Transit City

Scarborough Malvern LRT (2009)
Line 5 Eglinton Line 2 Bloor–Danforth Kennedy Line 3 Scarborough Stouffville line Kennedy GO Midland Falmouth Danforth McCowan Eglinton GO Lakeshore East line Mason Markham Eglinton/Kingston Golf Club Road Guildwood Guildwood GO Lakeshore East line Galloway Lawrence Kingston/Morningside West Hill Highland Creek Ellesmere UofT Scarborough Military Trail Highway 401 Sheppard Sheppard East LRT

The Scarborough Malvern LRT was part of Toronto mayor David Miller's Transit City proposal announced on 16 March 2007, to be operated by the Toronto Transit Commission. In 2008, the Scarborough Malvern LRT was included in Metrolinx's regional transportation plan The Big Move within that plan's 25-year horizon.^[5] In 2009, the initial design for the Scarborough Malvern LRT was completed.^[2]: 11 The line was expected to cost approximately $1.26 billion, including vehicles, property, escalation and an apportioned cost of the maintenance and storage facilities. With construction originally scheduled to begin in 2014, the line was expected to open in 2019 as the last of the seven Transit City lines.

The Scarborough Malvern LRT was approved by Toronto City Council on 30 September 2009,^[6] and the environmental assessment received a notice to proceed from the Government of Ontario on 15 December 2009.^[7] After a change in municipal leadership, it was cancelled by Mayor Rob Ford on 1 December 2010, when he announced the cancellation of the entire Transit City initiative.^[8][9] While LRT lines on Sheppard East, Finch West, and Eglinton were revived through a new agreement between the City of Toronto and Metrolinx, the Scarborough Malvern LRT was not included.^[10]

Crosstown extension

In 2016, the city directed staff to resurrect and update the 2009 plan for the Scarborough Malvern LRT. The project was renamed the Eglinton East LRT. Until 2021, the city considered making the EELRT an eastward extension of Line 5 Eglinton.^{[2]: 11, 12}

In 2016, to complement the Scarborough Subway Extension (SSE), the planned extension of Line 2 Bloor–Danforth to Scarborough Town Centre, the City of Toronto drafted a plan to extend Line 5 Eglinton farther east into Scarborough to terminate at the University of Toronto Scarborough campus.^[11] On 20 January 2016, Toronto City Council approved revisions to the Scarborough subway plan that would include reviving much of the original plan for the Scarborough Malvern LRT as a 12-kilometre (7.5 mi) eastern extension of Line 5 Eglinton to University of Toronto Scarborough, rebranded as "Crosstown East",^[12] and later renamed "Eglinton East" in 2017.^[13] The extension would add 18 new stops east of Kennedy station and serve an estimated 43,400 additional riders per day (a ridership similar to that of the Line 4 Sheppard subway).^[14] The extension was expected to serve "neighbourhood improvement areas" (often low-income areas) such as Eglinton East, Scarborough Junction, Morningside, Scarborough Village and West Hill.^[15]

In November 2017, the project was mostly unfunded, with the cost estimated at $1.6 to $1.7 billion, with an estimated completion date of 2023.^[13][16] At a November 2017 public meeting, city staff presented the possibility of extending the Eglinton East LRT by six stops to Malvern Town Centre. The Malvern extension would be 4.2 to 4.7 kilometres (2.6 to 2.9 mi) long.^[13] The extension to Malvern Town Centre would have seven stops: at Pan Am Drive, Sheppard/Morningside, Brenyon Way, Murison Boulevard, Sheppard/Neilson, Wickson Trail, and Malvern Town Centre.^[17]

In April 2019, Ontario premier Doug Ford announced a plan for Toronto rapid transit that included the Eglinton West LRT (a westward extension of Line 5 Eglinton), the Scarborough Subway Extension of Line 2, the Yonge North Extension of Line 1 and the Ontario Line. The Eglinton East LRT was noticeably not included and was left off the accompanying map.^[18]

