Line 3 Scarborough, originally known as Scarborough RT (the SRT), was a
medium-capacity rapid transit line that was part of the
Toronto subway
The Toronto subway is a rapid transit system serving Toronto and the neighbouring city of Vaughan in Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). The subway system is a rail network consisting of three heavy-capacity rai ...
system of the Toronto Transit Commission in
Toronto
Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
, Ontario, Canada.
The line ran entirely within the eastern district of
Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to:
People
* Scarborough (surname)
* Earl of Scarbrough
Places Australia
* Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth
* Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong
* Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...
, encompassing six
stations and of mostly
elevated track. It was connected with
Line 2 Bloor–Danforth
Line 2 Bloor–Danforth is a rapid transit line in the Toronto subway system, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). It has 31 Metro station, stations and is in length. It opened on February 26, 1966, and extensions at both ends we ...
at its southwestern terminus, , and terminated in the northeast at . Until its closure in July 2023, the system had a ridership of per year.
The rolling stock of Line 3 consisted of smaller, semi-automated, medium-capacity trains, rather than the larger heavy-rail subway trains used on other lines in the system. Designated by the
Toronto Transit Commission
The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the primary public transport agency in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, operating the majority of the city's transit bus, bus and rail services. It is the oldest and largest of the urban transit service providers ...
(TTC) as the
S series, these were
Intermediate Capacity Transit System (ICTS) Mark I trains built by the
Urban Transportation Development Corporation
The Urban Transportation Development Corporation Ltd. (UTDC) is a former State-owned enterprise, Crown corporation owned by the Government of Ontario, Canada. It was established in the 1970s as a way to enter what was then expected to be a bu ...
(UTDC). The trains were powered by
linear induction motor
A linear induction motor (LIM) is an alternating current (AC), asynchronous linear motor that works by the same general principles as other induction motors but is typically designed to directly produce motion in a straight line. Characteristica ...
s and operated on tracks, unlike the heavy-rail subway lines and the
Toronto streetcar system, which use the unique .
The line remained mostly unchanged from its opening in 1985 and contained two of the least-used stations in the system. Beginning in the late 2000s,
Toronto City Council
Toronto City Council is the governing body of the municipal government of Toronto, Ontario. Meeting at Toronto City Hall, it comprises 25 city councillors and the mayor of Toronto. The Toronto City Council 2022–2026, current term began on Nove ...
debated over competing plans to revitalize and expand the line, to convert its right-of-way for use by modern light rail vehicles, or to close the line and extend Line 2 Bloor–Danforth farther into Scarborough along a different route. In 2013, the council decided on a three-station extension of Line 2 to replace Line 3 along a different route. In 2016, in order to free up funds for another transit project, the city reduced the extension to include only one station,
which was set to be completed by 2026.
In 2019,
Progressive Conservative premier
Doug Ford
Douglas Robert Ford Jr. (born November 20, 1964) is a Canadian politician and businessman who has served as the 26th and current premier of Ontario and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party since 2018. He represents the Toronto rid ...
reinstated the three-station
Scarborough subway extension and committed to completing it by 2030, with all construction costs to be borne by the province.
The TTC planned for Line 3 to cease operations in November 2023, with shuttle buses running in place of Line 3 train service until the Line 2 Bloor–Danforth subway extension to the existing Scarborough Centre station opened for service, which was estimated to be in 2030. However, a train derailment in July 2023 resulted in the line permanently closing four months ahead of schedule.
By March 2023, a plan existed to convert a portion of the existing right-of-way between Kennedy and Ellesmere stations into a bus right-of-way, including an additional stop at Mooregate Avenue / Tara Avenue, located near a pedestrian bridge that spans over the former Line 3 and GO Transit's
Stouffville line between Eglinton Avenue and Lawrence Avenue. In 2023, the busway was targeted for completion by 2025.
