Could Scarborough's LRT become a busway? Council to vote on future of aging line this week

The future of transit in Scarborough will roll onto the agenda at city hall this week as councillors consider ways to replace the suburb's aging light-rail line.

The SRT is being replaced with buses until the Scarborough subway extension is complete in 2030. But with the light-rail service being retired this fall, city council needs to approve a plan to replace it.

Last week, a key city committee approved a plan to finalize the bus routes that will serve the 35,000 users per day who currently take the line, which connects to the Bloor-Danforth subway. Toronto city staff recommended a series of priority bus lanes on a number of roadways and the addition of some intersection changes.

Council wants a dedicated busway that runs along the same path as the SRT out of the flow of traffic on local roads. That means it would run faster than those priority lanes. 

But the dedicated busway could be years away and could depend on receiving more than $60 million from the province.

In the meantime, council is being asked to approve a $7-million series of priority bus lanes on local roads.

Transit advocates push for dedicated busway

Nevertheless, Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie and the five other Scarborough councillors are also asking council to vote to continue planning work on the dedicated busway.

Transit advocates want the dedicated busway, saying it would save riders 10 minutes a trip.

The city's executive committee voted last week to approve the priority lanes, but are also asking the province to pay $2.9 million to finish design work on the busway.

Days later, McKelvie said she spoke with TTC CEO Rick Leary and asked him to find the cash in the transit agency's budget to finish the work. He said this week the work to find that funding is underway and council will receive an update.

"We want to come up with that $2.9 million to move forward with the 100 per cent design," he said.

City staff say it will cost about about $60 million to build the busway, but that price tag is likely to rise because that figure is based on preliminary design work. TTC chair Jon Burnside said he expects costs will increase on the project.

"We still need at least $60 million. And that's a very conservative estimate. In my opinion, we know that costs are always much higher than estimated," he said. "We're going to need help from the province and the federal government."

Fate of line becomes mayoral byelection issue

The fate of the SRT replacement has become a campaign issue in the mayoral byelection.

Last week, Olivia Chow vowed to replace the SRT with the busway if elected, saying council can't wait for help from other governments. Ana Bailão and Mitzie Hunter also pledged to build the busway if elected mayor.

And some of that rhetoric is certain to make its way onto the council floor, with three sitting councillors running for the city's top job: Josh Matlow, Brad Bradford and Anthony Perruzza.

Matlow pitched his plan for expanded transit in Scarborough on Tuesday. It would include two new light-rail lines and include a plan to build the busway to replace the SRT. 

Perruzza said transit riders in the suburb can't afford to wait seven years until the Scarborough subway extension is built for better transit options.

"Every time it comes to Scarborough, there's never enough money," he said. "There's always more conversation, more study, more delay."

Mayoral candidate Chloe Brown, who finished third in the 2022 vote, said if elected she would reorganize the city's transit planning to help better integrate Scarborough's system. She would also create priority bus lanes to help better connect the suburb with the existing GO Transit rail line.

"We need to make better transit networks within Scarborough … so that it can be a healthy, not separate municipality, but that it has the equal resources of downtown Toronto," she said.

Brown was critical of the approach of the current and past councillors running for the role and their solutions to Scarborough's transit needs over the past 10 years.

"It's been a decade of just watching them repaint issues, repurpose them," she said.

Housing, homelessness also on council agenda

Besides the Scarborough RT report, the council agenda is packed.

Councillors are set to debate a number of measures aimed at addressing homelessness in the city, including a proposed change to the threshold that triggers openings for its warming centres.

The city will receive an update on its affordable housing plan and a request that councillors give the go-ahead to a zoning change which would permit multiplexes across the city. That would push aside rules that effectively banned such units from some parts of Toronto.

Council will also consider a number of reports related to their climate change initiatives. The city has set ambitious targets to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 45 per cent of its 1990 levels by 2025, 65 per cent by 2030 and to be net zero by 2040.

The meeting is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, but could continue into Friday if needed.