I have a bit of a history with this line when I lived in Scarborough. I remember watching it being constructed, and how excited I was to be able to use it the day after it opened. Now if I take public transit to work I still take it. But it's always been a lame duck, and is due for replacement by 2015.

Spacing Wire discusses the Toronto Star's report on the possible replacements.

I don't know what's the best bet for this. I want to say there should be a subway. Everybody loves subways, but how to you justify spending 1.2 billion on a short extension like that? There is already a lot of capacity needed there. It's not like the Sheppard line where they hope building the line will help increase density. It's already fairly dense at the end of the line, and there is room for more. But I don't think they can justify building two subway extensions at the same time at nearly the same cost.

I would have been curious to see how much it would cost to extend the Sheppard subway to Scarborough Town Centre as an alternative. Considering the first section only cost 1 billion, I can't see it being much more expensive than extending the Bloor/Danforth line. Plus it has already been planned, and provides a connection to the future major transit hub at Agincourt Station.

I can't find it now, but there was a pdf of where the highest concentrations of SRT users originated. The biggest centres were from my old haunt in north Scarborough (around Kennedy/McCowan and Steeles and Malvern. I don't think a Subway would help these people very much, as they'd still have to find a way to Scarborough Town Centre.

I think the best way to serve the most people would be to start bulding a Light Rail Transit (LRT) system in Scarborough. There are already large dedicated right of ways all through Scarborough. There is the rail line they're currently twinned with for the SRT, which can no north past Steeles. There's the Finch Ave. hydro corridor which extends from the Zoo all the way to York University. The TTC still owns very sizable portions of the old Scarborough Expressway's routing. Not to mention how much flexibility there is in running LRT down the middle of wide avenues like Eglinton and Lawrence.

If I were in charge, the first step would be to upgrade the current SRT for LRT to realize the original intent of the line as the stub of a suburban network. The line would follow the current alignment to the Scarborough Town Centre. Then tracks can be laid straight up the rail right of way to the Agincourt GO station, and up to Milliken Station at Steeles. York Region would then have the option to extend the line at their own expense into Unionville, Markham, or even their proposed downtown Markham. They could even use it as a collector/express system with the current GO line.

The next step would be to extend the system to Malvern. There is still some right of way owned by the TTC from the original SRT extension plans, which goes all the way to Malvern Town Centre. The biggest reasons why the extension failed was because of the cost of crossing Markham Rd. and the 401, and because of potential noise complaints from residents who would be having the line literally in their backyards. I think they kicked themselves in the foot on that one. The TTC has sold off most of the land which was originally intended for the SRT's Malvern extension stations, which might pose a bit of a problem.

If a Malvern extension of the current line is no longer possible, I would at least extend the current line to Centennial College just past Markham Rd., and possibly just beyond to Milner Businesss Court (perhaps selfishly). I would then build along the Finch Ave. corridor, possbily just extending the current rail alignment to the corridor and across to Malvern.

This is useless without a map, isn't it?



Maybe something like this. It covers both high-volume trip origins, serves more people, and serves them better. I think it's the best of both worlds. Of course I included the Sheppard Subway extension, which is still very important. The good thing with this plan is it doesn't become redundant when the subway is eventually extended. On the contrary, it becomes even more important with LRT links at Warden.