14 Comments September 25, 2013 at 12:30 pm

cityscape

Next Stop, Scarborough

The current controversy over subways is nothing new for Scarborough. Area residents and politicians have been debating public transit for more than half a century.

By Jamie Bradburn

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278798 Danforth Bus Lines, bus #64, in front of garage, Danforth Avenue, south side, between Elward Boulevard and August Avenue; looking north across Danforth Avenue, 1954. Photo by James Salmon. Toronto Public Library. Prior to the formation of Metropolitan Toronto in 1954, several private operators provided bus service to the suburbs. <a href="http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/Toronto/IBL/danforth.htm">Danforth Bus Lines</a> began serving Scarborough with a route running from the Toronto city limit at Danforth and Luttrell avenues to Birch Cliff in 1926. During the Second World War, Danforth Bus Lines was joined by East York-based <a href="http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/Toronto/IBL/hollinger.htm">Hollinger Bus Lines</a>, which offered a route to serve the growing industrial area along Eglinton Avenue. 20130925danforthbus https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925danforthbus-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925danforthbus.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925danforthbus.jpg 1000 655 [] https://torontoist.com/2013/09/next-stop-scarborough/slide/20130925danforthbus/ 20130925danforthbus 0 0

278799 Advertisement, the Globe and Mail, June 23, 1954. When Metro Toronto was created, the TTC was directed to absorb the independent suburban bus lines. As the TTC prepared to operate in its newly acquired territory, it irritated suburban politicians by announcing a zone-based fare system in May 1954. Scarborough Reeve Oliver Crockford accused the transit provider of “gross ignorance” in charging his citizens more to ride into the city (it cost as much as 22-1/2 cents to head into the central zone, which was more than twice the regular 10-cent fare). “It’s about time Metropolitan Council got up on its haunches and told TTC officials they can’t dominate suburban citizens the same way they have citizens of Toronto,” Crockford told the Globe and Mail. “Eventually the TTC will get fares so high that it will be cheaper to take taxis from the suburbs.” Countering Crockford’s hyperbole was the Star’s editorial on fare zones. “There are suburbanites who favoured ‘metropolitanization’ with an altogether too hopeful idea of advantages which would accrue to them in transportation and other services. There is no magic in the word ‘metropolitan’ to make it possible to provide services at less than cost.” The TTC maintained use of fare zones until the early 1970s. 20130925ttcad1954 https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925ttcad1954-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925ttcad1954.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925ttcad1954.jpg 552 627 [] https://torontoist.com/2013/09/next-stop-scarborough/slide/20130925ttcad1954/ 20130925ttcad1954 0 0

278800 Map of TTC service changes, the Toronto Star, June 8, 1954. The TTC made numerous adjustments when it assumed control of its new suburban routes on July 1, 1954. Scarborough saw the longest route cut: the municipality lost service along Eglinton Avenue between Brimley and Kingston roads due to lack of demand. The map pictured here illustrates the changes. 20130925busmap https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925busmap-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925busmap.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925busmap.jpg 1000 495 [] https://torontoist.com/2013/09/next-stop-scarborough/slide/20130925busmap/ 20130925busmap 0 0

278801 Generalized form of rapid transit extensions projected for Metropolitan Toronto area, 1959. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1567, Series 648, File 49. You may recognize a few still-unrealized lines on this map. These projections suggest that Scarborough’s transit future included an extension of the Bloor-Danforth subway line and the northeast track of a prototype Downtown Relief Line. 20130925map1959 https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925map1959-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925map1959.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925map1959.jpg 1000 803 [] https://torontoist.com/2013/09/next-stop-scarborough/slide/20130925map1959/ 20130925map1959 0 0

278802 Opening of the Bloor-Danforth subway extensions at Warden station, May 10, 1968. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1567. Series 648, File 244, Item 1. Strike up the band—subway service arrives in Scarborough! Around 1,000 VIPs rode the Bloor-Danforth line during special runs on May 10, 1968, to celebrate the opening of two extensions: Keele Street to Islington Avenue in the west, and Woodbine Avenue to Warden Avenue in the east. The TTC estimated that the average commute from Warden and St. Clair avenues to Queen and Yonge streets dropped from 45 minutes to 24. 20130925wardenopening https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925wardenopening-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925wardenopening.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925wardenopening.jpg 1000 1008 [] https://torontoist.com/2013/09/next-stop-scarborough/slide/20130925wardenopening/ 20130925wardenopening 0 0

278803 Opening of the Bloor-Danforth subway extensions at Warden station, May 10, 1968. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1567. Series 648, File 244, Item 46. Regular service began on May 11, 1968. There were hiccups—the commuter parking lot at Warden wasn’t ready for prime time—and some riders complained about overcrowding at Bloor-Yonge Station during the extended line’s first rush hour. But others were pleased. “I’ll save the time and money I would have spent for gasoline,” commuter Gordon Morton told the Globe and Mail. “I’ve waited a long time for this.” 20130925wardenopening2 https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925wardenopening2-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925wardenopening2.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925wardenopening2.jpg 1000 1005 [] https://torontoist.com/2013/09/next-stop-scarborough/slide/20130925wardenopening2/ 20130925wardenopening2 0 0

