On February 1, 2024, Mayor Olivia Chow announced her version of Toronto’s 2024 operating and capital budgets at Scarborough Town Centre Station. There are many parts to this budget, including a slight reduction in the proposed tax rate, but the location of the event was no accident.
After much hand-wringing, political gesturing and activism by would-be users, the uncertainty over the busway in the former Scarborough RT right-of-way is gone. Toronto will pay for the project, and the delaying tactic of waiting for provincial funding is over. The text below is from the Mayor’s proposed budget at pages 35-36.
This is a fairly common shuffle of funding allocations between projects, something that is relatively easy because:
- the amounts involved are small on the scale of the overall capital budget,
- some of the spending is beyond 2024, and
- the primary source is a placeholder for future as-yet uncommitted work.
What is needed now is a sense of urgency by the TTC to make every possible change in their project timetable to get things moving now. This could include:
- Identifying work that can proceed without the mini Environmental Assessment known as a “TPAP” that will consume six unexpected months. Obvious candidates for this are the removal of existing SRT infrastructure – track, power, lighting – and demolition work at Lawrence East Station so that buses can pass through the station.
- Examining whether the project can be split into south and north stages with the Lawrence to Eglinton section opening first. This would give some of the busway’s benefit including direct access to Kennedy Station as early as possible.
A change in focus is needed from delay, a common tactic in the Tory era to sweep budget problems under the rug, to creating the most expeditious project plan.
Transit planning should be about ambition and what we can achieve, not endless excuses and the deadly words “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow …”.
Steve Munro 
This is very good news, Chow is really getting things done in this city.
However, I don’t see the usefulness of the Tara stop on the busway, it just seems like an obstacle that will increase travel times, unless they want to use it as an emergency egress area for buses in case there is trouble further up the line.
They could save a few million removing that stop.
Steve: It’s an at grade stop. Definitely not millions, and travel time would only be affected (and then briefly) if someone wanted on or off at the stop.
LikeLiked by 1 person
> Steve: It’s an at grade stop. Definitely not millions
… but all three stops on this busway will be at-grade stops and the total cost I’m seeing here is $68m? So what _is_ the expensive part? Demolition of 4 km of track and infra? Building 4 km of roadway and crash barrier on GO side? 6 sets of concrete platforms and bus shelters?
Glad to see it’s happening though, hopefully they can get off their asses and make it happen faster.
Steve: Demolish the existing infrastructure. Build a new roadway that will be wider than the existing SRT corridor. Not trivial, but compared to a subway line, very small change. The stations themselves are not the cost, a big advantage of surface transit.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Do you know if the budget will allow for the 901 Airport-Eglinton Express?
Steve: I have seen no talk of a 901 in either the budget or the service plans.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great news. I am glad the busway gets the funding. It might be in use for quite a bit longer than the current projected date of subway completion.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Step 1 is simply asking the Minister of the Environment (etc.) to ask cabinet to waive the requirement for a TPAP, etc.
I’m not sure why the media isn’t asking the ministers and the TTC/mayor if that was done as soon as they realised the requirement existed.
LikeLiked by 1 person
A total waste of taxpayer monies. Not required once subway to Town Centre complete. Lands could be used for housing.
Steve: The land is right beside an active railway which will see considerably more service in coming years, and it is very unlikely housing site. We can debate the need for the road, but housing, no.
LikeLike
Steve: In your opinion; is this kind of relatively imaginative thinking coming primarily from [1] Olivia, [2] her close advisors, or [3] politicians who tend to be allied with her?
Steve: I think it’s a mixed bag with her advisors being the most important. Frankly things should not have gotten this far that it needed a last minute rescue in the mayor’s budget, but I suspect that the focus has been on the housing, homelessness and fiscal crises in the early months. There is a problem at TTC that the Board is too deferential to management, almost a cheering section, and this must change. Respect, yes, but send a clear message that finding ways to fix problems rather than more delay is important.
LikeLike
Is there a plan for what will end up happening to it once the subway is built?
Steve: Not yet. There is talk of retaining it for buses, but I am no sure just how much demand there would be for that with most routes diverted to stations on the extension. It could also be a bikeway which is more likely.
LikeLike
A bit of a crazier suggestion here: because it’s grade-separated, could the city perhaps use this corridor as a testing ground for, say, semi-autonomous bus platoons?
Steve: What’s the point of testing a technology we would never have cause to use, assuming that it ever works?
Do we have any other grade-separated bus corridors in Toronto, or will this be the only one?
Steve: It’s the only one.
LikeLike
They should make it into a streetcar way.
Steve: I suspect Swan Boats will show up there sooner than streetcars.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Will there be money to fix the bus knuckles at the bus stops? It would make the bus ride smoother for the transit user.
A smoother ride for the transit rider? We can’t do that. We need to save money. But there is money to fix potholes for the single-occupant autos.
LikeLike
Maybe there’s some info about how much the busway on the Hydro corridor to York U cost per km vs this, but it seems pretty costly, relative to just doing it, say on a really close and long and wide hydro corridor, which would be a very good place for a busway spine to help improve transit for all Scarborough as it’s running diagonally, is close to many real destinations, and also links to so many of the N/S routes. Plus it’s off-road so a busway wouldn’t affect the all-important votorist block, and could save money and be done quickly. But less interest in logic and effective use of capital, oh well. Maybe the Middle East will erupt more and have $4 a litre gasoline, which is likely where it should be for the climate emergency vs talking about it.
LikeLike
Other commenters express concern about the long term use of the busway after the subway’s eventual extension to STC, however, since the subway is taking folks to all points east and there’s literally tens of thousands living in the corridor between Birchmount and Brimley from Eglinton to Sheppard it could be a high capacity busway feeding into Kennedy running up to Agincourt Station.
Other routes, Midland, Brimley, etc..could also use the corridor as an express way to get to their regular routes too.
I definitely think the city should be exploring more high capacity busways given how vital buses are to the fabric of the city and as feeders to the larger transit network. Could use Hydro corridors, oversized stroads, or abandoned rail corridors, as some possibilities.
Steve: The corridor ends south of Ellesmere and completely new construction would be required to reach Sheppard and Agincourt Station. Neither Brimley nor Midland have frequent enough service to warrant splitting off an express branch that would jog west to the corridor, and local service would still be required over the existing routes.
LikeLike