Toronto wants province to reimburse TTC for $2.9M needed for Scarborough busway design

Toronto city council has decided it will ask the Ontario government to reimburse the TTC for $2.9 million that the transit agency will spend to complete design work for a dedicated busway on the Scarborough Rapid Transit route.

Council voted to make the request during itsmeeting on Thursday. City staff told council that about 30 per cent of the design work on the busway has been completed and the $2.9 million is needed to complete it.

Coun. Michael Thompson, who moved the motion, said Scarborough residents need "better transit opportunities" once the Scarborough RT is shut down later this year.

According to the TTC, the aging Scarborough RT is to be decommissioned by the end of the year. The Scarborough subway extension, which is currently being constructed, will replace the service in 2030.

TTC CEO Rick Leary told council that it would have cost $500 million to keep the Scarborough RT going until the subway extension was finished.

Leary said the TTC, at its June 12 board meeting, will outline how it will explain the upcoming transit changes to Scarborough residents. He said a communications campaign that will continue for six months will be made public at the meeting.

A city staff report says:"The detailed design, construction and implementation of the busway are subject to funding availability. Once funded, converting the SRT right-of-way to a dedicated busway is expected to take at least two years."

The report says there were about 35,000 daily customers on the Scarborough RT before the pandemic and an estimated 22,000 dailyriders in 2022 who would be using express buses after the transitlineis decommissioned by the end of 2023.