Line 3 will stay closed permanently after Scarborough RT derailment

How does Scarborough RT closure impact commutes? One transit user says shuttle buses replacing the now permanently closed Scarborough RT extends her commute by an hour.

Service will not resume on Scarborough's Line 3 following a derailment last month, officials confirm.

The train, whose service was originally scheduled to end on Nov. 18, will now be decommissioned.

A month ago, on July 24, a Scarborough Rapid Transit (SRT) train car derailed near Ellesmere Station, sending five people to hospital with minor injuries. The train has been out of service ever since as officials investigated the incident.

The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) said in the days following the derailment that Line 3 would not be operational for a few weeks, with shuttle buses running in the meantime.

“A comprehensive review, that includes the participation of industry-leading consultants, is still underway,” officials said in the news release issued Thursday. “However, given the time required to complete the review, the decision has been made to permanently close the line and begin to implement elements of the replacement plan.”

Among these measures include providing frequent, high-capacity bus service.

As of Aug. 22, TTC contractors and the city’s transportation services department started installing temporary road signs to establish bus-only lanes.

Starting Aug. 26, the new shuttle service will start running. There will be one curb lane southbound on Midland Avenue and another northbound on Kennedy Road between Eglinton Avenue and Ellesmere Road.

“Scarborough residents deserve so much better. It’s sad that the Scarborough SRT is gone. What I’m doing is to say to TTC, every moment you waste, is not acceptable. Full speed ahead,” Mayor Olivia Chow said during Thursday’s special meeting of the Executive Committee, which was called to figure out how to handle the city’s financial pressures.

“Let’s make sure that we plan for the busway corridor right on the RT line. Let’s make sure people getting on those buses, the 20,000-plus people everyday, get it as fast as possible (with) the type of service they have.”

The Scarborough RT had exceeded its lifespan by a decade and was set to be decommissioned entirely on Nov. 18. The city and TTC staff had been working toward a Nov. 19 restart for bus replacement along the 6.4-kilometre SRT route prior to the derailment, with buses running between Scarborough Centre and Kennedy stations southbound on Midland Avenue and northbound on Kennedy Road.

Now, officials say they’re looking at other measures to make on-street improvements while also setting up a temporary bus staging area in the north side of Kennedy Station as construction of the new bus terminal carries on. Once completed in November, eight bus routes will run through the station, “eliminating” commuters’ need to transfer.

“It’s a good news on the shuttle side, it’s a bit of a sad day of course, I grew up in Scarborough and I used to ride the RT, and now we have to say goodbye to it,” TTC spokesperson Stuart Green told CP24 Thursday. “There was too much uncertainty about it, and we do have certainty about the shuttle service now.”

In the long run, officials say buses will run in in a designated lane along the Line 3 corridor until Line 2’s east subway extension opens, adding the TTC will look into how it can remove the existing track and power systems and build this right-of-way sooner.

Prior to the official announcement, transit advocacy group TTCriders held a memorial service for the Scarborough RT, to “commemorate” and “remember” its life, and call for solutions, including but not limited to installing bus-only lanes and obtaining provincial funding for free GO transit to TTC transfers.

“We’re quite focused on Scarborough because its very heavily pinned on the bus network, that’s our commitment,” Green said.

- With files from CP24's Joanna Lavoie