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Canada Post Postal Sorting Station (675 Commissioners, Canada Post, 1s, Kingsland Architects)

This was a land swap with the City (CP bought Showtime Studios at 915/945 Lake Shore and the City did not want the land use to change) but does CP intend to retain 600 Commissioners as well? Because I imagine TTC might be interested given 600 is adjacent to TTC Lakeshore Garage.
 
It's significantly overcapacity, along with many of the buildings they built in the last 5-10 years. They didn't plan for parcel growth. I've worked at 600 commissioners, there's not enough space. There is absolutely no reason to build a second delivery depot right down the street unless they are replacing the existing one.
 
This building permit was issued (and work is underway).:

Application:
Drain and Site Service
Status:
Permit Issued
Location:
675 COMMISSIONERS ST
TORONTO ON
Ward 30: Toronto-Danforth
Application#:
18 184326 STS 00 DR
Issued Date:
Jun 26, 2018
Project:
Industrial
Work:
Site Service
Description:
Stand alone site servicing appication for new underground services, catch basins, interceptors, manholes, and backflow preventors.
 
Today.

2143069C-5F9A-4ED9-B14E-BE2FA84FA4DB.jpeg
 
This building is moving on - boring though it is. It is now pretty much all enclosed and they are now adding the siding along Leslie and the parking lots are 75% paved. QUESTION: What is happening to the rail line they cut and built over? It serves (served?) the Ashbridges Bay sewage treatment plat (2 trains a week I am told) and the line also went along Unwin Street to the Cruise Ship Terminal. Last year they did quite a bit of work on upgrading it to the Sewage Plant and in spring 2019 they did some minor work on it along Unwin (where I do not think a train has been seen for years!) but now both are cut off. What's going on? There was some speculation above that they would reinstate it on Leslie Street itself but ....
 
Open Railway Map currently has the spur as an active 'Industrial Line' through to Strada Lane where it becomes 'Disused track'. The document at the top of this page indicates it will be 'relocated to Leslie Street' in a "separate but parallel process". Not sure beyond that...
 
So, Canada Post now has 3 buildings in the Portlands area? (675 and 600 Commissioners and the South Central Letter Processing Plant on Eastern)
.....why?

Also for that rail spur, it also looks like the treatment plant has been doing either removal or retrofitting on the rail spur within the property. If you look on Google maps (which is a bit old, they dont show the CP development at all) you can see that the rails have been torn up just a bit east of where it splits. They may possibly be moving to a water based shipping method, ive seen them developing their lakeside infrastructure recently. But your guess is as good as mine.

Is there a separate post where I can rant about the idiocy of the rails within the lower portlands? It's kind of off topic here
 
So, Canada Post now has 3 buildings in the Portlands area? (675 and 600 Commissioners and the South Central Letter Processing Plant on Eastern)
.....why?

Also for that rail spur, it also looks like the treatment plant has been doing either removal or retrofitting on the rail spur within the property. If you look on Google maps (which is a bit old, they dont show the CP development at all) you can see that the rails have been torn up just a bit east of where it splits. They may possibly be moving to a water based shipping method, ive seen them developing their lakeside infrastructure recently. But your guess is as good as mine.

Is there a separate post where I can rant about the idiocy of the rails within the lower portlands? It's kind of off topic here
The rail line is owned by CreateToronto (formerly Portlands Development Corp) and goes to both sewage plant and (along Unwin) to the Cruise Ship Terminal part of the Port. I have been told that having it there is a Ports Toronto obligation on the City (or CreateToronto) and they actually did lots of repairs on it in 2018 which is probably what is showing on Google maps. They replaced lots of rail around the Y junction just behind Sunbelt Rentals and also along Unwin Street. Typically, the line was then cut when work started on the Canada Post building and it now serves no purpose. The CP building was allowed on assumption it will be reconnected but .... I am not sure that having a rail line in the Portlands is a bad idea (at least while it is more industrial than anything) and it hardly interfered with any recreational use as the Sewage plant trains (1 -2 a week) were at night and trains have not gone to the Cruise Ship area for ages. I would certainly say that it is far less polluting to remove sewage waste by train than by truck so I am not really sure why you need to rant about rails in Portlands. But if you do .....
 