Name
From when the line opened in 1985 until 2015, it was known as the "Scarborough RT" or "SRT". The "RT" in Scarborough RT stood for "rapid transit". The name Scarborough Line was used on the official TTC website and 2014 TTC Ride Guide. In October 2013, the TTC announced plans to give the lines official numbers to help riders and visitors to navigate the system. The line is numbered 3, as it was the third
rapid transit
Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT) or heavy rail, commonly referred to as metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport that is generally built in urban areas. A grade separation, grade separated rapid transit line below ground su ...
line to open in the system. New signage was installed in March 2014.
In 2015, the name was simplified to "Line 3 Scarborough."
History
Proposal and construction
In 1972, the
Government of Ontario
The Government of Ontario () is the body responsible for the administration of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. The term ''Government of Ontario'' refers specifically to the executive—political Minister ...
announced the
GO-Urban plan to build an intermediate capacity transit system across suburban Toronto, particularly in Scarborough and Etobicoke, using the experimental
Krauss-Maffei Transurban. However,
KraussMaffei was forced to abandon development when the
West German
West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republic after its capital c ...
federal government declined further funding. GO-Urban then used some of the technologies from the Transurban to develop a simpler steel-wheeled version, the ICTS system.
During this period, the TTC had been working on plans to extend its own network with a series of
streetcar
A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...
systems using a new and greatly enlarged streetcar design, the
Canadian Light Rail Vehicle (CLRV). The Ontario government, in charge of
GO Transit, was looking for a test site for the ICTS system and demanded that the TTC use it for one of their planned streetcar projects, selecting the Scarborough extension. The TTC initially refused to make the change, arguing it was both the wrong solution and that since the construction of the line had already commenced this would be a waste of money. However, as the Ontario government was providing 75 percent of the funding for the line, they changed their minds when the government threatened to cut the funding.
At
Kennedy station, there are clues revealing that it was originally built for streetcar operation; it is possible to see old low-level streetcar platforms protruding under the current high-level platforms, and the loop to turn streetcars proved too sharp for safe operation of the ICTS cars, which did not have a reason to turn around, so the loop was replaced by a single-track
Spanish solution
In railway and rapid transit parlance, the Spanish solution is a station layout with two railway platforms, one on each side of the track, which allows for separate platforms for boarding and alighting.
The "Spanish solution" is used in several ...
-like crossover. Ontario wanted to develop and promote its new technology, which had been designed for a proposed GO Transit urban service known as
GO-ALRT, first proposed in 1982. Changes to federal railway regulations had made the new system unnecessary for GO, so the government hoped to sell it to other transit services in order to recoup its investment.
Opening and service
The Scarborough line was formally opened (as the Scarborough RT) to invited guests on March 22, 1985, and began revenue service on March 24, 1985. Three years after it opened, the TTC renovated its southwestern terminus at Kennedy station because the looped turnaround track, designed for uni-directional streetcars under the earlier plan and not needed for the bi-directional ICTS trains, was causing derailments; it was replaced with a single terminal track and the station was thus quasi-Spanish solution, with one side for boarding and another side for alighting, though the boarding side is also used for alighting during off-peak hours, weekends and holidays.
With the line approaching the end of its useful life,
the TTC reduced the frequency of service in mid-September 2012 to reduce wear and tear on both the aging rolling stock and the infrastructure.
In 2015, the TTC started work on the cars to keep them operational until the line is replaced by another mode of rail technology. This included
shrink-wrapping the rolling stock with a blue vinyl finish to emphasize the line's colour and displaying the number 3, a linear diagram of the Scarborough line, and the TTC logo.
The original "RT" logo was no longer featured on the trains, except when the Line 3 shrink wrap is removed but not re-applied yet. These were followed by interior upgrades, such as using coloured velour seating.
On December 13, 2016,
Presto fare gates were installed at
Lawrence East station, making all stations along this line Presto-enabled.
On April 18, 2017, the TTC awarded a $6.8-million contract to
Bombardier to repair corrosion damage under the floors of the
S-series cars. If the problem were not rectified, there would be the risk of serious structural damage to the cars. That would have prevented the cars from lasting until 2026 when the
Scarborough Subway Extension was originally scheduled to replace Line 3. The repair work required service to be reduced from 6 four-car trains down to 5.