By October 2020, the City of Toronto and the TTC were in the process of implementing bus-only lanes from Kennedy station to the University of Toronto Scarborough campus via Eglinton Avenue, Kingston Road and Morningside Avenue as part of the RapidTO bus rapid transit scheme, which approximates the route of the Eglinton East LRT. The lanes were anticipated to be fully installed and operational by that November. As well as "red carpet" bus lanes, bus stops were also consolidated to approximately the same configuration and frequency of proposed LRT stations, with certain lower-order curbside stops – such as those at Huntington Avenue, Brimley Road, Oswego/Barbados Roads and Torrance Avenue – being removed entirely.^[19]

In December 2020, the City of Toronto announced changes to the Eglinton East LRT proposal. The tunnel portal at Kennedy station would be extended eastwards to Huntington Avenue due to changes in the Scarborough Subway Extension project, which involved modifying the depth of the tunnel as well as adding a third subway track for service improvements. A station at Midland Avenue was moved underground as a result. A new maintenance and storage facility north of the University of Toronto Scarborough was added to the plan as a result of the Sheppard East LRT cancellation. Originally, both the Eglinton East LRT and the Sheppard East LRT were to have shared a maintenance and storage facility at Conlins Road east of Sheppard and Morningside. The other aspects of the project remained the same, including a tunnel under Kingston Road and Morningside Avenue due to traffic congestion at the Kingston/Lawrence and Morningside area.^[20]

In December 2020, the council directed staff to study the entire original route to Malvern Town Centre^[1] and begin a high-level design.^[2] Since the province had agreed to fully fund the Scarborough Subway Extension, Mayor John Tory requested in 2021 that the $1.2 billion the city had accumulated for that project be redirected to the Eglinton East line.^[21]

Standalone line

By 2022, city planning staff had concluded a through-service connection at Kennedy station was not feasible as an EELRT tunnel would be only 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) above the SSE tunnel at Kennedy station, and the SSE tunnel structure would not be strong enough to safely support an EELRT tunnel above it.^[1]: 24 Thus, city staff proposed a "distinct-service concept" for the EELRT. Doing so would result in lower construction costs, a shorter construction period, fewer private property impacts and design flexibility. With this flexibility, the EELRT would not need to conform to Line 5's technology, operations, and maintenance requirements. The city could choose another type of light-rail vehicle and would use the Conlins Yard as the line's maintenance and storage facility. Previously considered tunnels between Kennedy station and Midland Avenue and under Kingston Road would be replaced by surface alignments.^{[3]: 1, 2, 9} The line could also be extended farther to the under-construction terminus of the Line 2 Scarborough extension at Sheppard Avenue and McCowan Road.^[1]

By May 2022, the estimated cost of the EELRT is $3.9 billion, with an expected opening in the early to mid-2030s.^[3] A July 2022 TTC report and a May 2023 city presentation referred to the proposed EELRT as Line 7 and gave the line a mint green colour.^{[1]: 24 [2]: 15}

By the end of 2023, the high-level design was expected to be completed, along with a draft of the environmental project report (EPR) and the start of the transit project assessment process (TPAP). Public consultation began in May 2023.^[2]

During the 2023 Toronto mayoral by-election, the topic of a future EELRT connecting to Pan Am Centre and the University of Toronto Scarborough, and later to Sheppard–McCowan, was frequently discussed by candidates.^[22]

In November 2023, the project design was 10 percent complete, and the total revised cost of the project was $4.65 billion. At the time, the province (through Metrolinx) was considering extending Line 4 Sheppard east of Don Mills station with the potential of overlapping the EELRT route along Sheppard Avenue. Thus, in case of overlap, city planners proposed to adjust the EELRT alignment. There was also the possibility that the preferred site for the EELRT maintenance and storage facility at Sheppard Avenue and Conlins Road might not be available. Thus, city planners would look at other potential sites as a contingency.^[4]