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A proposed light-rail transit line in Scarborough has garnered attention from both mayoral-hopeful Coun. Brad Bradford and Mayor Olivia Chow, with each unveiling competing motions to speed up its development on Thursday.
The line, formally known as the Eglinton East LRT, is a proposed 18.6-kilometre stretch of transit from Kennedy Station to Malvern Town Centre that has been in the works since 2009. Its development has been tied to the city’s proposed Waterfront East LRT after city council voted to prioritize both projects in 2022.
Last week, the Waterfront East LRT received a funding commitment from both the federal and provincial governments. The absence of a similar commitment for the Eglinton East LRT prompted Bradford to accuse the mayor of neglecting the project.
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“The environmental assessment on this project is done. The plan exists. What’s missing, above all, is a mayor who’s willing to go and fight for it,” Bradford said at a news conference at the University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus.
In an interview with CBC Toronto, Chow said that every city budget under her leadership has allocated funding for both lines.
“Last week we landed the Waterfront LRT funding … now this is our top priority for [the] next round, and we need that funding,” she said.
Bradford also accused the mayor of missing a deadline to advance the LRT’s design to 30 per cent by March. City council adopted a motion in 2025 that set that deadline to the first quarter of 2026.
When asked about the deadline, Chow said a report “is coming.”
In an emailed statement, Hannah Stewart, a spokesperson for the City of Toronto, said city staff are working to deliver an update on the LRT and that other transit funding commitments do not “preclude, delay or diminish” work on the Eglinton East LRT.
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Toronto is one (big) step closer to building a light-rail train that would connect the developed Port Lands to downtown.The federal, provincial and municipal governments will each spend $1 billion, for a total of $3 billion, to fund the Waterfront East LRT.2 motions on LRT heading to city council
To date, there is no timeline for the Eglinton East LRT’s completion, but public consultations, an environmental assessment, and an early design framework have been completed.
Chow and Bradford both unveiled motions Thursday about the LRT that they plan to bring up to city council.
Chow’s motion includes calls for city council to designate the line as its top transit priority, secure provincial and federal funding for it, create an advisory board for its development and to rebrand it as the Scarborough Eglinton East LRT to “better reflect” its importance to the community.
Bradford’s motion called for city staff to deliver their report on advancing the LRT project’s design, renew the push to get federal and provincial funding for it and for both the Waterfront and Eglinton East LRT to be developed “in tandem.”
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Andrew Pulsifer, the executive director of transit advocacy group TTC riders, said it was nice to see the Eglinton East LRT plan “finally starting to see some daylight.”
“It’s going to serve a lot of communities like Malvern, [which] doesn’t have spectacular access to transit,” he said.
The proposed line would also help service the University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus.
Pulsifer said he is optimistic the city can make a convincing case to both the federal and provincial governments to fund the LRT, especially given the upcoming federal byelection in Scarborough-Southwest, a riding where part of the proposed LRT would run.
“This line, as proposed, is expected to serve 40,000 people a day,” he said.
“That would be a huge benefit to so many people in a part of the city that oftentimes feels ignored.”