McCowan Road is a major north-south thoroughfare in the Greater Toronto Area, Canada. It runs through the city of Toronto and into the Regional Municipality of York where it ends at the Town of Georgina. The road was named for the McCowan Family, a Scottish family patriarch who settled in the area in 1833. The street, the former Lot 22, and later McCowan's Sideroad (officially called McCowan Road by Scarborough Township in 1956), begins at Kingston Road in the City of Toronto and ends at Baseline Road in the Town of Georgina. In Scarborough, there is a brief break at the Highland Creek between Lawrence and Eglinton Avenues; Danforth Road carries most of the traffic south-southwest of Lawrence. When the Scarborough Town Centre complex was opened in 1973, interchange access to Highway 401 was opened, with Exit 381. With greater vehicle usage, in that area, the road is now 6 lanes from Ellesmere Road to Sheppard Avenue, and additional exit ramps to/from the 401 have been constructed at nearby Brimley Road. North of Sheppard Avenue, CP Rail's Toronto marshalling yards use McCowan as a western limit, and stretch east of Markham Road.

Route description

McCowan Road runs from Kingston Road north to Steeles Avenue, where it becomes York Regional Road 67 in York Region. It is interrupted by a brief 375-meter gap north of Eglinton Avenue due to Highland Creek, where McCowan Park and John McCrae Public School are located. During this break, Danforth Road carries through traffic for approximately 1.75 kilometers. Formerly known as 7th Line in Markham, McCowan Road now intersects Highway 401 at the Scarborough Town Centre, built in 1973. The Scarborough Rapid Transit Line, opened in 1985, crosses McCowan on an elevated track at this location. North of Sheppard Avenue, the road borders the western edge of the Canadian Pacific Railway Toronto marshalling yards, which extend east of Markham Road.

Public transit

McCowan Road is served mainly by TTC Route 129A. Since this is a TTC route running north of Steeles Avenue, passengers must pay another fare when crossing Steeles Avenue. McCowan Road also serves as a temporary terminus for Viva Green lines at McCowan Vivastation at Highway 7 until the Cornell Terminal is completed. Other routes using portions of McCowan Road are YRT Routes 40 (Unionville Local), Route 41 (Markham Local), Route 42 (Breczy South Unionville), Route 45 (Mingay), Route 522(Markham Community Bus) and TTC Route 53B (Steeles East) The Toronto Transit Commission's Scarborough RT line ends at McCowan Station, but all the connecting buses terminate at the Scarborough Centre Station. These include:

Landmarks

McCowan Road stretches across Toronto, Markham, Whitchurch-Stouffville, and Georgina. Here are some nearby Landmarks it runs through:

Road information

Major cross roads

(from south to north)