The current plan for what politicians and city officials say will be improved transit for Scarborough leaves Malvern and other residents in the northeast part of the city with commutes that are similar to the lengthy trips they make today, city data shows.

Earlier this year, local councillor for the area, Neethan Shan, claimed the plan to build a single-stop subway extension of the Bloor-Danforth line to the Scarborough Town Centre would save his Ward 42 (Scarborough-Rouge River) residents up to 30 minutes in travel time each way.

It was coupled with a powerful, emotional argument about what it would mean to have an extra hour each day with your family.

But that is not supported by any city, TTC or independent study of the funded transit plan.

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A subway, which is proposed to replace the aging Scarborough RT, would save commuters travelling from the Malvern area to Kennedy Station only eight minutes each way, including the time saved by eliminating a transfer to travel west of Kennedy, compared to the existing network, according to city data compiled by the Star. The improved trip would still include a lengthy bus or car ride.

Transit travel times from Malvern Town Centre to Kennedy Station

A public meeting Wednesday will ask residents for feedback on another element of the transit plan — a light rail line that would run from Kennedy Station along Eglinton Ave., up Kingston Rd. and north on Morningside Ave. to the University of Toronto Scarborough campus.

Ahead of that meeting, Shan — who has backed the one-stop subway — has launched a campaign to “Connect Malvern,” arguing the LRT should be extended further north.

But as the cost of the subway extension grows — today estimated at $3.35 billion — and with only $3.56 billion available, the Eglinton East LRT, as it is dubbed, remains unfunded.

A cancelled plan that was approved instead to replace the SRT with a seven-stop light rail line paid in full by the province would have cut the current travel time and future travel times with the subway in half for Malvern residents, according to studies already completed for that line.

That LRT would have stopped at Sheppard Ave. and Markham Rd. at the edge of Malvern. Phase two of the project was expected to see the line extended to stop at Malvern Town Centre.

Cherise Burda, who heads Ryerson University’s City Building Institute, called the bid to extend the Eglinton East LRT to Malvern “a consolation prize for agreeing to a subway that serves very few people.”

“It’s really unfortunate that the people of Scarborough and councillors are now understanding the implications, I think, of the poor political decisions that were made,” she said “In light of that, they should be presented with all the options in a fresh way. Put them all on the table.”

Shan said extending the Eglinton East line to Malvern has been discussed for years and it should not be left for a later date.

“Scarborough has had no rapid transit expansion in the last 30-plus years,” he said. “Scarborough Centre being a subway destination, a hub, is very critical for Scarborough to have the economic activity.”

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When asked why that connection needed to be a subway and how the current plan takes transit access away from residents, Shan said: “I’ve listened to the folks in my ward, and people know what it means to have a subway extended to Scarborough and what it would bring to Scarborough.”

His travel-time-savings claim, he said, was based on believing people currently avoiding the LRT would be driven to the new subway stop or catch a new express bus route that is currently not part of the transit network.

On the Eglinton East LRT, it would take 33 minutes to travel from where a Malvern stop was conceived — just southeast of the Malvern Town Centre at Sheppard Ave. and Morningside — to Kennedy Station, according to a 2009 environmental assessment, a provincial requirement in the planning process.

A separate environmental assessment for the LRT line that would have replaced the Scarborough RT — a plan that was scrapped under former mayor Rob Ford’s administration in 2013 in favour of a subway — would offer the quickest connection to Kennedy Station at 16 minutes.

That cuts the current travel time in half when accounting for 23 minutes on the bus from Malvern Town Centre to Scarborough Centre and eight minutes on the SRT to Kennedy, according to a 2010 TTC presentation. Travel time on the SRT is currently estimated at 12 minutes, according to a 2016 city report on Scarborough transit, which puts the current commute at 35 minutes.

A subway extended to Scarborough Centre would still require the 23-minute bus trip, but offer an improved trip — just seven minutes — to Kennedy on the subway, according to travel time figures in the 2016 document. That commute would total 30 minutes — twice as long as the cancelled LRT.

“Residents expect their local representatives to be honest with them, put people and facts before their own political interests, and support the transit plan that will get Malvern residents to where they want to go in the quickest time possible,” said Councillor Josh Matlow, who has challenged the lack of information to justify a subway. He has advocated for a return to the LRT network plan.

It’s unclear if the Malvern extensions of either LRT were ever publicly costed. A city spokesperson said staff were not able to locate costs. Metrolinx could not provide estimates before deadline.

Earlier studies found that both LRT extensions were not needed together, and the LRT running in the SRT corridor would be the preferred line for extension. The preferred alignment for that extension was designed to be partly tunneled and another part elevated, which would be more expensive than building the line at grade.

A 2010 study found a third of all passengers on the SRT travelled from the Malvern area. By 2031, that use by Malvern residents was expected to grow and would therefore “strengthen the need for the SRT extension,” an environmental assessment, a provincial requirement in the planning process, said.

Without better connections, Scarborough transit users lose out, said longtime transit advocate Steve Munro, who has documented the former studies on his website.

“The whole focus on getting the subway to (Scarborough Town Centre) and abandoning the idea of going further northeast really is a slap in the face of riders from that area.”

A public meeting on the Eglinton East LRT proposal is being held from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Nov. 29 at the Malvern Community Centre, 30 Sewells Rd.