Closure
On July 24, 2023, the last car of a train on Line 3 Scarborough derailed south of
Ellesmere station. There were 45 people on board, with five injuries reported.
The TTC closed the line while the cause of the incident was being investigated. Although the investigation and closure was expected to last several weeks, the city accelerated work to support the replacement buses.
On August 24, 2023, the TTC announced that the line would not reopen.
In late September 2023, the TTC explained that bolts that held the linear induction rail to the roadbed had come loose in the July incident, causing the magnetically attracted induction rail to rise up, strike and derail the last car of the train.
Immediately following the derailment,
replacement bus service was implemented initially by shuttle buses serving the closed stations along Line 3. On September 3, 2023, the TTC replaced the shuttle bus service with route 903 Kennedy–Scarborough Centre Express, running northbound on Kennedy Road and southbound on Midland Avenue in reserved lanes between Kennedy and Scarborough Centre stations. Unlike the shuttle service, route 903 did not serve the closed Lawrence East, Ellesmere, Midland and McCowan stations.
On November 19, 2023, the TTC extended eight bus routes from Scarborough Centre to Kennedy station, eliminating the need to transfer to route 903 at Scarborough Centre station.
On November 30, 2023, the consulting firm
SYSTRA submitted a report to the TTC that found that, prior to the derailment, maintenance procedures on Line 3 were weak or non-existent and that track inspection staff lacked experience to understand how various defects could create an operating risk.
On October 4, 2024,
EllisDon
EllisDon is an employee-owned construction services company that was founded and incorporated in 1951 in London, Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, by brothers Don and David Ellis Smith. The company is headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, Canad ...
began work to demolish and remove the Line 3 train tracks between Eglinton Avenue and the north end of Ellesmere station in preparation for constructing a busway.
Farewell event
A farewell event for Line 3 was hosted at
Scarborough Centre station
Scarborough Centre is a bus terminal station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, serving multiple bus routes of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) and one Durham Region Transit (DRT) bus route. It was also a rapid transit station serving Line 3 Scarb ...
on September 23, 2023, two months after the line's closure. The event featured trains, food and drinks, a photo area, and posters depicting archival photos and trivia. The following are photos from the event:
Farewell Line 3 in Scarborough Centre Concourse-1.JPG, Farewell Line 3 booth in Scarborough Centre station
Scarborough Centre is a bus terminal station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, serving multiple bus routes of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) and one Durham Region Transit (DRT) bus route. It was also a rapid transit station serving Line 3 Scarb ...
concourse
Farewell Line 3 on 20230923.JPG, People taking photos during the Farewell Line 3 event on September 23, 2023
Farewell Line 3 Photo area in Scarborough Centre.JPG, Photo area in Scarborough Centre Station with a blue backdrop reading "Farewell Line 3" in various languages, as well as social media handles for Meta-owned social websites and the hashtag #TakeTheTTC
Farewell Line 3 Train in Scarborough Centre.JPG, Two S-series trains stationed at each of the platforms during the farewell event
Rolling stock
The 7 four-car trains used exclusively on the Scarborough line were developed by the
Urban Transportation Development Corporation
The Urban Transportation Development Corporation Ltd. (UTDC) is a former State-owned enterprise, Crown corporation owned by the Government of Ontario, Canada. It was established in the 1970s as a way to enter what was then expected to be a bu ...
(UTDC), then an Ontario
Crown corporation
Crown corporation ()
is the term used in Canada for organizations that are structured like private companies, but are directly and wholly owned by the government.
Crown corporations have a long-standing presence in the country, and have a sign ...
but later sold to Bombardier Transportation. The business proposal initially bore little fruit—a proposed pilot project in
Hamilton
Hamilton may refer to:
* Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States
* ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda
** ''Hamilton'' (al ...
was cancelled after meeting widespread public opposition, and the only other transit systems to use the technology, named the Intermediate Capacity Transit System (ICTS), at the time were
Vancouver
Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
's
SkyTrain and the
People Mover
A people mover or automated people mover (APM) is a type of small-scale automated guideway transit system. The term is generally used only to describe systems serving relatively small areas such as airports, downtown districts or theme parks ...
in
Detroit
Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...
