An LRT Network remains the best way to get Scarborough moving

By Shaun Cleaver

Scarborough transit riders know how difficult it is to get around Scarborough. This is precisely why there is an urgent need for a network of rapid transit that counters the problems we face today:

infrequent and unreliable service,
transit that is stuck in traffic, and
a system that is oriented towards sending people downtown.

We can fix all of these problems if we just build out the LRT lines that have already been designed for Scarborough. In order to get around Scarborough, we need to start building the Scarborough, Sheppard and Malvern LRTs now.

Right now there are two proposals (Smart Track, Scarborough Subway Extension) to increase rapid transit in Scarborough that could improve some things, but are only designed to move people downtown and are expensive. Furthermore, they are stuck in the idea that transit should be “moved out of the way” of cars.

Those of us who ride transit want to be able to easily travel along Sheppard East to Malvern, to UTSC, to Kingston-Galloway, and to Centennial College. And we want to travel easily between these places, not only to be able to get to them from the subway.

We know that 40 of us riding in a bus or 150 of us riding in an LRT vehicle are not “in the way” of other people: we use space more efficiently than the average of 1.1 people who ride in a car. The Scarborough LRT has its own track. In other places the LRT is designed to use its own share of the road, something that will get all people moving faster. In much of the network designed for Scarborough, the LRT is above ground on a platform and in some places it is in a tunnel. This is part of the advantage of an LRT; unlike a subway it can come to the surface and therefore get to many more places. In order to allow us to get to these many more places we need to start building LRTs now.

You can sign our petition for a rapid transit network here

Read our position statement on the Scarborough Subway Extension here.

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