As of 2022[update], the plan was that the EELRT be designed and operated as a distinct service from Line 5 Eglinton; both would terminate at Kennedy station with no connecting track.

[4] As of November 2023[update], the estimated cost of the EELRT was $4.65 billion, with construction expected to occur between 2027 and 2034.

The Scarborough Malvern LRT was approved by Toronto City Council on 30 September 2009,[7] and the environmental assessment received a notice to proceed from the Government of Ontario on 15 December 2009.

[11] In 2016, the city council directed staff to resurrect and update the 2009 plan for the Scarborough Malvern LRT.

[14] The extension would add 18 new stops east of Kennedy station and serve an estimated 43,400 additional riders per day (a ridership similar to that of the Line 4 Sheppard subway).

[14][17] At a November 2017 public meeting, city staff presented the possibility of extending the Eglinton East LRT by six stops to Malvern Town Centre.

[19] By October 2020, the City of Toronto and the TTC were in the process of implementing bus-only lanes from Kennedy station to the University of Toronto Scarborough campus via Eglinton Avenue, Kingston Road and Morningside Avenue as part of the RapidTO bus rapid transit scheme, which approximates the route of the Eglinton East LRT.

As well as "red carpet" bus lanes, bus stops were also consolidated to approximately the same configuration and frequency of proposed LRT stations, with certain lower-order curbside stops – such as those at Huntington Avenue, Brimley Road, Oswego/Barbados Roads and Torrance Avenue – being removed entirely.

The tunnel portal at Kennedy station would be extended eastwards to Huntington Avenue due to changes in the Scarborough Subway Extension project, which involved modifying the depth of the tunnel as well as adding a third subway track for service improvements.

A new maintenance and storage facility north of the University of Toronto Scarborough was added to the plan as a result of the Sheppard East LRT cancellation.

[21] In December 2020, the council directed staff to study the entire original route to Malvern Town Centre[2] and begin a high-level design.

[3] Since the province had agreed to fully fund the Scarborough Subway Extension, Mayor John Tory requested in 2021 that the $1.2 billion the city had accumulated for that project be redirected to the Eglinton East line.

The city could choose another type of light-rail vehicle and would use the Conlins Yard as the line's maintenance and storage facility.

Previously considered tunnels between Kennedy station and Midland Avenue and under Kingston Road would be replaced by surface alignments.

There was also the possibility that the preferred site for the EELRT maintenance and storage facility at Sheppard Avenue and Conlins Road might not be available.

[1]: 4, 15, 19 The EELRT line would run for 18 kilometres (11 mi), with 27 new proposed stops between Kennedy station and two termini, one at Sheppard Avenue East and McCowan Road and the other at Malvern Town Centre.

A project map indicates that two tail tracks for the EELRT would extend to the west side of McCowan Road.

[3]: 29, 34, 37 The EELRT would use trains 50 metres (160 ft) long or less and use its own distinct vehicles (i.e. different from those used on Line 5 Eglinton) in order to better adapt to the line's conditions: no running in tunnels, shorter trains and platforms, and a better ability to climb grades to avoid expensive road infrastructure changes.

[4]: 8, 9  Light-rail vehicles would need to handle grades in excess of 6 percent, such as along Morningside Avenue, and be able to make sharp, 90-degree turns at street intersections.