New way to connect in YYZ (USA-to-Canada)? Wow!!
 

Wow what the heck just happened. I was just thru YYZ (SAN-YYZ-YHZ) 72hours ago and went thru the usual disembark - walk a mile - customs/Nexus - up 1-2 floors and walk a bit - security into domestic Canada.

But just now on the SAN-YYZ flight I disembarked, they had 2 custom booths setup on the USA offloading gangway (where connections to E/F gates usually is) and had all USA-to-Canada connecting passengers go thru there and then onto a shuttle bus. Bus didn't wait to fill (seems to leave on a regular schedule) and boom suddenly we are in D-gates without having to go thru security.

At first I thought I was going to lose time having to wait for non-Nexus passengers on the bus, but this is indeed way faster. Anyone know if this is the new norm (that would be great) or if this is just an occasional one-off that happens sometimes? Never experienced this before. Love not having to go thru domestic security.

OSS has finally arrived? On a bus?

Yes, I'm still a bit in shock sitting here in the domestic lounge. I've never been able to get from plane-seat on a SAN-YYZ US flight into domestic lounge in less than 10mins even with Nexus and huffing it, but here I am. Mind you, there was no line-up at the 2 US customs booths setup in the hallway (and I was sitting up front) so this could be a nuisance if the line gets super long (for Nexus passengers where it might be faster to just go down thru regular nexus/customs/resecurity).

If this is the new 'way', then someone at Pearson definitely has the smarts. This makes Pearson so much more attractive now than connecting via EWR/ORD/YUL etc.

Wow. I have a DFW-YYZ-YOW flight tomorrow and I hope this will work out for me. I saw the two customs booths on Monday when inbound from MUC and wondered what they were.

Strange they need a bus to get to D gates vs. just directing through the building hallways in some way, but I'll take it!

My guess is that it's a temporary solution. Someone must have decided that everything had been in place long enough except the airport getting a bypass ready. Hence the bus?

OP- did you have checked baggage? Or carry-on only??

I will post an update to this soon, but I do notice that my YYZ-YYC flight has OSS on the bp, for the first time ever (I have done at least half a dozen connections in YYZ from US airports in the last 2 months; the latest just last week and I have never seen OSS before). I am arriving in YYZ from the USA on AC. I am interested in whether there will be Nexus terminals available with the new process, and if having checked luggage makes a difference.

This sounds promising - fingers crossed!

Interesting. I've had at least a dozen connections from the US through YVR and YYC in the past 12 months and I can't remember a single one in which the continuing flight BP didn't show OSS. Of course OSS is completely meaningless.

I thought there might be a glimmer of hope arriving at the new YYC terminal last week. No such luck.

OSS has been showing up on my connecting boarding passes for several months now, with some regularity.

I asked a call center concierge about this new development today and she hadn't heard. (But she noted that she wouldn't be the first to know...)

Just connected in YYZ from US to Canada, and I did the process described by the OP. Two custom booths up the stairs, no security check, bus ride to the D gates, and here I am at DOM lounge... the whole process took less than 15 minutes... Nice way of ending the week...

Which is pretty funny because by 7:45 pm it was back to business as usual. Airport employees knew nothing (I asked). CBSA agent said "soon" until her coworker said "we are told nothing". So YMMV.

Funny indeed. I passed through at 18:45...

I came through at 6pm and there was no sign of this. I recall seeing these new customs stations along the hallway between international/US escalators down k customs, and the domestic side, closer to the escalators. There didn't seem to be a path from the US arrivals flow to that area.

For those who experienced it, how did you get there?

An agent looked at my BP and directed me to the two custom booths. There were other agents along the way to the bus. There were two of us heading to different destinations in Canada.