Line 3 Scarborough
Line 3 Scarborough, originally known as Scarborough RT, was a medium-capacity rapid transit line that was part of the Toronto subway system of the Toronto Transit Commission in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The line ran entirely within the eastern district of Scarborough, encompassing six stations and of mostly elevated track. It was connected with Line 2 Bloor–Danforth at its southwestern terminus,, and terminated in the northeast at. Until its closure in July 2023, the system had a ridership of per year.
The rolling stock of Line 3 consisted of smaller, semi-automated, medium-capacity trains, rather than the larger heavy-rail subway trains used on other lines in the system. Designated by the Toronto Transit Commission as the S series, these were Intermediate Capacity Transit System Mark I trains built by the Urban Transportation Development Corporation. The trains were powered by linear induction motors and operated on tracks, unlike the heavy-rail subway lines and the Toronto streetcar system, which use the unique.
The line remained mostly unchanged from its opening in 1985 and contained two of the least-used stations in the system. Beginning in the late 2000s, Toronto City Council debated over competing plans to revitalize and expand the line, to convert its right-of-way for use by modern light rail vehicles, or to close the line and extend Line 2 Bloor–Danforth farther into Scarborough along a different route. In 2013, the council decided on a three-station extension of Line 2 to replace Line 3 along a different route. In 2016, in order to free up funds for another transit project, the city reduced the extension to include only one station, which was set to be completed by 2026. In 2019, Progressive Conservative premier Doug Ford reinstated the three-station Scarborough subway extension and committed to completing it by 2030, with all construction costs to be borne by the province.
The TTC planned for Line 3 to cease operations in November 2023, with shuttle buses running in place of Line 3 train service until the Line 2 Bloor–Danforth subway extension to the existing Scarborough Centre station opened for service, which was estimated to be in 2030. However, a train derailment in July 2023 resulted in the line permanently closing four months ahead of schedule. By March 2023, a plan existed to convert a portion of the existing right-of-way between Kennedy and Ellesmere stations into a bus right-of-way, including an additional stop at Mooregate Avenue / Tara Avenue, located near a pedestrian bridge that spans over the former Line 3 and GO Transit's Stouffville line between Eglinton Avenue and Lawrence Avenue. In 2023, the busway was targeted for completion by 2025.
Name
From when the line opened in 1985 until 2015, it was known as the Scarborough RT or SRT. The "RT" in Scarborough RT stood for "rapid transit". The name Scarborough Line was used on the official TTC website and 2014 TTC Ride Guide. In October 2013, the TTC announced plans to give the lines official numbers to help riders and visitors to navigate the system. The line was numbered 3, as it was the third rapid transit line to open in the system. New signage was installed in March 2014. In 2015, the name was simplified to Line 3 Scarborough.History
Proposal and construction
In 1972, the Government of Ontario announced the GO-Urban plan to build an intermediate capacity transit system across suburban Toronto, particularly in Scarborough and Etobicoke, using the experimental Krauss-Maffei Transurban. However, KraussMaffei was forced to abandon development when the West German federal government declined further funding. GO-Urban then used some of the technologies from the Transurban to develop a simpler steel-wheeled version, the ICTS system.During this period, the TTC had been working on plans to extend its own network with a series of streetcar systems using a new and greatly enlarged streetcar design, the Canadian Light Rail Vehicle. The Ontario government, in charge of GO Transit, was looking for a test site for the ICTS system and demanded that the TTC use it for one of their planned streetcar projects, selecting the Scarborough extension. The TTC initially refused to make the change, arguing it was both the wrong solution and that since the construction of the line had already commenced this would be a waste of money. However, as the Ontario government was providing 75 percent of the funding for the line, they changed their minds when the government threatened to cut the funding.
At Kennedy station, there are clues revealing that it was originally built for streetcar operation; it is possible to see old low-level streetcar platforms protruding under the current high-level platforms, and the loop to turn streetcars proved too sharp for safe operation of the ICTS cars, which did not have a reason to turn around, so the loop was replaced by a single-track Spanish solution-like crossover. Ontario wanted to develop and promote its new technology, which had been designed for a proposed GO Transit urban service known as GO-ALRT, first proposed in 1982. Changes to federal railway regulations had made the new system unnecessary for GO, so the government hoped to sell it to other transit services in order to recoup its investment.
Opening and service
The Scarborough line was formally opened to invited guests on March 22, 1985, and began revenue service on March 24, 1985. Three years after it opened, the TTC renovated its southwestern terminus at Kennedy station because the looped turnaround track, designed for uni-directional streetcars under the earlier plan and not needed for the bi-directional ICTS trains, was causing derailments; it was replaced with a single terminal track and the station was thus quasi-Spanish solution, with one side for boarding and another side for alighting, though the boarding side was also used for alighting during off-peak hours, weekends and holidays.When the line was approaching the end of its useful life, the TTC reduced the frequency of service in mid-September 2012 to reduce wear and tear on both the aging rolling stock and the infrastructure.
In 2015, the TTC started work on the cars to keep them operational until the line could be replaced by another mode of rail technology. This included shrink-wrapping the rolling stock with a blue vinyl finish to emphasize the line's colour and displaying the number 3, a linear diagram of the Scarborough line, and the TTC logo. The original "RT" logo was no longer featured on the trains, except when the Line 3 shrink wrap was removed but not re-applied yet. These were followed by interior upgrades, such as using coloured velour seating.
