's segment of Highway 401, the busiest highway in North America. However, construction did not begin until 1987. During the early 1990s, the provincial government proposed tolling the highway to alleviate a revenue shortfall. The central sections of Highway 407 opened in 1997, and the remaining sections were built quickly over the following four years, with the final segment opening in mid-2001. Despite being included in the 400-series network, the Highway 407 ETR section is not considered part of the provincial highway network as it is now privately operated. The segment is operated privately under a 99-year lease agreement signed with the Conservative provincial government, which was sold in 1999 for about C$3.1 billion to a consortium of Canadian and Spanish investors operating under the name 407 International Inc. The privatization of the Highway 407 ETR section has been the source of significant criticism, especially regarding increases in tolls, plate denial, and false charges. In addition, the safety of segments built after the sale of the freeway has been called into question.
Phase 1 of a provincially owned and tolled extension of the route, known solely as Highway 407, opened to traffic from Brock Road in Pickering to Harmony Road in Oshawa on June 20, 2016. Included as part of this extension was the construction of a tolled north–south link between Highways 401 and 407, known as Highway 412. Phase 2 later extended the provincially owned portion of Highway 407 to Highway 35 / Highway 115 in Clarington. This construction was completed in two stages, with Phase 2A opening on January 2, 2018, as a extension to Taunton Road, and Phase 2B opening on December 9, 2019, as a extension to Highway 35 and Highway 115. Included as part of this extension was the construction of another tolled north–south link between Highways 401 and 407, known as Highway 418.
Unusually, Highway 407 does not reach or pass through any of its three control cities: Hamilton, Toronto, or Peterborough. Hamilton is accessed by following either the QEW or Highway 403 beyond its western terminus in Burlington. Toronto proper is bypassed but is used as a control city due to the similar sizes of the suburban municipalities the highway passes through in York and Peel Regions, and control cities are not shown at street entrances in these regions, as is the case for freeways passing through Toronto. In the east, Peterborough is reached by briefly following the Highway 35/Highway 115 concurrency north and then continuing northeast on Highway 115 alone.
Route description
Highway 407 is a long, controlled-access highway that encircles the GTA, passing through Burlington, Oakville, Mississauga, Brampton, Vaughan, Markham, Pickering, Whitby, Oshawa, and Clarington, as well as travelling immediately north of Toronto. Although the general public felt that tolling made the highway a luxury rather than fulfilling its original purpose of relieving traffic on Highway 401, Highway 407 ETR had average daily trip counts of over 350,000 vehicles in June 2014. The 407 ETR is contractually responsible for maintaining high traffic levels as justification for increasing tolls, but conducts its own traffic studies. Despite increased usage, parallel roads that Highway 407 was intended to supplement continue to grow congested, forcing the MTO to revisit costly widening projects of Highway 401 and the QEW.Highway 407 was designed with aesthetics and environmental concerns in mind, featuring landscaped embankments, 79 storm drainage ponds, and a curb and gutter system. Unlike most Ontario highways, it features concrete pavement as opposed to top-coated asphalt. Because of this, the high-mast lighting along the urban portions of the route features fewer luminaires than asphalt-surfaced freeways.
Burlington–Vaughan
Highway 407 begins in Burlington within Halton Region at the Freeman Interchange between Highway 403 and the QEW, from which it branches off northward. The six-lane route passes under Brant Street, Upper Middle Road, and Guelph Line, before it interchanges with Dundas Street. It briefly enters green space as it curves gently to the northeast, ultimately avoiding the nearby Niagara Escarpment. The route is crossed by Walkers Line, east of which residential subdivisions line the south side and green space lines the north of the highway. At an interchange with Appleby Line, the highway straightens and travels parallel to Dundas Street before passing over Bronte Creek and under the Canadian National Railway's Halton Subdivision.East of Bronte Creek, Highway 407 enters an agricultural area, which is interspersed with woodlots. It enters Oakville at the Tremaine Road overpass, then gradually swerves to the north as it encounters an interchange with Bronte Road. The route crosses Sixteen Mile Creek just north of Glenarchy Conservation Area, then travels parallel to the creek for several kilometres. It swerves north after an interchange with Neyagawa Boulevard, north of the Hamlet of Glenarchy. After diverging from the creek, it curves northeast, parallel to and north of Burnhamthorpe Road and the William Halton Parkway, where it crosses under Sixth Line and interchanges with Trafalgar Road. Highway 407 then encounters Highway 403, where it curves sharply to the northwest, while Highway 403 curves from the southeast to the northeast; resulting in both highways meeting and deflecting at a 90-degree angle and not crossing each other.