278804 Map of proposed Scarborough rapid transit line, the Toronto Star, January 29, 1975. Among the recommendations of a January 1975 report issued by a joint provincial-Metro task force on the region’s transportation needs was a high-speed streetcar line running from Kennedy Road to Scarborough Town Centre, Malvern, and the proposed Seaton development at the north end of Pickering. Scarborough officials envisioned the recently developed Scarborough Town Centre area as a transit hub that would spur development and bring in up to 25,000 jobs. Local officials favoured streetcars akin to an LRT system, but feared construction would happen too late to solve increasing road congestion. Premier William Davis proposed using Scarborough as a test case for elevated maglev trains. 20130925map1975 https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925map1975-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925map1975.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925map1975.jpg 600 990 [] https://torontoist.com/2013/09/next-stop-scarborough/slide/20130925map1975/ 20130925map1975 0 0

278805 Advertisement, the Toronto Star, November 20, 1980. Construction on the subway extension to Kennedy Road proceeded. The station opened in tandem with Kipling Station on November 21, 1980. Despite what the ad says, Premier William Davis was not on hand, because he had to be at Conn Smythe’s funeral. Minister of Consumer and Commercial Relations <a href="http://torontoist.com/2013/08/historicist-what-to-do-with-the-don-jail/">Frank Drea</a> stood in to help Scarborough Mayor Gus Harris open the station. Some TTC officials were angered by politicians who attended the inaugural ride to improve their chances of landing commission seats the following month. Things were quieter at Kennedy than at the other end of the line, where several high school students were protesting a bus route change that had lengthened their trip to Sherway Gardens. 20130925kennedyopening https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925kennedyopening-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925kennedyopening.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925kennedyopening.jpg 1000 1282 [] https://torontoist.com/2013/09/next-stop-scarborough/slide/20130925kennedyopening/ 20130925kennedyopening 0 0

278806 Scarborough RT departing from Midland station, December 6, 2009. Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexresurgent/4199589588/">Alex Resurgent</a> from the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/torontoist/">Torontoist Flickr Pool</a>. Though the Ontario Municipal Board approved construction of a new Scarborough transit line in September 1977, progress crawled. By 1981, the choice was down to two systems: an LRT line using the recently introduced CLRV streetcars (an option a TTC staff report favoured), or the Intermediate Capacity Transit System (ICTS) developed by the province. Scarborough Mayor Gus Harris thought there was “something screwy” when the TTC decided in favour of ICTS in June 1981. He suspected heavy provincial interference. Despite Harris’s reservations, Scarborough council voted 11-5 in favour of ICTS after a six-hour debate. Following a contest, the new line was dubbed the RT. Attempts to nickname it “Artie” failed to catch on. Among those who foresaw problems with “Artie” was transit advocate <a href="http://torontoist.com/author/stevemunro/">Steve Munro</a>. “A decision to proceed with the Scarborough ICTS places Toronto on a dangerous path,” he wrote in a September 1982 Globe and Mail article. “Once the network is begun, the impetus to continue will be great, even at high cost. The political will not to be proved wrong cannot be ignored.” Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexresurgent/4199589588/">Alex Resurgent</a> from the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/torontoist/">Torontoist Flickr Pool</a>. 20130925rtmidland https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925rtmidland-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925rtmidland.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925rtmidland.jpg 1000 750 [] https://torontoist.com/2013/09/next-stop-scarborough/slide/20130925rtmidland/ 20130925rtmidland 0 0: Photo by Alex Resurgent from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

278807 Snowy platform at Kennedy station, January 22, 2011. Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/alfredng/5388498336/">Alfred Ng</a> from the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/torontoist/">Torontoist Flickr Pool</a>. Problems plagued the RT from the start. The first four test vehicles were returned to the manufacturer when they developed uneven wheels. Control panel lights didn’t work properly, and keys were difficult to turn. Winter testing revealed snow removal issues. A decision to suspend service after 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and all day on Sunday was blamed on late delivery of vehicles. 20130925snowyplatform https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925snowyplatform-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925snowyplatform.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925snowyplatform.jpg 1000 742 [] https://torontoist.com/2013/09/next-stop-scarborough/slide/20130925snowyplatform/ 20130925snowyplatform 0 0