On December 13, 2016, Presto fare gates were installed at Lawrence East station, making all stations along this line Presto-enabled.
On April 18, 2017, the TTC awarded a $6.8-million contract to Bombardier to repair corrosion damage under the floors of the S-series cars. If the problem were not rectified, there would be the risk of serious structural damage to the cars. That would have prevented the cars from lasting until 2026 when the Scarborough subway extension was originally scheduled to replace Line 3. The repair work required service to be reduced from 6 four-car trains down to 5.
Closure
On July 24, 2023, the last car of a train on Line 3 Scarborough derailed south of Ellesmere station. There were 45 people on board, with five injuries reported. The TTC closed the line while the cause of the incident was being investigated. Although the investigation and closure was expected to last several weeks, the city accelerated work to support the replacement buses. On August 24, 2023, the TTC announced that the line would not reopen ahead of the planned November closure. In late September 2023, the TTC explained that bolts that held the linear induction rail to the roadbed had come loose in the July incident, causing the magnetically attracted induction rail to rise up, strike and derail the last car of the train.Immediately following the derailment, [|replacement bus service] was implemented initially by shuttle buses serving the closed stations along Line 3. On September 3, 2023, the TTC replaced the shuttle bus service with route 903 Kennedy–Scarborough Centre Express, running northbound on Kennedy Road and southbound on Midland Avenue in reserved lanes between Kennedy and Scarborough Centre stations. Unlike the shuttle service, route 903 did not serve the closed Lawrence East, Ellesmere, Midland and McCowan stations. On November 19, 2023, the TTC extended eight bus routes from Scarborough Centre to Kennedy station, eliminating the need to transfer to route 903 at Scarborough Centre station.
On November 30, 2023, the consulting firm Systra submitted a report to the TTC, which found that, prior to the derailment, maintenance procedures on Line 3 were weak or non-existent and that track inspection staff lacked experience to understand how various defects could create an operating risk.
On October 4, 2024, EllisDon began work to demolish and remove the Line 3 train tracks between Eglinton Avenue and the north end of Ellesmere station in preparation for constructing a busway parallel to the Stouffville line.
Farewell event
A farewell event for Line 3 was hosted at Scarborough Centre station on September 23, 2023, two months after the line's closure. The event featured trains, food and drinks, a photo area, and posters depicting archival photos and trivia, and it was free to attend.Rolling stock
The 7 four-car trains used exclusively on the Scarborough line were developed by the Urban Transportation Development Corporation, then an Ontario Crown corporation but later sold to Bombardier Transportation. The business proposal initially bore little fruit—a proposed pilot project in Hamilton was cancelled after meeting widespread public opposition, and the only other transit systems to use the technology, named the Intermediate Capacity Transit System, at the time were Vancouver's SkyTrain and the People Mover in Detroit. After Bombardier took over UTDC, it redesigned the technology with newer, longer cars, used to expand the SkyTrain network and also for new installations across the world. ICTS was rebranded as "Advanced Rapid Transit" and became a success for the company. Later, the technology was again rebranded, this time as Innovia Metro.One unusual feature of the ICTS cars was that they were driven by linear induction motors: instead of using conventional motors to turn the wheels, they pushed themselves along the route using alternating flat magnets reacting with the distinctive diamagnetic aluminum metal plate that ran down the centre of the tracks. This system required very few moving parts and therefore led to lower maintenance costs. When the car motors were accelerating, they actually lifted the car off the track an extremely small distance, repelling against the aluminum plate. This micro-lifting prevented the truck wheels from making a solid electrical contact with the track. Instead of using the conventional method, in which motive power is supplied by a single third rail, with return current travelling through the running rails, a separate positive- and negative-power rail were provided on one side of the track. The linear induction motors also allowed the cars to climb steeper grades than would be possible with traditional subway technology since wheel slip was not an issue.
The trains were also able to be operated exclusively by computers, becoming one of the earliest installations of Standard Elektrik Lorenz's "SelTrac IS" system, doing away with the need for a human operator. However, due to opposition from the transit workers' union and public perception, operators were retained; the union has firmly opposed driverless trains. The Line 3 trains had only one operator since inception. In practice, the Scarborough line trains drove themselves; the operator monitored their operations and controlled the doors. One of the features which was not implemented at the time of Scarborough line's opening was the automated audible-only next-stop announcement system, which was introduced in January 2008 and meant operators were no longer required to announce stops manually. These announcements feature the voice of Susan Bigioni, a TTC employee, who also voiced the announcements for the T1 series and the retired H4, H5, and H6 trains.
In June 2024, the Detroit People Mover transit system announced the purchase of 12 Mark I trainsets and equipment from Line 3. Their transportation to and integration with the Detroit People Mover was projected to take over a year and a half. The purchase would replace the system's existing train sets with upgraded features, along with providing much-needed parts needed to keep the system functional. Two railcars were sent to the Halton County Radial Railway Museum for preservation. One car would be provided to the Toronto Zoo to be used as a heritage exhibit adjacent to a Zoomobile station.