New Scarborough Busway in Toronto set to open ahead of schedule next month

Transit riders in Scarborough will soon have a faster way of getting around the city, as the long-awaited Scarborough Busway is finally set to open up this September, roughly six months ahead of schedule. 

The four-kilometre dedicated bus corridor will temporarily replace the decommissioned Line 3 Scarborough RT, which was closed months ahead of schedule following a train derailment in July 2023. 

The Busway will remain in place until the Scarborough Subway Extension — which will extend the TTC's Line 2 nearly eight kilometres deeper into Scarborough, from Kennedy Station to Sheppard Avenue and McCowan Road — is completed, sometime in 2030. 

Buses will be operating along the former Line 3 right-of-way that will generally follow the same alignment as the previous train service. The route begins at Kennedy Station, with stops at Tara Avenue/Mooregate Avenue, Lawrence East Station, and Ellesmere Station.

From Ellesmere Station, buses will then transition to priority bus lanes on Ellesmere Road to connect to Scarborough Town Centre. Using the Busway, a trip between Kennedy and Scarborough Town Centre is expected to take about 15 minutes, saving passengers roughly seven minutes on their commutes compared to the current on-street replacement service. 

The current replacement service operates southbound via Midland Avenue and northbound via Kennedy Road between Scarborough Centre and Kennedy stations. Once the Busway is in service, the RT replacement bus lanes on Kennedy and Midland Roads will be removed.

"Investing in public transit is a win-win situation and not only will this speed up TTC commuters, but it will help ease congestion for everybody," said Mayor Olivia Chow.

The TTC will start testing the Busway early next month, before service officially begins on Sept. 30. 

In December, Mayor Olivia Chow and TTC CEO Mandeep S. Lali revealed that construction for the Busway would be accelerated, with service beginning in September. Originally, the project was scheduled to be completed in 2027.