. After Bombardier took over UTDC, it redesigned the technology with newer, longer cars, used to expand the SkyTrain network and also for new installations across the world. ICTS was rebranded as "Advanced Rapid Transit" (ART) and became a success for the company. Later, the technology was again rebranded, this time as
Innovia Metro.
One unusual feature of the ICTS cars was that they were driven by
linear induction motors: instead of using
conventional motors to turn the wheels, they pushed themselves along the route using alternating flat
magnet
A magnet is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible but is responsible for the most notable property of a magnet: a force that pulls on other ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, steel, nickel, ...
s reacting with the distinctive diamagnetic
aluminum
Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...
metal plate that ran down the centre of the tracks. This system required very few moving parts and therefore led to lower maintenance costs. When the car motors were accelerating, they actually lifted the car off the track an extremely small distance, repelling against the aluminum plate. This micro-lifting prevented the
truck
A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport freight, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construct ...
wheels from making a solid electrical contact with the track. Instead of using the conventional method, in which motive power is supplied by a single
third rail
A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a track (r ...
, with return current travelling through the running rails, a separate positive- and negative-power rail were provided on one side of the track. Regarding the accelerating trucks and the micro-lifting, the truck wheels had a somewhat larger flange than normal to keep the car inline on the track during the micro-lifting. The linear induction motors also allowed the cars to climb steeper grades than would be possible with traditional subway technology since wheel slip was not an issue.
The trains were also able to be operated exclusively by computers, becoming one of the earliest installations of
Standard Elektrik Lorenz's "
SelTrac IS" system (now owned and delivered by
Thales Rail Signalling Solutions), doing away with the need for a human operator. However, due to opposition from the transit
workers' union and public perception,
operators were retained; the union has firmly opposed driverless trains. (Other systems took full advantage of the automated operation and Vancouver's SkyTrain has been automated since 1985 without incident.) The Line 3 trains had only
one operator since inception. In practice, the Scarborough line trains
drove themselves; the operator monitored their operations and controlled the doors. One of the features which was not implemented at the time of Scarborough line's opening was the automated audible-only next-stop announcement system, which was introduced in January 2008 and meant operators were no longer required to announce stops manually. These announcements feature the voice of Susan Bigioni, a TTC employee, who also voiced the announcements for the
T1 series and the
retired H4, H5, and H6 trains.
In June 2024, the Detroit People Mover transit system announced the purchase of 12 Mark I trainsets (24 railcars) and equipment from Line 3. Their transportation to and integration with the Detroit People Mover was projected to take over a year and a half. The purchase would replace the system's existing train sets with upgraded features, along with providing much-needed parts needed to keep the system functional. Two railcars were sent to the
Halton County Radial Railway Museum for preservation. One car would be provided to the
Toronto Zoo.
Track
Line 3 used 5-rail track, which a TTC document describes as follows:
The two power rails of 300 volts positive DC and the other of 300 volts negative DC together produced 600 volts.
Line 3 tracks used standard gauge rather than the broader
Toronto gauge used on Line 2 Bloor–Danforth, as the ICTS design for the line would not allow for the interchange of rail equipment between lines 2 and 3 even if they were both the same gauge.
Route
The line followed a roughly inverted L-shaped route when viewed northwards: first from Kennedy station, paralleling the
Canadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States.
CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue a ...
