Here is when the last Scarborough RT train will run before line is demolished
The final day of service for the Line 3 Scarborough RT is just four months away.
The exact final date of service was not made public when the Scarborough RT's demise was first announced for 2023. However, the 1985-opened line's last day has been known since at least April.
Line 3 will officially cease operation on November 19, 2023 after only 38 years in service, its six stations, elevated guideways, and automated trains all being scrapped in favour of the upcoming Scarborough Subway Extension that will add three stations to Line 2.
Upon its closure, Line 3 service will be replaced by buses — an indignity Scarborough commuters will have to suffer through until at least 2030, the current projected opening date of the new Scarborough Subway Extension.
The TTC states that once the line is decommissioned, the transit agency will "deliver express bus service via an on-street bus replacement service," that will operate southbound via Midland Avenue and northbound via Kennedy Road between Scarborough Centre and Kennedy stations.
That service, while not as clean or convenient as the RT, is expected to be frequent at the very least. The TTC's Line 3 Bus Replacement Plan promises frequent express bus service, with up to 70 buses per hour using Kennedy Road and Midland Avenue.
Riders are facing seven years of bus rides, but the TTC, in typical fashion, has found a way to try and convince customers that buses are an improvement over the current SRT. In its page on the future of Line 3, the transit agency boasts that the bus service will be AODA compliant, unlike four of the existing SRT stations.
City Council has approved a batch of transit priority measures supporting this bus service, including dedicated red-painted bus lanes; transit signal priority; and adjustments to curbs, pavement markings, and turn restrictions at key locations.
Construction for these transit priority features begins this summer and is expected to be complete in time for Line 3's permanent closure on November 19.
