Scarborough RT (TTC)
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| Toronto subway/RT | |
| Yonge-University-Spadina | |
| Bloor-Danforth | |
| Scarborough RT | |
| Sheppard | |
The Scarborough RT (sometimes shortened to SRT or RT) is a public transport metro line in the Scarborough district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Rather than the long subway trains used by the Toronto Transit Commission’s three other rapid-transit lines, it uses the shorter Intermediate Capacity Transit System (ICTS) Mark I vehicles powered by linear induction motors. They are the same model as the original fleet of the Vancouver SkyTrain and that of the Detroit People Mover, although unlike these other operators, the TTC has opted to keep a driver on board to allay public safety concerns, despite the trains’ ability to run under computer control.
Image:Scarborough RT between Scarborough Centre and McCowan.jpg The line has six stations and is 6.4 km (4.2 miles) in length. It is operated by the Toronto Transit Commission and administered as part of its subway system, although the Scarborough RT differs technologically from the city’s other three lines in a number of respects. "RT" simply stands for ‘rapid transit’, as the name ‘subway’ seemed inappropriate for a line that is predominantly elevated. Internally, the TTC uses the name ‘rapid transit’ to refer to all four lines, which is often confusing to the general public. The line’s tracks are of standard gauge, unlike those of the rest of Toronto’s streetcar and subway lines).
The line is internally referred to as Route 3 (formerly route 603), but this number is not used by the public or shown on TTC maps and signs.
Contents |
History
The TTC had proposed to extend the Bloor-Danforth line using streetcars operating in a private right-of-way, but the ICTS system was used instead because the Province of Ontario agreed to pay a large portion of the costs. Ontario wanted to develop and promote its new technology, which had been originally designed for urban GO Transit services. Changes to federal railway regulations had made the new system unnecessary for GO, and so the government hoped to sell it to other transit services in order to recoup its investment.
It was developed by the Urban Transportation Development Corporation (UTDC), then an Ontario Crown corporation but now a division of Bombardier. The business proposal initially bore little fruit – a proposed pilot project in Hamilton was cancelled after meeting widespread public opposition, and the technology was used initially only by the Scarborough RT, Vancouver’s SkyTrain, and the Detroit People Mover. With expansion of the SkyTrain and sales to Ankara, Kuala Lumpur, New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, and now Seoul, a newer version, sold under the name "ART" (advanced rapid transit), has become a success for Bombardier (see Bombardier Advanced Rapid Transit).
One unusual feature of the ICTS cars is that they are driven by linear induction motors: instead of using conventional motors to turn the wheels, they pull themselves along the route using magnets and a distinctive metal plate that runs down the centre of the tracks. This system requires very few moving parts, and therefore leads to lower maintenance costs.
The trains are also able to be operated exclusively by computers, doing away with the need for a human operator. The public, however, was not ready for driverless trains when the Scarborough RT opened, particularly in light of frequent software glitches early in its operation, so operators were retained (other systems, including Vancouver’s, take full advantage of automated operation). The Scarborough RT trains have only one operator, unlike TTC subway trains which carry both a guard, who operates the train’s doors, and an operator, who drives. In practice, the Scarborough RT trains drive themselves; the operator monitors their operations and controls the doors.
The Scarborough RT opened in 1985. Only a year after it opened, the TTC had to renovate its south-western terminus at Kennedy station, because the looped turnaround track, originally designed for 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.
Largely because of the relatively high cost of the ICTS technology for the service it provides, the line has seen no extensions since it opened, and many transit advocates believe that it would have been wiser either to build it using streetcars, as was originally planned, to allow for lower costs and more flexibility in route options, or to simply extend the underground Bloor-Danforth line further into Scarborough (for more details, see The future below).
Route
Image:ScarboroughRTMap.svg The line follows a roughly L-shaped route: first northward from Kennedy Station, parallelling the Canadian National Railway tracks, between Kennedy Road and Midland Avenue, 4 km to Ellesmere Road; then eastward between Ellesmere and Progress Avenue, through Scarborough Town Centre to McCowan Road. The Scarborough RT’s ICTS trains, which are not shared with any of the TTC’s other lines, have their own small yard east of McCowan station. This yard is large enough to store the existing fleet, but would have to be expanded or replaced if the TTC were to expand the line’s capacity by buying new trains. Basic maintenance is performed in this yard, but for more major work, the cars are taken to the subway’s Greenwood yards, which must be done by truck because differences in track gauge make it impossible for the Scarborough RT’s track to be connected with the rest of the subway and streetcar systems.
