What to know
- Councillors approved a motion from Olivia Chow to make the Scarborough East Rapid Transit (SERT) Line the city’s top transit project, adding $10 million to speed up design work.
- The proposed 18.6-km line would connect Kennedy Station to Malvern Town Centre with 27 stops, including the University of Toronto Scarborough campus.
- Council is seeking support from federal and provincial governments and forming a Scarborough Transit Working Group to advance funding, planning, and development.
Toronto’s City Council has approved a motion to make the future Scarborough East Rapid Transit (SERT) Line its top transit priority, including increasing its budget by an extra $10 million.
Councillors made the decision on Wednesday, as they voted to carry a motion first presented by Mayor Olivia Chow regarding the line.
Besides the funding, the motion also establishes that city council increase its 2026 Capital Budget for Transit Expansion by $10 million using money from the City Building Fund Reserve to accelerate the line’s design by 30 per cent.
The city is also looking to secure funding from the federal and provincial governments to advance the line’s development.
The proposed project, which is also known as Line 7 and formerly known as the Eglinton East LRT, is planned to run 18.6 km between Kennedy Station and Malvern Town Centre via the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus, making 27 stops along the way.
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In addition to making it a priority and reallocating funds for the line, the motion approved by the city establishes that the council request the mayor to allocate funds from the 2027 Budget to advance the line.
City council also requested that city staff establish a Scarborough Transit Working Group, including the mayor, deputy mayor, city manager, and other officials to advance a multi-modal transit network for Scarborough including the new line, and identify funding needed to support it.
Council is also requesting the provincial government to establish regulatory requirements necessary to accelerate the SERT line and reduce costs for the design, planning and other stages of the project.