/ GO Transit's
Stouffville line tracks, between
Kennedy Road and Midland Avenue, to Ellesmere Road; then eastward between Ellesmere Road and Progress Avenue, through
Scarborough City Centre
Scarborough City Centre is a commercial district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was the central business district for the Scarborough, Toronto, former city of Scarborough, which Amalgamation of Toronto, amalgamated with Toronto in 1998. Scarbo ...
to
McCowan Road. The north–south section of the route, where it followed the Stouffville line tracks, was at ground level; the shorter east–west section (except for the ground-level yard) was elevated, as was the Kennedy terminus. The line dives briefly underground just north of
Ellesmere station to cross under the Stouffville line tracks. After that, it is elevated towards McCowan station. Two stations, Kennedy and Scarborough Centre, were the only stations on the line to have accessible elevators as those two were the busiest stations of Line 3.
From 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. (to 8 a.m. on Sundays), when Line 3 was not operating, the 302 Kingston Rd-McCowan
Blue Night bus served the same area. The 302 originates at
Bingham Loop, where it connects with the 322 Coxwell bus that travelled to the west, as well as Route 324 Victoria Park that runs north. From the loop, Route 302 travels east along Kingston Road to Brimley Road, then north along Brimley Road to Danforth Road, then north on McCowan Road to Steeles Avenue. With the exception of
McCowan station, it does not pass near any of the rapid transit stations, though other
night bus services pass near stations. Bus service was extended on Sundays because the rapid transit lines started at 8 a.m. (beginning January 3, 2016) instead of the usual 6 a.m. start. Service frequency was 30 minutes. Route 302 continues to operate after the line's closure.
The frequency for this line was 4 to 5 minutes during peak periods and 5 to 6 minutes during off-peak periods.
Operations
The TTC operated five to six trains on the line with each train consisting of four cars. There are 28 cars in the Line 3 fleet.
Line 3 trains could switch directions only at the ends of the line as there were no intermediate crossovers between the two termini. Thus, there could be no short turns on Line 3.
In winter, during heavy snow or freezing rain, the TTC previously ran "storm trains" overnight on Line 3 to keep power rails clear of ice, and apply anti-freeze to the power rail once freezing rain starts.
However, since
the winter of 2018–2019, the TTC decided to change its procedures for Line 3. Thus, about two hours before an expected storm, the TTC may have decided to shut down Line 3 and replace it with bus service.
Just before
the storm of February 2, 2022, the TTC replaced all Line 3 trains with 25 buses.
The Scarborough line's S-series ICTS trains were stored and serviced at the small
McCowan Yard, located east of McCowan station. Basic maintenance was performed in this yard; for more extensive work, the cars were taken to Line 2's
Greenwood Yard by truck, given the train's different track gauge and propulsion system.
Future
After studying the
revitalization and expansion of Line 3 in 2006, its
replacement with alternate transit (light rail versus subway) became a subject of debate in the late 2000s. , there are plans to replace Line 3 with the three-stop
Scarborough Subway Extension of Line 2 from Kennedy station to
Sheppard Avenue
Sheppard Avenue is an east–west principal arterial road in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The street has two distinct branches near its eastern end, with the original route being a collector road leading to Pickering, Ontario, Pickering via a turno ...
, with intermediate stops at
Lawrence Avenue and
Scarborough Town Centre. With an estimated completion between 2029 and 2030, the extension would follow a different route than Line 3. The Government of Ontario has committed to fully fund its $5.5-billion cost.
In February 2021, the TTC recommended closing Line 3 permanently by 2023 and replacing it with bus service until the Line 2 extension opens.
Once Line 3 is closed, portions of its right-of-way could be
converted into parkland.
Revitalization and expansion
In 2006, a study was completed on the prospects of the Scarborough line.
It recommended upgrading the line to handle larger Innovia Metro Mark II vehicles, at a cost of $190million (in 2006 dollars) with an eight-month service suspension for the upgrade and to purchase $170million of new rolling stock.
Rebuilding the curve in the tunnel north of Ellesmere station would have been required to accommodate Mark II cars. (According to transit advocate
Steve Munro, the need to rebuild the tunnel was discovered after the $190million upgrade estimate was made.
) The TTC Board approved the recommended plan for the upgrades on August 30, 2006,
but later cancelled the plans.
