There's been some chatter on the Finch West LRT thread about if/how it should be extended east to serve Seneca College. I propose an network alternative to provide service to Scarborough at a much better value than what has been proposed officially.
1) Line 4 would curve upwards east of Fairview Mall, running elevated in the 404 ROW, and terminating in a new station on Seneca College campus. This line is really just too expensive to bring all the way into Scarborough and this is a cheap option to get great transit service to Seneca without extending the Finch LRT all the way east.
2) Assuming the Ontario Line north extension to Don Mills station is a no brainer, curve the line east along Sheppard to Agincourt GO in an elevated alignment. The OL is just much cheaper per km to build-out over long distances compared to TTC-spec'd subway and more flexible with curves. The OL would then run elevated along the Stoufville GO ROW and existing SRT ROW to reach STC. I see this line running elevated from there on Progress Ave over to Centennial College, along the 401 ROW, then up Neilson Rd to Malvern Centre, replacing the last leg of the planned ECLRT East extension. The cost of this OL extension from Don Mills to Malvern would probably cost the same as extending Line 4 to McCowan and serve waay more trip generators.
3) Build out the Finch East RapidTO line (BRT) from Yonge to Malvern Centre.
4) (Too late but...) Trim the Line 2 Scarborough extension back to STC instead of Sheppard/McCowan and use the budget savings to pay for Item 1).
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