278808 Advertisement, the Toronto Star, March 19, 1985. Nevertheless, the RT <a href="http://www.thegridto.com/city/local-news/scarborough-transit-debate-goes-back-to-the-future/">opened to great fanfare</a> on March 22, 1985. Former critic Gus Harris called the occasion the “greatest day in the history of Scarborough.” The public enjoyed free rides the next day. The line’s honeymoon was short-lived. Neighbours who complained about the noise wound up with tax breaks. Despite early claims the line would be cheaper than a subway, rising costs killed plans to extend it to Malvern. The line was completely shut down for over two months in 1988 to reduce noise and replace the turning loop at Kennedy. In October 1987, Scarborough Controller Kenneth Morrish introduced a motion at Metro Council to ask the TTC to study the cost of replacing the RT with a subway. Morrish was irritated that a proposed line for Sheppard Avenue linking the centres of North York and Scarborough would be built as a subway. “If we don’t change to a subway,” Morrish noted, “we can’t complete a subway loop. I don’t like the idea of having to transfer from the Sheppard subway to the RT and then transfer back to the subway.” Morrish was understandably unhappy when a TTC report revealed that it would cost $350 million to convert the $196 million RT. 20130925utdcad https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925utdcad-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925utdcad.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925utdcad.jpg 800 1063 [] https://torontoist.com/2013/09/next-stop-scarborough/slide/20130925utdcad/ 20130925utdcad 0 0

278809 Map of the Let’s Move transit plan, published as part of the Sheppard Subway Environmental Assessment, 1992. Speaking of the Sheppard subway, it appeared well on its way to being part of Scarborough’s future at various points in time. Portions of the line were included in the Network 2011 plan of the mid-1980s, and Let’s Move in the early 1990s. Phase one should have been built to Victoria Park, but was pared back to Don Mills. Lobbying by North York Mayor Mel Lastman—who had opposed the proposed Scarborough transit line in the late 1970s—saved the remnant of the line from the fate Premier Mike Harris’s government dealt the Eglinton West subway, which was abruptly cancelled. 20130925letsmovemap https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925letsmovemap-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925letsmovemap.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925letsmovemap.jpg 1000 593 [] https://torontoist.com/2013/09/next-stop-scarborough/slide/20130925letsmovemap/ 20130925letsmovemap 0 0

278810 Mockup of an LRT vehicle, 2012. Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dtstuff9/8068455346/">dtstuff9</a> from the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/torontoist/">Torontoist Flickr Pool</a>. Adding LRT lines in Scarborough was a key component of the Transit City plan revealed by Mayor David Miller and TTC Chair Adam Giambrone on March 16, 2007. Under the initial proposal, new services were slated to be added for Sheppard Avenue, Eglinton Avenue, and along a route extending east of Kennedy Station, along Kingston Road and Morningside Avenue to Malvern. Later revisions planned an LRT replacement for the aging RT. The Star’s Jim Coyle called the proposal “probably the first announcement since amalgamation 10 years ago to genuinely treat the megacity as an entity and to assume that citizens in all of Toronto’s nooks and crannies—in farthest Etobicoke or Scarborough—are entitled to equal and adequate transit service.” Coyle also accurately predicted that history, money, and politics would prove Transit City’s downfall in Scarborough. Mockup of an LRT vehicle, 2012. Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dtstuff9/8068455346/">dtstuff9</a> from the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/torontoist/">Torontoist Flickr Pool</a>. 20130925lrvmockup https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925lrvmockup-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925lrvmockup.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925lrvmockup.jpg 1000 679 [] https://torontoist.com/2013/09/next-stop-scarborough/slide/20130925lrvmockup/ 20130925lrvmockup 0 0: Mockup of an LRT vehicle, 2012. Photo by dtstuff9 from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

278811 Photo by Christopher Drost/Torontoist. 20130925fordsitting https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925fordsitting-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925fordsitting.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130925fordsitting.jpg 640 427 {"copyright":"\u00a9 2012 CJD\/SHiFTdigital"} https://torontoist.com/2013/09/next-stop-scarborough/slide/20130925fordsitting/ 20130925fordsitting 0 0

If keeping track of the latest developments in the debate over public transit in Scarborough is making your head spin, we understand. The constant reversals (first light rail, then subways, then light rail again, then different subways) may be dizzying, but they’re nothing new. Arguments over how to provide service to residents east of Victoria Park Avenue have raged for years.

Since the TTC assumed responsibility for public transit in Scarborough during the mid-1950s, area politicians and residents have complained about not receiving the level of transit service they feel entitled to. Some complaints have been justified, while others have been characterized by divisiveness, fear, pandering, and hot air.

Step inside our image gallery for a ride through Scarborough’s often-controversial transit history.

Additional material from the February 26, 1953, May 28, 1954, May 13, 1968, September 2, 1982, October 12, 1987, and January 13, 1988 editions of the Globe and Mail, and the May 28, 1954, June 8, 1954, January 29, 1975, November 20, 1980, November 22, 1980, June 17, 1981, March 23, 1985, and March 17, 2007 editions of the Toronto Star.

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