2023/10/01 – Stouffville Line / Scarborough RT

This walk was also completed as a test run for recording footage for YouTube videos. See the video below.

Good morning from southwest Scarborough. Today I’ll be following the Uxbridge subdivision, also known as the GO Transit Stouffville Line. As a bonus, I’ll also take a detour eastward to document the now shuttered Line 3 Scarborough RT. Starting at Kennedy Station and heading north. Let’s go.

As you may know, Kennedy is a major hub. GO Trains on the Stouffville Line, TTC Line 2 trains, a hydro corridor and a multi use trail all meet here. TTC Line 5 will also come here. The RT did as well, until it was shut down due to a derailment in July. Those facilities now stand as a relic.

Going north takes you on the west side of the shared GO / TTC / hydro corridor. Makes a scenic connection to the Meadoway / Gatineau hydro corridor. Unfortunately it does not look like there’s a good connection up to Lawrence, so a detour is required.

Once we get around the transformer station, we return to the corridor at Lawrence Station. The road overpass is similar, but unlike Kennedy, this station is completely shuttered as there’s no other transit connections. Poking around in here also shows us an open but fenced link to the Meadoway.

So, they didn’t lock the doors, an employee is here for another month to guide people and let them fill their Presto cards. The tunnel under the tracks is open too. After detouring along the Dorset Branch of West Highland Creek, and further up Midwest Road, we come to Ellesmere Station which is in the same boat.

At the Ellesmere Road overpass, we get a glimpse of the RT tunnel under the GO line, taking the former east. This quickly ramps up to the elevated guideway on the other side, and into Midland Station. Once again, the station is shuttered except for help and fares.

I tried to get under the guideway, but much of it is fenced off. After trudging in the concrete channel for West Highland Creek’s main branch, I get a glimpse of the guideway’s beauty. A detour back down to Ellesmere Road, and then you get a clear shot of the guideway into Scarborough Town Centre.

The guideway cuts through a few towers and soars past Albert Campbell Square. Losing the RT means losing unique views of this neighbourhood.

After flying over the bus entrance, we make it to McCowan. This was the last stop for passengers on the RT, on the east edge of the centre.

Past Grangeway Avenue, we get to peek at the interim resting place for all RT trains. Where they will go from here is unknown. The RT was supposed to extend to Malvern, and there’s a little evidence of that at Bellamy Road. But that ends our journey along the RT, back to the Stouffville Line now.

Back over the line at Ellesmere, and a detour to Progress Avenue. There’s a bit of a spot where it crosses a branch of Highland Creek twice before ducking under the 401.

It’s another long detour, and then a bit of backtracking to see where a Highland Creek tributary goes under the GO line, which itself goes under a CPKC line. Triple crossings are cool. North of that is the next GO station after Kennedy, which is Agincourt.

Not many spaces parallel to the line or crossing it north of Agincourt. Havendale Park has a good neighbourhood connection. Trainspotting at Finch.

A couple more grade crossings, and then the final Toronto GO station on the line, Milliken. This was recently refurbished in conjunction with a grade separation over Steeles Avenue. Going to hop on here to get back to my starting point, so this is the end of the walk. Thanks for following along.