On Finch Avenue East in Scarborough, where the busy roadway meets the GO Stouffville Line, one will encounter a major construction project. Cranes and pile drivers line the railway crossing, with dozens of construction workers busy building a new grade separation between the rails and roadway. Once complete, the underpass will allow Finch Avenue traffic to pass unimpeded by more frequent GO train service and provide additional safety to all road users.
But the overpass was meant to be much more than just a rail bridge. A clue can be found in the construction site signage. Though the construction equipment is all marked for Green Infrastructure Partners (GIP), GIP is part of a project-specific consortium called “SmartTrack Construction Partners” or STCP, noted in a 2024 City of Toronto progress report. The SmartTrack name is interesting, as this was also going to be a site of a so-called SmartTrack station.
The Finch-Kennedy GO Station became part of a five-stop remnant of the SmartTrack concept, a “surface rail subway” promoted as part of John Tory’s 2014 successful mayoral campaign and subsequently made part of city policy, even maintaining the brand name. As I have written extensively about the troubled proposal and failed implementation of SmartTrack on this website, I will not go into any detail. But SmartTrack promised the construction of 13 entirely new regional rail stations augmenting 9 existing or committed GO stations on the Stouffville and Kitchener corridors, including a new rail branch on Eglinton Avenue West to Mississauga. One of those stations was to be at Finch Avenue East.
Since 2015, the SmartTrack concept began to shrink as the difficulty of building a regional rail line on Eglinton West became clear and as other transit projects came forward. The Ontario Line, now under construction, fills the downtown subway relief function that SmartTrack promised. The tunneled western extension of Line 5 from Mount Dennis to Renforth replaces the problematic western section of Tory’s proposal. Furthermore, GO Expansion would transform much of the GO rail network into a more frequent, all-day service on five of its seven lines would provide more service to more stations than SmartTrack ever could. (Unfortunately, Metrolinx is dragging its heels on GO’s transformation.) Even better, all these projects were promoted and funded by the province, while SmartTrack was a municipal effort.
But Finch SmartTrack Station, referred to in official planning materials as “Finch-Kennedy,” survived a whole decade, one of four remaining city-funded SmartTrack-branded stops from that early campaign map (a fifth stop was later added to the Barrie GO Corridor, at Bloor Street). Even as a regular GO Transit stop, Finch-Kennedy would have been quite useful for Scarborough commuters as well as promote new mixed-use development in northeastern Toronto. Surrounding the site are commercial plazas and industrial malls, self-storage units, and low-density residential subdivisions. The streetscape plan of the station below illustrates the site’s surroundings.
As planned, Finch-Kennedy Station would have been a no-frills rapid transit stop, with two tracks and platforms that span the Finch Avenue overpass. Access between the street (with curbside bus stops) and platforms would have been easy and direct, with stairs and elevators connecting the two modes on both sides of the street. With more frequent GO service facilitated by the double track expansion of the corridor, and proposed electrification, the Stouffville Line would have been a really useful link between the frequent 39/939 bus route (the busiest bus corridor in Toronto) to Union Station, the transfers to Lines 2 and 5 at Kennedy Station, and to Markham to the north. There would be no parking on-site, but just an access driveway on the northeast corner for service vehicles.
Though GO could double track the Stouffville Corridor and run more frequent trains without the grade separation if no station was to be built at Finch, an underpass would be necessary if trains were going to decelerate, stop, and accelerate within a short proximity of Finch Avenue. Building the platforms on the bridge structure only makes transit connections easier.
Due to cost overruns, SmartTrack is down to just three stations, which are now in various stages of construction. Along with King-Liberty, Finch-Kennedy was dropped from the list in December 2024, even as construction on the first and most critical phase, the Finch underpass, was already underway. Earlier this week, the Toronto Star reported that nearly $100 million were spent on these two now-deferred stations. The cost of completing Finch-Kennedy had jumped by $130 million, to a total of almost $370 million.
Even though the station is deferred, heavy construction continues on Finch Avenue East. The SmartTrack name lives on through the firm tasked with finishing the grade separation intended to literally support the new transit connection. Presumably, the bridge will be built with provision for the transit station to be added later. But it will only be even more expensive to go back later and complete the job.
Meanwhile, after resigning in disgrace in Winter 2023, not long after his re-election, John Tory is rumoured to make another run for mayor against his replacement, Olivia Chow. Tory will have a lot to answer for if he chooses to run again; the tattered remains of his SmartTrack legacy should certainly be one of those questions.
Sean Marshall 