Sean Marshall

Category: Urban Toronto

  • Downtown Brampton’s next chapter

    Garden Square, at Main and Queen Streets, will be one of the two public spaces downtown to be rejuvenated

    After nearly two decades of little change, Downtown Brampton may finally be turning the corner from being a sleepy town centre to becoming the proper hub for a city of nearly 800,000.

    The Riverwalk, an ambitious plan to enhance flood protection from nearby Etobicoke Creek and create new public space, will break ground later this year. The extension of the Hurontario LRT into Downtown Brampton, by way of a deep-mined tunnel, was approved and funded by the provincial and federal governments. There will also be a new transportation hub to accommodate additional tracks at Brampton GO Station and support Brampton Transit ridership growth. City of Brampton is also hoping to get started on a new Centre for Innovation at the corner of Nelson and George Streets; it will contain a new central library as well as space for Toronto Metropolitan University and Rogers.

    Private sector development is also waking up. The first of a new wave of mixed-use high-rise developments, Rose Garden Residences, has started construction.

    Demolition is complete and shoring is starting at Rose Garden Residences

    These are exciting times for Brampton. The city, looking to attract more people to the downtown core, is planning to improve both Ken Willians Square, in front of City Hall, and Garden Square, in front of the Rose Theatre. The municipal government is looking for feedback on four proposed designs for the two square.

    For Urban Toronto, I wrote more about Brampton’s plans to rejuvenate its downtown public realm.

    Proposed design for Ken Willians Square, Downtown Brampton
  • Bussing the gap: Scarborough transit after the SRT

    Bussing the gap: Scarborough transit after the SRT

    Scarborough Centre Station, September 2023

    On July 24, 2023, 38 years of Line 3, the Scarborough RT, came to an ignoble end when a car came off the tracks just south of Ellesmere Station, four months ahead of the scheduled closure of the deteriorating line. Though the City of Toronto and the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) were hesitant to say so at the time, it was apparent that the July derailment meant Line 3’s permanent closure. A farewell party, with two SRT cars, was held at Scarborough Centre Station on September 23, 2023, allowing the public to have one last sit in the venerable cars.

    I went to check out the new temporary bus lanes on Midland and Kennedy, installed ahead of a planned busway between Kennedy and Ellesmere Stations. The busway, which will open in 2025 after the old SRT right-of-way is decommissioned, will include a new stop at Tara Avenue, at the Meadoway trail.

    In the meantime, most drivers appear to be respecting the new painted lanes, even on busy Kennedy Road. With several bus routes from north and east Scarborough diverted to Kennedy Station to provide a more pleasant ride, the bus lanes are very well used.

    Northbound buses on Kennedy Road

    You can read more about the planned busway on Urban Toronto, where I am now a contributor.