Extending Line 2 Bloor–Danforth, either along the current route or along a different alignment directly to Scarborough Centre station, was not considered cost-effective or justifiable.
In November 2015, transportation consultant and
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...
professor emeritus Richard Soberman argued that it would be vastly cheaper and faster to buy new Line 3 vehicles than to replace Line 3 with an extension of
Line 2 northeast from Kennedy station. He felt the cost savings would be great enough to overcome difficulties such as the incompatibility of Mark II cars with the existing line geometry and the extra cost of building a fully separated right-of-way to Sheppard Avenue, where Line 3 could connect with either a proposed
extension of Line 4 Sheppard or the
Sheppard East LRT.
Replacement with alternate transit

The TTC and the City of Toronto completed an
environmental assessment
Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is the assessment of the environmental consequences of a plan, policy, program, or actual projects prior to the decision to move forward with the proposed action. In this context, the term "environmental imp ...
in 2010 to convert the line to
light rail transit and extend it to
Malvern from its current eastern terminus, McCowan, with potential new intermediate stations at Bellamy Road,
Centennial College's Progress Campus and Sheppard Avenue with a possible additional station at
Brimley Road between the existing
Midland and Scarborough Centre stations.
After initially planning to include the line with the proposed
Eglinton Crosstown LRT line and create a single line called the "Eglinton–Scarborough Crosstown line",
Metrolinx
Metrolinx is a transportation agency in Ontario, Canada. It is a Crown agency that manages and integrates road and public transportation in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA). It was created as the Greater Toronto Transportation Au ...
proceeded with plans to convert the line to light rail and extend it to Sheppard Avenue with a single new intermediate station at Centennial College. The existing line would have closed after the
2015 Pan American Games
The 2015 Pan American Games (), officially the XVII Pan American Games () and commonly known as the Toronto 2015 Pan-Am Games (Toronto 2015), were a major international multi-sport event celebrated in the tradition of the Pan American Games, ...
and be completed in 2020. In January 2013,
Infrastructure Ontario issued a
request for qualifications to shortlist companies to construct both this line and the Eglinton Crosstown line. The Eglinton Crosstown line was later renamed Line 5 Eglinton and officially given the colour of orange.
In June 2013,
Toronto City Council
Toronto City Council is the governing body of the municipal government of Toronto, Ontario. Meeting at Toronto City Hall, it comprises 25 city councillors and the mayor of Toronto. The Toronto City Council 2022–2026, current term began on Nove ...
again debated having the Scarborough line replaced with an extension of Line 2 Bloor–Danforth north to Sheppard Avenue along a different right of way. Metrolinx issued a letter to Toronto City Council indicating it would cease work on the Scarborough portion of the line, because its position strayed from the original LRT agreement.
The subway alternative would cost between $500million and $1billion more than converting the Scarborough line to use the same rolling stock as the Eglinton Crosstown line be so it could be a continuation of that line. ''
The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...
'' reported that Scarborough councillors had argued that providing Scarborough residents with light rail, not heavy rail, treated them as "second-class citizens".
Two competing subway plans were proposed to replace Line 3. TTC chair
Karen Stintz proposed extending Line 2 Bloor–Danforth to the east before turning north, with three new stations at Lawrence Avenue and McCowan Road (primarily to serve the
Scarborough Hospital's General Campus), at Scarborough Town Centre and then at Sheppard Avenue East and McCowan Road, where it would connect to the Sheppard East LRT. Transportation Minister
Glen Murray made an alternative proposal to extend Line 2 along the Line 3 route but have it terminate at Scarborough Town Centre. Under the Murray plan, there would be only two stations and there would be no direct connection with the then-proposed Sheppard East LRT. The Murray plan would have required the relocation of Kennedy station as a new northbound curve from the existing Kennedy station would have been too tight for subway trains. It would also have required the complete shutdown of the line during construction, something that the Stintz plan avoided.
On October 8, 2013, Toronto City Council voted 24–20 to replace the Scarborough line with a three-station extension of the Bloor–Danforth subway line. Council chose the Stintz plan for the extension.
