The
TTC's
Scarborough LRT carries hundreds of passengers a day beyond
Toronto's most eastern subway stop at
Kennedy and was opened for service on
March 22, 1985.
The Scarborough LRT project was not initially planned as it is now built. Originally,
construction was underway for
streetcars to run along the
CN Railway corridor that the Scarborough LRT (or
RT for short) now travels, but the
Ontario Government abruptly changed its mind as it was more iinterested in funding and developing Light Rapid Transit as a state of the art
alternative over
streetcars.
The streetcar
project was halted during the construction of additions to
Kennedy Station and designs to
accomidate the LRT were implemented instead. Remnants of the "streetcar station" can be seen on the
ceiling at track level as the RT required the extra level of
clearance, hence the
bevelled roof. The original streetcar
platform is also still visible below the RT platform.
Systems spawned from the
Scarborough LRT development exist in
Detroit and
Vancouver although, they are not operated by
drivers. Instead,
computers and
magnets control the
speed and
distance between trains, which was one of the said features of the Scarborough RT that was never resolved to anyones
confidence here.