TORONTO — The Toronto Transit Commission says it will not reopen the Scarborough RT rail line in the wake of last month’s derailment that sent five people to the hospital.
The route — an orphan in Toronto’s four-line subway system because of its use of a different type of equipment — was already scheduled to be shut down in November, and replaced with bus service while the Bloor-Danforth subway line is extended, a project expected to take until 2030. But in an announcement today (Aug. 24), the transit agency said that, given the amount of time that was going to be required to complete a review of the July 24 derailment, “the decision has been made to permanently close the line and begin to implement elements of the replacement plan. These measures will improve transit priority and operations, provide frequent, high-capacity bus service and ensure customers can plan their trips online in September.”
The review will still continue into the accident that saw the last car of a four-car train separate from the rest of the train and derailed [see “Five require treatment …,” Trains News Wire, July 24, 2023].
Work will begin Aug. 22 to create bus-only lanes and make other improvements for the long-term replacement bus service.
“It is essential to provide safe, reliable transit along this route, and that’s what the City and TTC staff are doing,” Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said. “The people of Scarborough deserve better. They need reliable and convenient transit while we wait for the Scarborough subway to open. The sooner we can have transit priority and a dedicated busway in place, the better it will be for the tens of thousands of people who normally rely on Line 3.” The route was used by about 30,000 people daily.
It’s an anticipated decision.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
An anticipated reply