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The TTC announced in August that the long-awaited Scarborough Busway will open for service on September 30th of this year. The bus-only roadway replaces the former Scarborough Rapid Transit (RT) Line 3 (a number that will now be reused by the Ontario Line when it opens some years from now), which was deemed too dangerous to continue operating in 2023 following a derailment linked to years of deferred maintenance. The busway will reuse much of the RT's former alignment, with new roadway replacing the track.
Set to run four kilometres north from Kennedy Station, the eastern terminus of both Line 2 and Line 5, buses will operate off-street along the former RT alignment until they reach Ellesmere Road. From there, they will turn onto Ellesmere Road and run in dedicated bus lanes to reach the busway's northern terminus at Scarborough Centre.
The new busway does not make use of the elevated guideway that the Scarborough RT formerly travelled along between Midland and McCowan stations. The TTC decided it would not be feasible or worthwhile to repurpose the elevated structure for bus service; as a result, riders will experience slower trips as buses navigate multiple signalized intersections heading to and from the dedicated busway's northern entrance/exit. It remains unclear what will happen to the two-kilometre elevated guideway, which runs primarily behind industrial properties north of Ellesmere Road.
With the decision to abandon the guideway portion of the RT route, including its overpasses of major roadways and a branch of Highland Creek, the conversion of the former north-south rail alignment for bus service appeared nominally straightforward. Four kilometres of track would be removed, pavement laid in its place, a new stop was added at Tara Avenue halfway between Eglinton and Lawrence avenues, and existing stations at Lawrence and Ellesmere have been renovated to accommodate the lower boarding height of the TTC bus fleet compared to that of the RT vehicles. With Eglinton, Lawrence, and Ellesmere bridging over the north-south alignment that runs immediately beside GO Transit's Stouffville line, and no other intersecting roads here, buses on this section do not have to contend with with mixed-traffic from the city's street network on this section.
Even so, should the busway open on schedule on September 30, 2026, over three years will have passed since service on the Scarborough RT ended on July 24, 2023. TTC CEO Mandeep Lali noted that this opening date is six months ahead of the initial projected completion in early 2027. However, the TTC has provided no details regarding the roadblocks that caused a project consisting almost entirely of tearing up track and laying asphalt to take over three years. For context, constructing the initial 7.4 kilometres and 12 stations of Yonge Line 1 under downtown Toronto in the early 1950s took just four and a half years.
Now, the pending opening of the Scarborough Busway will significantly reduce travel times for thousands of daily commuters. Trips along the interim, on-street transit priority lanes on Kennedy Road and Midland Avenue can currently take up to 25 minutes each way. In its announcement, the TTC stated that a trip from Kennedy Station to Scarborough Centre will take just 15 minutes via the busway. While a marked improvement, this still represents a 50% increase in travel time compared to the Scarborough RT, which completed the same journey in 10 minutes. In some years time, all of this will be accomplished more quickly again once the Scarborough Subway Extension of Danforth Line 2 opens from the current terminus at Kennedy station to new terminus at Sheppard Avenue East and McCowan Road, with intermediate stations at Lawrence Avenue East and Scarborough City Centre.
UrbanToronto will continue to follow progress on the Scarborough Busway and the Scarborough Subway Extension set to subsume its role, but in the meantime, you can learn more about them from our Database files, linked below. If you'd like, you can join in on the conversations in the associated Project Forum threads or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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