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Topologically protected states are important in realizing robust excitation transfer between distant sites in photonic lattices. Here, we propose an efficient gap-protected transfer of photons in a scalable one-dimensional waveguide array by transporting the topological defect state of a Su–Schrieffer–Heeger model. The separation between neighboring waveguides is designed according to the Jaynes–Cummings model. As a result, the zero-energy eigenstate is topologically protected from the extended states by a constant energy gap, which leads to a fast and robust excitation transfer. We also show that the transport can be further sped up by the quasi-periodic oscillation induced by the non-adiabatic effect. This scheme has potential applications in scalable quantum information processing.