Scarborough councillors pledge support for SRT-replacement busway after residents plead for action at City Hall

Shuttle buses planned when Scarborough Rapid Transit line shuts down this year

Toronto.com
May 10, 2023
Mike Alder

After hearing from young residents, the City of Toronto, Scarborough councillors and some mayoral candidates, appeared committed to at least finish designs for a busway along the Scarborough Rapid Transit route.

The TTC in April 2022 approved building an off-street busway between the Kennedy to Ellesmere SRT stations to assist riders after the line shuts down this year, but left unsettled who would pay the estimated $58.6-million cost or $2.9 million for remaining design work.

At Toronto council’s May 2 executive committee meeting, Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie, a Scarborough councillor, argued the city’s position was the province should pay all design and busway costs. “I don’t want to give them an out,” she said.

On May 8, however, McKelvie announced TTC CEO Rick Leary had pledged to cover design costs out of the commission’s budget, and that all six Scarborough councillors support building a busway and having the city do “everything it can to keep transit moving” during Scarborough Subway Extension construction.

“We've worked to make sure the work on the SRT conversion to a busway stays on track,” McKelvie added in a release.

Finishing the design will take a year, and building the busway another year or two, the meeting was told, but riders of the aging RT otherwise face seven or more years of shuttle buses and lengthened commutes which, deputants at the May 2 meeting said, will make some of the 35,000 daily RT riders opt for cars out of desperation.

Many speaking to the committee were students, including August Puranauth, a Toronto Metropolitan University undergraduate and TTCriders member who said if Toronto claims to be a transit-first city, it should give replacement buses for the SRT the strongest priority measures to help move them through traffic.

“We don’t have seven, eight or 10 years to wait,” he argued.

Scarborough North councillor Jamaal Myers said Scarborough already bears the burden of TTC service cuts, with 10 of 13 affected bus routes, and urged colleagues to build the busway whether the province pays or not.

“This is a moment when we as councillors have to step up,” said Myers, “because a lot of people are devastated by what’s coming.”

Mayoral candidates Anthony Perruzza, Olivia Chow, Ana Bailao, Mitzie Hunter and Josh Matlow all pledged to get the busway built. McKelvie said Scarborough councillors at the May 10 council meeting would ask colleagues to approve busway design work and that staff would provide an updated cost estimate by year’s end along with “an update on discussions with the province regarding funding.”