Take Action With Us

Want to take action with us? We have prepared a personalized email template to send to Mayor Tory and your local councillor about the one-stop Scarborough Subway Extension (SSE) and the three routes for Light Rail Transit (LRT). Here are some talking points you may want to consider:

The FACTS about the SSE:

  • The one-stop SSE is the MOST EXPENSIVE transit option, but it will serve the SMALLEST number of riders compared to the alternatives.  And it won’t even be running until at least 2025!

  • Most of Scarborough’s TTC users will have to continue riding on overcrowded buses.  The one-stop SSE is so expensive that there will be no money left over for transit improvements anywhere else in Scarborough.

  • The people who will benefit the most from the SSE are the property developers around Scarborough Town Centre.

  • The one-stop SSE does not help most of Scarborough’s TTC users, who are travelling to other parts of Scarborough, not to downtown Toronto.

  • The SSE decision is being pushed by politics, instead of what will give the best service to the greatest number of transit riders.

  • People who currently ride the Scarborough RT (the elevated Rapid Transit trains) will LOSE their existing stations at Lawrence East, Ellesmere and Midland after the SSE opens.

  • The SSE is supported mostly by people who do not live in Scarborough, and do not use the TTC.  They drive everywhere, and they just want transit vehicles off “their” streets.

  • The one-stop SSE will not serve any of Scarborough’s priority neighbourhoods.  The proposed LRT routes WILL serve those neighbourhoods.

The FACTS about LRT:

  • An LRT is NOT a streetcar!  It is faster, with fewer stops, and runs on its own separate tracks. It is not slowed down by other traffic, unlike the streetcars in downtown Toronto.

  • The Sheppard East LRT would have about 25 stops in 13 km. between Don Mills Station and Morningside Avenue.  It was already fully funded by the Province, the engineering design has already been done, and it is “shovel-ready”.  Construction could start immediately, and it could be running by 2021 (it could have been running now if Ford’s council had not cancelled it).

  • The Scarborough LRT would use the same “grade-separated” trackway as the present RT (not at street level).  It would have seven stops between Kennedy Station and Sheppard Avenue, including Centennial College’s Progress Campus.

  • The Eglinton East LRT would have about 18 stops between Kennedy Station and the Morningside Avenue campuses of the University of Toronto and Centennial College.  It could also be extended north to Sheppard Avenue to meet up with the Sheppard East LRT.

  • Together, the three LRT lines could provide as many as fifty rapid-transit stops, serving thousands more daily passengers across most of Scarborough, for the same or less money than the one-stop SSE.