The north-south section of the route, where it follows the CN tracks, is at ground level; the shorter east-west section (except for the ground-level yard) is elevated, as is the Kennedy terminus. The line dives briefly underground just north of Ellesmere station to cross under the CN tracks.
All stations, whether by transfer or fare-paid terminal, connect to surface TTC bus routes. Other connections are noted below.
Stations marked Image:Wheelchair.png have elevators for wheelchair access.
| Name | Opening Year | Interchange | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scarborough RT | |||
| Kennedy | Image:Wheelchair.png | 1985 | Bloor-Danforth, GO Transit |
| Lawrence East | 1985 | ||
| Ellesmere | 1985 | ||
| Midland | 1985 | ||
| Scarborough Centre | Image:Wheelchair.png | 1985 | GO Transit |
| McCowan | 1985 | ||
There have been proposals to add a station at Brimley Road due to the increased number of residential developments in the area of Brimley Road and Ellesmere Road.
The future
There were at one point plans for the Scarborough RT to be extended further east, with stations at Bellamy Road, Markham Road, Milner Avenue, and Sheppard Avenue East, but they have largely been abandoned, primarily because of the high costs of the ICTS technology. [1]
Although the Scarborough RT line is heavily used, its future is uncertain, as its aging fleet has never been expanded since it opened, and consists entirely of ICTS Mark I trains, which are no longer produced.
In November 2005, an information meeting was held as part of an official study on the prospects of this line. [2]
Some possible solutions include:
- converting the line to a separated streetcar line, using either new or refurbished vehicles,
- extending the Bloor-Danforth line (either along the current Scarborough RT route or along a different alignment directly to Scarborough Centre), and then closing the Scarborough RT,
- buying Bombardier’s ART Mark II vehicles, the successors to the ICTS technology,
- paying Bombardier to re-start the production of ICTS Mark I trains, or
- purchasing used ICTS Mark I trains from Vancouver’s SkyTrain network.
Most of these options have difficulties associated with them. In order to run ART Mark II trains, the line would require expensive upgrades, as they are longer than the ICTS Mark I units and would have difficulty negotiating the current track’s curves at a reasonable speed. One possibe option is the Mark II-a, which are essentially shorter versions of the Mark II vehicles. Paying Bombardier to produce Mark II-a trains would be expensive however, as they would be of unique design. On top of all these problems, the only place attached to the line where trains can be stored is McCowan Yard, which is nearly full even with the current fleet. However when the people of Scarborough were offered an extension of the SRT, it was planned that a new yard would be built east of McCowan.
Extending the Bloor-Danforth line would be even more expensive, but as the bulk of the Scarborough RT’s passengers are travelling between Scarborough Centre and Kennedy, where they change to the Bloor-Danforth line, it would eliminate a transfer for large numbers of people; it could also be built without closing the current line until the new one was ready for service. Additionally, the closure of the standard-gauge Scarborough RT would save having to maintain two separate fleets of trains and work vehicles for Toronto’s rapid-transit network (the subway uses a non-standard gauge), and allow the entire network to be operated as one system. That being said, having two separate routes leaves open the option of extending the subway line eastward along Eglinton Avenue towards Guildwood and Rouge Hill, with possible connections to GO Transit’s Lakeshore East trains at Guildwood and Rouge Hill stations (although there are no current plans for such an extension).
The simplest option would be to replace the ICTS trains with streetcars, and run the Scarborough RT as the separated streetcar line it was originally intended to be. Because of the line’s standard-gauge track, third-rail power supply and high boarding platforms, it would not make sense to use the same low-floor fleet the TTC plan to buy for their regular streetcar network, but there are many suitable high-floor vehicles on the market, and the replacement of the current streetcars on the regular lines will render surplus a large number of refurbished CLRV and ALRV streetcars, which could be rebuilt for use on the Scarborough RT. This would likely be the least expensive option for continued service on the line, and would not require the abandonment of any existing stations, but would not do anything to eliminate the transfer at Kennedy or the need for an additional fleet.
Scarborough-area city councillors are campaigning to replace the line with a tunnelled extension of the Bloor-Danforth subway, claiming they could gain more ridership than the proposed Spadina line extension to York University. [3]