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On July 24, 2023, 38 years of Line 3, the Scarborough RT, came to an ignoble end when a car came off the tracks just south of Ellesmere Station, four months ahead of the scheduled closure of the deteriorating line. Though the City of Toronto and the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) were hesitant to say so at the time, it was apparent that the July derailment meant Line 3’s permanent closure.
The City and the TTC were already planning for temporary bus lanes with a busway when the derailment took place. The interim first phase of the plan — new painted bus lanes on Kennedy Road, Midland Avenue, and Ellesmere Avenue — was completed in November, when Line 3 had been originally scheduled to close. Route 903, an express bus between Kennedy Station, Scarborough Centre, and Centennial College, was joined by several other routes from across northern and eastern Scarborough, all running express along Midland and Kennedy. Routes 129, 131, 133, 903, 939, 954, and 985, along with new express bus Route 938, use the new painted bus lanes for a direct ride to Kennedy Station.
The northbound curb lane on Kennedy Road and the southbound curb lane on Midland Avenue were converted by the City to bus and bicycle only lanes, with private motor vehicle drivers allowed to use them only to turn in and out of driveways and side streets.
So far, the service is running smoothly, with most drivers respecting the bright red paint. A dedicated left-turn lane at Ellesmere and Brimley also helps buses move faster; motorists turning north to Brimley and Scarborough Town Centre must detour to Borough Approach West.
As the three-stop Scarborough subway extension of Danforth Line 2 will not likely open for another six or seven years, the TTC is planning for a new busway along part of the former Line 3 route. Once the tracks, electrical equipment, and guideway are removed, a new two-lane bus driveway will be constructed between Kennedy and Ellesmere Station. There will be three stops: Tara Avenue, Lawence East Station, Ellesmere Station. The Tara Avenue stop will be brand new, connecting with the Meadoway Trail along the Gatineau Hydro Corridor and a pedestrian overpass between Tara and Mooregate Avenues.
At Lawrence East and Ellesmere, the bus stops will be located adjacent to the existing station structures, which will not be demolished at this time. At Ellesmere, the buses will exit to the driveway, then follow Ellesmere Avenue towards Scarborough Centre, following the existing interim routing.
Before the temporary reserved bus lanes were installed on Kennedy Road, etc., the TTC estimated the transit travel time between Malvern Town Centre and Kennedy Station to be 46 to 53 minutes, including a three-minute bus-to-bus transfer at Scarborough Centre Terminal. The combination of the direct one-seat ride and the new painted lanes reduced that to 42 to 47 minutes. With the busway complete, that trip will be reduced to 40 minutes, comparable to the travel time when Line 3 was still running.
Once the busway opens on the former RT route, the painted bus lanes on Kennedy and Midland will be removed.
Once the new Scarborough subway extension to Danforth Line 2 is complete, the TTC is considering maintaining the converted busway for restored 943 Kennedy Road Express service. With new residential growth planned for the Agincourt area, there will continue to be high demand for north-south bus service in central Scarborough.
Thanks to much political debate on how best to serve Scarborough residents (a subway extension versus LRT) and delays on getting construction started once the subway extension was chosen, Scarborough residents will have to take long bus rides for many years to come. The busway, once complete, will at least provide somewhat faster and more reliable service.
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Sean Marshall is an UrbanToronto member and a moderator, along with being a geographer, an urban issues advocate, and blogger with a particular speciality in transportation. You can read him at www.seanmarshall.ca
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