Now travelling parallel to and immediately west of the Halton–Peel regional boundary and Milton–Mississauga city limits, the six-lane Highway 407 progresses northwest alongside Hydro One's power transmission corridor, with residential areas to the east and farmland to the west. The route continues as such northwest to Highway 401, passing under Lower Base Line and Eglinton Avenue and interchanging with Britannia Road and Derry Road before crossing the Canadian Pacific Railway's Galt Subdivision; it then crosses under transmission lines. At an interchange with Highway 401, the route makes a sharp curve to the northeast, while interconnecting ramps weave across both freeways over several kilometres. It enters Peel Region at the Winston Churchill Boulevard overpass, then follows another hydro corridor just north of the Brampton–Mississauga boundary.
File:Derry and 407.jpg|left|thumb|Highway 407 and Derry Road, facing southwest; this section of Highway 407 parallels the boundary between Mississauga and Milton.
Highway 407 swerves northeast again, encountering an interchange with Mississauga Road just prior to crossing the Credit River and the Orangeville Brampton Railway, after which it enters the urban GTA. After passing through interchanges with Mavis Road and Hurontario Street, the highway encounters Highway 410 at another sprawling interchange located over Etobicoke Creek. Over the next, the highway nudges northward into Brampton, interchanging with Dixie Road and Bramalea Road, meeting another CN railway line, and crossing over the CN Halton Subdivision, before crossing under Steeles Avenue. Highway 407 curves back to the northeast as it interchanges with Airport Road and passes beneath another CN line, before crossing under hydro lines and encountering the final interchange in Peel Region at Goreway Drive, as York Region is ahead. It crosses the West Humber River and under former Highway 50 in Claireville Conservation Area before curving east into Vaughan, in York Region.
Vaughan–Pickering
Immediately after crossing into Vaughan and York Region, Highway 407 encounters the first of three large interchanges with other 400-series highways. The Highway 427 interchange is a four-level partial stack located just north of Steeles Avenue and adjacent to the 407 ETR Concession Company offices. The interchange features weaved ramps which connect to former Highway 27, located just to the east. The route continues eastward, parallel to and north of Steeles Avenue and south of Highway 7. It dives through the Humber River Valley alongside a CN line and along the northern border of Thackeray Conservation Lands, passing beneath a CP line. After crossing under transmission lines of a hydro corridor and interchanging with Pine Valley Drive, the route becomes sandwiched between the industrial lands of the Pine Valley Business Park and the Emery Creek Corporate Park, Greater Toronto's industrial places. A partial interchange with Weston Road lies just west of the large, four-level stack interchange with Highway 400, the only of its kind in Canada. An interchange with Jane Street is interwoven into the east side of the Highway 400 interchange, below which pass the tunnels of the Line 1 Yonge–University subway; the Highway 407 station is located south of the highway.File:Hwy 407 at Thronhill 2024.jpg|thumb|left|Highway 407 east of Bayview Ave., near the boundary of Markham and Richmond Hill.
Still travelling alongside a hydro corridor, Highway 407 crosses a complex rail wye, which provides access to the CN freight yards to the north. After interchanging with Keele Street, the route gently curves northward, passing under the CN Newmarket Subdivision, which carries the GO Transit Barrie line; it then crosses the Don River. It curves back eastward as it interchanges with Dufferin Street, travelling adjacent to and south of Highway 7. After it interchanges with Bathurst Street, Highway 407 crosses under transmission lines at an interchange with Yonge Street, and then crosses the CN Bala Subdivision, which carries the GO Transit Richmond Hill line. As the highway swerves east and enters Markham, it interchanges with Bayview Avenue and once again crosses under transmission lines. A second partial interchange with Leslie Street precedes the third and final large freeway–freeway junction at Highway 404, known as a multi-level combination interchange.
East of Highway 404, the freeway travels generally parallel to the Rouge River. It interchanges with Woodbine Avenue and Warden Avenue, east of which the route travels alongside a CN line and crosses the GO Transit Stouffville line. Highway 407 continues straight eastward into a residential area, interchanging with Kennedy Road, McCowan Road, and Markham Road, where it diverges from both a CN line and hydro corridor. After crossing the river, the route interchanges with Ninth Line and Donald Cousens Parkway before exiting the urban Greater Toronto Area, entering Rouge Park, and curving northeast over a CP line.
Until the opening of the first phase of 407E in June 2016, the final interchange along Highway 407 was with York–Durham Line, the boundary between York Region and Durham Region, as well as Markham and Pickering.
Immediately after exiting the urban GTA, the highway curves northeast, then crosses West Duffins Creek north of the community of Whitevale, south of the future Pickering Airport and north of the planned community of Seaton. Sandwiched between farm fields, the highway is crossed by North Road, before interchanging with Whites Road, an interchange which opened in February 2021.
Highway 407 originally ended just south of Brougham, Pickering at a signalized intersection with Brock Road until the end of 2015, where it continued eastward as Highway 7. However, a new interchange has been built in conjunction with the provincially maintained and tolled extension, Highway 407 East, which was constructed east of this point, and ties in with the current freeway, eliminating the at-grade intersection.