In 2013, the rejected LRT proposal would have provided a line with seven stops serving 47,000 residents within walking distance. The selected 3-stop subway extension would be long, serving 14,000–20,000 residents within walking distance. In 2013, the LRT was estimated to cost $1.48 billion to build versus $3.56 billion for the Line 2 extension;
both estimates would subsequently increase.
Converting Line 3 to light rail would require the complete shutdown of the line while extending Line 2 could occur without requiring a Line 3 shutdown. Circa 2013, this was promoted as a major benefit of the Line 2 extension over a conversion to light rail. At the time, the TTC estimated it could keep Line 3 operating until 2026; however, in February 2021, the TTC recommended replacing Line 3 with buses, thus eliminating that benefit.
A remaining benefit of the subway option is that it would eliminate the need to change trains at Kennedy station.
In June 2016, city planning staff proposed the elimination of two of the three stops along the planned Scarborough Subway Extension, which would have seen Line 2 Bloor–Danforth terminate at Scarborough Town Centre in order to free up funding for a proposed
Crosstown East LRT line extension of Line 5 Eglinton. The eliminated intermediate stops were at Lawrence Avenue and Sheppard Avenue.
Subsequently, the cost estimate for the one-stop subway extension increased to $3.2billion, leaving the Crosstown East LRT unfunded. Given the rising cost for the subway extension and the loss of funding for the LRT line, a group of city councillors led by
Josh Matlow reopened the subway versus LRT debate. Matlow proposed scrapping the one-stop subway extension in order to provide funding for 24 LRT stops on two LRT lines within Scarborough. TTC CEO
Andy Byford said the cost of the LRT line following the Line 3 route may have risen to as high as $3billion because of "delays and redesign" since 2013,
but Brad Ross, also of the TTC, warned of "caveats around numbers and assumptions" associated with that estimate.
After Council's vote, Byford admitted that the cost estimates for "delays" was unnecessary,
which assumed the LRT's completion would be in 2026, the same date as the subway option. However, according to Michael Warren, a former TTC chief general manager, the LRT could have been completed in 2020 at a cost of $1.8billion, an estimate not presented to City Council when it voted.
There was also the issue of whether there would be space for both expanded GO service and an LRT north of Kennedy station; however, Metrolinx subsequently denied there would be such a problem.
On July 13, Toronto City Council voted down Matlow's proposal by a margin of roughly 2 to 1.
Councillor
Glenn De Baeremaeker justified the subway extension saying "Scarborough residents need the same access to a subway system that everybody else already has."
Mayor Tory was concerned that switching from subway to LRT would delay transit improvements in Scarborough, and might not get support from senior levels of government.
In September 2013, Metrolinx prepared a draft report comparing the subway and LRT options concluding that the subway option was "not a worthwhile use of money." Metrolinx had declined a TTC request to give an opinion prior to City Council's July 2016 vote.
In 2017, the estimated cost of the one-stop Line 2 extension was $3.35billion, which increased to $3.9billion by April 2019.
On April 10, 2019, Premier Doug Ford announced that the province would revert the extension back to the three-stop proposal at an estimated cost of $5.5billion with an estimated completion date between 2029 and 2030.
Line 2 would also receive new subway trains as part of the extension to replace the existing T1-series trains.
Replacement bus service
On April 10, 2019, Ontario premier
Doug Ford
Douglas Robert Ford Jr. (born November 20, 1964) is a Canadian politician and businessman who has served as the 26th and current premier of Ontario and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party since 2018. He represents the Toronto rid ...
announced that Line 3 Scarborough would be replaced by a three-stop extension of Line 2 Bloor–Danforth to be completed by 2030.
However, on December 10, 2020, Toronto mayor
John Tory stated that Line 3 was likely to fail and be taken out of service before the Scarborough Subway Extension was completed, with the failure possibly happening several years before completion.
At that point, the Line 3 vehicles were 35 years old, a decade past their 25-year life expectancy, and had become unreliable and difficult to maintain, leading to reduced service and frequent service interruptions. The TTC was looking into an alternative solution of replacing Line 3 with bus service.
