It's a solution for Scarborough's rapid transit woes that no one has talked about — buses.

Toronto councillors spent hours in a marathon session July 13 debating the merits of a one-stop subway extension to Scarborough Town Centre versus the light-rail project that was originally slated for that route.. They chose the subway — a project estimated to cost as much as $3.2 billion.

But instead of spending billions on new transit infrastructure, an urban planner at the University of Toronto says the city should repurpose what it already has: a complex, well-used network of buses.

A bus rapid transit network — known as a BRT — could build on the eastern suburb's wide arterial roads, redrawing the lanes so that public transit gets its own thoroughfare that's essentially traffic-free, Steven Farber said in an interview before the transit vote.

"It can be turned on with a very low level of capital investment," the professor of human geography said. "It's a huge, huge opportunity that, right now, isn't even being looked at in the current plan."

Brampton, Mississauga on board with BRTs

To get an idea of the cost, Toronto need only look at its neighbours.

Brampton and Mississauga both adopted BRT networks within the last five years, paying $285 million and $259 million respectively in startup costs — less than 10 per cent of the Scarborough subway extension's pricetag.

The capital costs depend, of course, on what the system looks like: Brampton's Zum operates on a four-corridor network, while Mississauga built an 18-kilometre, 12-station system that operates on a raised and traffic-free lane.

But it could certainly be built for a fraction of the proposed subway's estimate, Farber said, citing the main costs as painting lanes and installing traffic signals that give buses the right of way at intersections.

BRT means different things to different municipalities. In Bogota, Colombia, considered to be one of the cities that's been most successful in implementing the concept, the buses run along raised central lanes that are off-limits to other vehicles. Raised platforms dot the landscape much like those along stretches of the Spadina streetcar's route in Toronto.

Farber said the city could start small: redrawing existing lanes and designating one lane "bus only" before investing in raised roads.

Toronto city council did not consider the option of a BRT. Instead, they voted to continue with plans to extend the Bloor-Danforth subway line to Scarborough Centre. (THE CANADIAN PRESS)

The idea also comes with a built-in ridership.

About 304,000 people ride the roughly 20 bus routes in Scarborough each weekday. While it's unlikely that each of those routes would be a candidate for a dedicated transit lane, most of the main corridors — like Lawrence, Sheppard, Eglinton, Finch, Kennedy and McCowan — are wide enough to do so.

The capital investment required by the subway is a bad deal. - Steven Farber , University of Toronto human geography professor

The subway extension, meanwhile, won't hit its peak number of passengers until 2031 — an anticipated 7,300 people per hour — about one-third of the daily capacity of the buses.

"I think the capital investment required by the subway is a bad deal compared to being able to use that money to just be able to ramp up this service," Farber said. "We have tons of buses … we just need to get them out of traffic and given better priority."

Buses 'not a desirable option': city

A city report released in June, however, found that replacing the aging Scarborough RT with buses is "not a desirable option," saying it would mean buying 63 new buses, creating slower and less reliable service and would not encourage growth around Scarborough.

It did not, however, address the specific possibility of a BRT.

The city had considered a BRT network for the Eglinton Crosstown LRT line that's now under construction, but a 2009 municipal report found that light rail would better suit the demand in the area. There's no mention in the report of BRT as a replacement for the Scarborough RT.

"Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) would not provide the capacity or the level of service needed for connecting Scarborough Centre to the rapid transit network," said an emailed statement from James Perttula, the city's acting director of transportation planning. "The introduction of BRT may be appropriate for some other heavily used transit corridors as the planning for Scarborough's rapid transit network is further refined and developed."