Feature Photograph

This shot (by James Bow) may or may not be possible in five years time. This picture is of McCowan carhouse, opened to the public for a tour on Saturday, January 28, 2011. Two ICTS trains rest on tracks 6 (left) and 7 (right) of McCowan carhouse shops, as seen from the western doors.

McCowan carhouse has had an uncertain future for past decade. Hemmed in on all sides by development, the facility can’t be expanded, and would likely have to be replaced with a new yard near Bellamy Avenue if the Scarborough RT was extended to serve the Malvern community. Recently, the debate over Transit City and the line’s impending 30 year anniversary (and the end of its cars’ design life) have led for calls for the line to be replaced by an LRT or an extension of the Bloor-Danforth subway.

In the meantime, the yard’s fifty employees continue to work diligently to keep the Scarborough RT’s cars in operation. You can see new photographs of McCowan carhouse here and an update of our history of the Scarborough RT, with new photographs here.