Growing support to scrap Scarborough RT, councillors says
Growing support to scrap Scarborough RT, councillors says. A Scarborough RT train makes its way into the Scarborough Town Centre. File photo
Support is building to scrap the Scarborough RT in 2015 and replace it with a light-rail line - even though that would stretch out a painful construction period along the route, Scarborough Centre Councillor Michael Thompson says.
The RT, an aging monorail system from Kennedy Station to McCowan Road, is nearing the end of its working life.
Scarborough councillors agreed to support an RT upgrade to a new generation of technology - with larger trains similar to those on Vancouver's SkyTrain system - but Thompson said that was before Toronto's Transit City plan, which promises, eventually, a complete city-wide light-rail network.
Thompson said light rail is better and it's not in Scarborough's interests to have a rapid-transit system which, like the current RT, doesn't match anything else in Toronto.
"Scarborough is sick and tired of orphan technology," Thompson told Scarborough Community Council last week.
"We know (the Scarborough) RT is having problems related to cold weather. The technical problems will not be solved (by the upgrade)," he argued.
But Thompson, who maintains research shows the city's chosen light-rail technology performs well in cold countries such as Sweden, added construction time for the upgrade is an estimated eight months, compared to three-years for a light-rail makeover.
The work and disruption of the line could also force major inconveniences. Though later saying he heard it as unofficial "chatter," Thompson mentioned a "possibility exists Brimley (Road) would be closed to cars altogether and only buses allowed" during RT construction.
Scarborough councillors decided to ask the TTC and provincial agency Metrolinx for a report on light-rail conversion of the RT - which, including an optional extension to Malvern, may cost more than $1 billion to build.
They also asked for an update on the Transit City plan and impacts it may have on Scarborough.
While lending support to a TTC recommendation for the Sheppard East light-rail connection at Don Mills Station - a tunnel under Hwy. 404 instead of a short Sheppard subway extension to Consumers Road - councillors seized the chance to re-affirm their support for extending the Sheppard East LRT to the Toronto Zoo.
TTC officials have said the zoo extension was left out of the Sheppard East environmental assessment (EA) so it could finish quicker.
But several Scarborough councillors, Glenn De Baeremaeker among them, aren't satisfied with the line's current terminus at Sheppard and Meadowvale Avenue, "where there's a gas station and nothing else," De Baeremaeker said.
Unlike the zoo, the Meadowvale site has "virtually no place to park," he added. "You need somewhere that's warm in the winter, has washrooms, a Kiss 'n' Ride."
Scarborough-Agincourt Councillor Norm Kelly also voiced support for extending a branch line to Scarborough Town Centre, a place he considers "the key mobility hub" in Toronto's east end. That extension was also not included in the EA.
Asked to comment on when its own recommendations and construction-time estimates would be ready for the RT, the TTC said through a spokesperson Tuesday, Sept. 22, that it continues to review them.
"The TTC hopes to resolve some key scope issues by the end of the year, which may include the selection of the preferred technology," a statement said, adding that, "a plan for bus service (during construction) has yet to be developed, so the TTC is not in position to comment on potential road impacts."
Though the TTC says the alignment decision for Sheppard East LRT at Don Mills "resolves the last outstanding matter related" to the project EA, a precise starting date for construction, promised for this fall, is not known.
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