page_title: Line 3 Scarborough
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Line 3 Scarborough / History
caption_attribution_description: TTC Mark I vehicle #3012, leaving the Lawrence East Station bound for McCowan Road on the Scarborough RT line.
context_page_description: Line 3 Scarborough, originally known as the Scarborough RT, is a light rapid transit line that is part of the Toronto subway system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The line runs entirely within the suburban district of Scarborough, encompassing six stations and 6.4 kilometres of mostly elevated track. It connects with Line 2 Bloor–Danforth at its southwestern terminus, Kennedy, and terminates in the northeast at McCowan.
  Rather than the larger manually operated subway trains used on the other lines in the system, the rolling stock of Line 3 consists of smaller, fully automated, medium-capacity trains, designated by the Toronto Transit Commission as the S series, which are Intermediate Capacity Transit System Mark I trains built by the Urban Transportation Development Corporation. The trains are powered by linear induction motors, operating on 1,435 mm standard gauge tracks, unlike the city's subway lines and the Toronto streetcar system, which use the unique 1,495 mm Toronto-gauge railways.
  The line has remained unchanged since its opening in 1985 and contains two of the least used stations in the system.
context_section_description: In 1972, the provincial government announced the GO-Urban plan to build an intermediate capacity transit system across suburban Toronto using the experimental Krauss-Maffei Transurban. However, Krauss-Maffei was forced to abandon development when the West German federal government declined further funding. GO-Urban then used some of the technologies from the Transurban to develop a simpler steel-wheeled version, the ICTS system.
  During this period, the TTC had been working on plans to extend its own network with a series of streetcar systems using a new and greatly enlarged streetcar design, the Canadian Light Rail Vehicle (CLRV). The Ontario government, in charge of the GO network, was looking for a test site for the ICTS system and demanded that the TTC use it for one of their planned streetcar projects, selecting the Scarborough extension. The TTC initially refused to make the change, arguing it was both the wrong solution and that since the construction of the line had already commenced this would be a waste of money. However, as the Ontario government was providing 75% of the funding for the line, they changed their minds when the government threatened to cut the funding.
  At Kennedy station, there are clues revealing that it was originally built for streetcar operation; it is possible to see old low-level streetcar platforms protruding under the current high-level platforms, and the loop to turn streetcars proved too sharp for safe operation of the ICTS cars, which did not have a reason to turn around, so the loop was replaced by a Spanish solution-like crossover. Ontario wanted to develop and promote its new technology, which had been designed for a proposed urban GO Transit service known as GO-ALRT. Changes to federal railway regulations had made the new system unnecessary for GO, so the government hoped to sell it to other transit services in order to recoup its investment.
  The Scarborough line opened in March 1985 as the Scarborough RT. Three years after it opened, the TTC renovated its southwestern terminus at Kennedy station, because the looped turnaround track, designed for uni-directional streetcars under the earlier plan and not needed for the bi-directional ICTS trains, was causing derailments; it was replaced with a single terminal track and the station was thus quasi-Spanish solution, with one side for boarding and another side for alighting, though the boarding side is also used for alighting during off-peak hours and weekends.
  From when the line opened in 1985 until 2015, it was known as the "Scarborough RT" or "SRT". The "RT" in Scarborough RT stood for "rapid transit". Locals have often referred to the line as SRT or the RT for short. The name Scarborough Line is used on the official TTC website and 2014 TTC Ride Guide. In October 2013, the TTC announced plans to give the lines official numbers to help riders and visitors to navigate the system. The line is numbered 3, as it is the third rapid transit line to open in the system. New signage was installed in March 2014. In 2015, the name was simplified to "Line 3 Scarborough" and the TTC began shrink-wrapping the rolling stock with a blue vinyl finish displaying the number 3, a linear diagram of the Scarborough line, and the TTC logo. The original "RT" logo was no longer featured on the trains, except when the Line 3 shrink wrap is removed but not re-applied yet.
  With the line approaching the end of its useful life, the TTC reduced the frequency of service in mid-September 2012.
  In 2015, the TTC started work on the cars to keep them operational until the line is replaced by another mode of rail technology. This includes a new shrink-wrapped outer livery that is almost entirely blue to emphasize the line's colour code, followed by interior upgrades.
  As of December 13, 2016, with the Presto fare gates installed at Lawrence East station, all stations along this line are Presto-enabled.
  In April 2017, the TTC awarded a $6.8-million contract to Bombardier to repair corrosion damage under the floors of the S-series cars. If the problem were not rectified, t
caption: An S-series train in its original (1985–2015) livery
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