Here’s a first look at the Scarborough busway. For residents, it follows years of sluggish commutes - Toronto Star
The new Scarborough busway will open this week, three years after the Scarborough RT was decommissioned.
TTC CEO Mandeep Lali, Councillor Paul Ainslie, Mayor Olivia Chow and Councillor Michael Thompson present the new Scarborough busway.
Three years after the Scarborough RT was decommissioned, transit riders will once again travel along the line’s abandoned tracks — but this time the view will be different.
The new Scarborough busway will open Wednesday and will run four kilometres from Kennedy Station to Scarborough Centre using the old right-of-way of the Scarborough RT and priority bus lanes along Ellesmere Road. The TTC has said the busway will help carry more than 100,000 riders each week, was completed early and under budget and will save some commuters “more than an hour a week” on their trips.
The opening follows years of frustrations for riders after the Scarborough RT was decommissioned in 2023. Shuttle buses were temporarily introduced, followed by a replacement bus network.
At a preview of the line on Monday, Mayor Olivia Chow touted it as an investment into transit in the area.
Mandeep Lali, TTC CEO during a media ride-along on new Scarborough Busway, on Monday.
“No lights, no congestion,” Chow said. “It connects Scarborough to the rest of the city, because no matter where you live, you should be able to get work, to an appointment or to see family and friends.”
TTC CEO Mandeep Lali said the line, originally scheduled to be finished in early 2027, was brought to him as a priority by Chow soon after he started at the agency in 2025.
The preview provided a look at how different the new busway is set to be from the service Scarborough commuters have had since 2023.
From Kennedy Station, the busway follows the route of former Line 3 up to Ellesmere Station. The TTC expects to save riders seven minutes between the stations.
On a newly paved road accessible only to buses, the vehicles will be able to reach speeds up to 50 km/h. The trip clocks in around five minutes and 40 seconds without stops between stations.
The busway, lined by housing on one side and GO Train tracks on the other, is a stark contrast to the current service, with buses mixed alongside regular traffic on Kennedy Road and Lawrence Avenue East navigating potholes, congestion and turning lanes.
Looking out the window along the new busway, remnants of the old Scarborough RT still remain, like the abandoned station at Lawrence Avenue East, which the TTC decided to leave to save costs.
The route features three stops including a new stop at Tara and Moorgate avenues, Lawrence Avenue East and Ellesmere Road. Once buses arrive at Ellesmere, they will use existing bus priority lanes to reach Scarborough Centre station.
The new stretch will be served by nine bus routes. Service levels for the buses are not currently set to increase, but buses will run every “1.25 to 2.5 minutes,” Lali said.
The Scarborough RT ran for 38 years until a train on the line derailed in July 2023, due to loose bolts on the tracks, sending five people to the hospital. The TTC ultimately decommissioned the aging line later that year, leaving Scarborough further lacking in transit connections.
In the months following the derailment, Scarborough commuters were transported on shuttle buses before an official bus replacement plan went into effect in November.
Construction on the $93.8-million project to convert the defunct Scarborough RT into a busway began in July 2025 and wasn’t originally expected to be finished until 2027. In December, Chow announced that the dedicated busway would be complete by the end of September, more than six months earlier than expected, and a month before October’s municipal election.