In February 2021, the TTC recommended shutting down Line 3 permanently in 2023 and replacing it with bus service. The TTC rejected doing a third overhaul of the line because it would cost $522.4million and might not improve its reliability. The TTC offered two bus replacement options: purchase 60 hybrid buses by 2023 for $374.8million or reduce the number of spares for maintenance, deferring the purchase of new buses until 2027 to 2030, at a cost of $357.4million.
In April 2022, the TTC recommended that the Line 3 right-of-way between Kennedy and Ellesmere stations be converted into a dedicated busway after the Line 3 closure. There would be stops along the right-of-way at Mooregate Avenue / Tara Avenue (approximately halfway between Eglinton Avenue and Lawrence Avenue), Lawrence Avenue East and Ellesmere Road. Between the proposed Ellesmere stop and Scarborough Centre station, buses would operate along Ellesmere Road and Brimley Road. Midland and McCowan stations, along with the connecting guideway, would be permanently shut down as they were deemed not usable for a busway. The busway would operate until the opening of the Line 2 Scarborough subway extension, after which its disposition was not known.
By August 2023, newly elected mayor
Olivia Chow had promised to build the busway, which was estimated to cost $55million. The project is estimated to take two years to complete.
By the fourth quarter of 2023, the TTC planned to set up dedicated bus lanes via Kennedy Road (northbound) and Midland Avenue (southbound) to run buses express between Kennedy and Scarborough Centre stations. Bus lanes would be painted red and transit signal priority would be implemented.
An additional $60million would be required to modify the bus platforms at Kennedy and Scarborough Centre stations.
With the dedicated lanes, a trip between Kennedy and Scarborough Centre stations would take 17 to 22 minutes versus 15 minutes using the future busway. The duration of the same trip on Line 3 was 10 minutes.
Work on the dedicated bus lanes was expected to be completed by November 19, 2023, when Line 3 had been scheduled to shut down. However, due to the derailment of a Line 3 train on July 24, 2023, the TTC decided to end Line 3 service three months earlier. The dedicated bus lanes began service on August 26, 2023, without the bus lane work having been fully completed. Up to 70 buses per hour will use the dedicated lanes.
By January 2024, the estimated cost of converting the Line 3 right-of-way into a bus roadway had increased by $12million to $67.9million. Planning was 60 percent complete. If approved by city council, work would start in 2025 for completion in 2027.
The TTC is implementing bus replacement service in phases as follows:
Reuse of infrastructure
One of the TTC's redevelopment proposals for the Line 3 lands was to convert the corridor, including the elevated section between Midland and McCowan stations, into a
linear park
A linear park is a type of park that is significantly longer than it is wide. These linear parks are strips of public land running along canals, rivers, streams, defensive walls, electrical lines, or highways and Esplanade, shorelines. Examples o ...
. This proposed park would be similar to the
High Line in the New York City borough of
Manhattan
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
.
In May 2024, it was announced that a stretch of the former Line 3 right-of-way, between Kennedy station and the closed Ellesmere station, would be converted into the "
Line 3 Busway". Demolition of original track has started in 2024,
and construction was expected to start in 2025, with the busway planned to begin operation in 2027. The busway was planned to remain in service after the Scarborough Subway Extension opened in order to provide extra rapid transit.
References
External links
*
Scarborough Subway Extension (SSE)about three-stop SSE, published by Metrolinx
Line 2 Subway Scarboroughabout cancelled plan for one-stop SSE, published by City of Toronto
The future of TTC's Line 3 Scarborough (SRT)about bus replacement for Line 3, published by the TTC
{{Big Move RT
ART people movers
Linear motor metros
Railway lines opened in 1985
Railway lines closed in 2023
1985 establishments in Ontario
2023 disestablishments in Ontario
Transport in Scarborough, Ontario
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Linear induction motors
Rapid transit lines in Canada
Standard-gauge railways in Canada