In the RT's case, a lot of that ridership is very synthetic. And everybody who lives in Scarborough knows it. Go stand outside McCowan. Tell me how much walk-in traffic there is. It's all riders getting off the buses one stop early so they can get a seat. Then the bus turns right into SC after McCowan. Midland repeats this on the other side of SC. I see zero reason for these stops to exist.
In fact, even if it were LRT, it's patently ridiculous to have grade separation east of McCowan when the route parallels the 134 Progress. It's actually even worse for some riders, because there was no stop proposed at Markham ever. Instead, everyone will be expected to walk up that hill in winter to catch the LRT at Centennial.
As bad as the one stop is, the LRT plan seems to be driven by, "Let's just build a bunch of stops to justify LRT."
No thought as to how riders actually using the existing system.
Ellesmere has a pathetic 1140 average daily ridership. This is half of Bessarion for crying out loud. Midland is 3020. Only beats Bessarion on the entire system. And that's with bus routes that feed them!
https://www.ttc.ca/PDF/Transit_Planning/Subway_ridership_2012-2013.pdf
How the heck is it justifiable to keep these stations open and slow down tens of thousands of other riders a day, when their bus routes can continue to Lawrence or SC and reach in literally 2-4 more minutes?
These stations don't even have enough ridership to justify their operating expenses.