FRESH NEW IDEAS: Create the West Scarborough Railpath to connect neighbourhoods, says Kevin Rupasinghe

Fresh New Ideas lets municipal candidates bring one proposal to improve their ward, city or school board directly to the public.

WHERE: Scarborough Southwest (Ward 20), between Victoria Park Avenue and Kennedy Road.

THE PLAN: Kevin Rupasinghe, a Ward 20 candidate for councillor, stood on a disused rail bridge over St. Clair Avenue East.

“Most people don’t know this bridge is here,” he said, as subway cars rolled out of Warden Station on a parallel crossing just metres away.

Railway ties remained, but rails had vanished from this part of what Rupasinghe calls the West Scarborough Railpath, a plan to connect neighbourhoods inside a ward he said is cut into pieces by the subway, ravines and a GO corridor.

“In one move you could connect all these together.”

The proposal Rupasinghe’s making part of his campaign has excited people, he said, because besides offering a potential multi-use trail over six kilometres between Kennedy Road and Victoria Park Avenue, it would connect to Scarborough’s emerging trail network.

That means when The Meadoway, an east-west linear park, is completed, ward residents on bicycles “can go downtown or to the zoo,” he said.

West Scarborough Railpath could also get people to transit by giving them an alternative to the intersection outside Warden Station residents see as busy and dangerous, Rupasinghe said. “Everybody I talk to about this intersection hates it.”

This graphic shows how the West Scarborough Railpath might connect neighbourhoods from Victoria Park Avenue to Kennedy Road. — Kevin Rupasinghe graphic

THE INSPIRATION: Rupasinghe, who lives near Kennedy and St. Clair, said the idea for a West Scarborough Railpath first crossed his mind when he was on the subway seeing unused green spaces he thought could be stitched into something resembling the West Toronto Railpath through The Junction.

People talked about building a connecting path through southwest Scarborough for decades, he said on a green space near Warden Hilltop Community Centre as dragonflies buzzed overhead. Why not try this?

“There’s no reason you couldn’t,” Rupasinghe concluded.

Running for mayor, councillor or trustee in Toronto this year? Have a plan that will change something for the better? Describe it to us under the subject line Fresh New Ideas at newsroom@toronto.com.