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The rail line is owned by CreateToronto (formerly Portlands Development Corp) and goes to both sewage plant and (along Unwin) to the Cruise Ship Terminal part of the Port. I have been told that having it there is a Ports Toronto obligation on the City (or CreateToronto) and they actually did lots of repairs on it in 2018 which is probably what is showing on Google maps. They replaced lots of rail around the Y junction just behind Sunbelt Rentals and also along Unwin Street. Typically, the line was then cut when work started on the Canada Post building and it now serves no purpose. The CP building was allowed on assumption it will be reconnected but .... I am not sure that having a rail line in the Portlands is a bad idea (at least while it is more industrial than anything) and it hardly interfered with any recreational use as the Sewage plant trains (1 -2 a week) were at night and trains have not gone to the Cruise Ship area for ages. I would certainly say that it is far less polluting to remove sewage waste by train than by truck so I am not really sure why you need to rant about rails in Portlands. But if you do .....

A few years ago there was a very under the table idea to utilize these rails for an LRT or some sort of public transit (not the rails themselves but the space they occupy) and the discussion was brought up as to why it wouldnt be possible because the rails are currently being used. (for reference, the rail spur in question was the entirety from the don river all through the portlands) I was told that there were 3 obligations on that spur, a roof shingle factory, the Ashbridges Bay treatment plant, and the cruise ship terminal. The shingle factory has their spur off lake shore, which I dont think there is any indication of that moving/changing soon. And with the investments made by the treatment plant, I think they have intentions to move away from rail if possible. That leaves the cruise ship terminal which is the biggest issue in my opinion. When I asked the city about their involvement with that portion of the rail spur (which I have never seen a train go down) they said "we dont use it, we just try to keep it in good order, its the federal government that says they might eventually use it and so we cant remove it" and if you look at the map release by the Toronto Portlands Company here it is in fact federal land.

So my point is basically, either use it or get rid of it, if the feds want it either for a potential redevelopment of the cruise ship terminal land or something else, THEN USE IT. Or, if the province wants to do something with the Hearn (in which the rails run directly through) then do something there. I just think its a waste of potential space.
 
A few years ago there was a very under the table idea to utilize these rails for an LRT or some sort of public transit (not the rails themselves but the space they occupy) and the discussion was brought up as to why it wouldnt be possible because the rails are currently being used. (for reference, the rail spur in question was the entirety from the don river all through the portlands) I was told that there were 3 obligations on that spur, a roof shingle factory, the Ashbridges Bay treatment plant, and the cruise ship terminal. The shingle factory has their spur off lake shore, which I dont think there is any indication of that moving/changing soon. And with the investments made by the treatment plant, I think they have intentions to move away from rail if possible. That leaves the cruise ship terminal which is the biggest issue in my opinion. When I asked the city about their involvement with that portion of the rail spur (which I have never seen a train go down) they said "we dont use it, we just try to keep it in good order, its the federal government that says they might eventually use it and so we cant remove it" and if you look at the map release by the Toronto Portlands Company here it is in fact federal land.

So my point is basically, either use it or get rid of it, if the feds want it either for a potential redevelopment of the cruise ship terminal land or something else, THEN USE IT. Or, if the province wants to do something with the Hearn (in which the rails run directly through) then do something there. I just think its a waste of potential space.
As we have seen with the CP building, if the (hardly used) rail is in the way they simply get rid of it. If they do not replace the missing section at CP building the rest of it is useless anyway. The shingle factory does have a spur across Lake Shore but from looking at the tracks it has not seen a train for ages.
 
I finally heard back from someone at CreateTO who told me that they are re-evaluating the use of (and thus the re-location of) the rail line that was cut when the Canada Post building was built. Apparently CP refused to share the land with the rail line and CreateTO were supposed to re-locate it onto Leslie but then discovered that there were lots of utilities there and cost of doing so would be very high. He assured me that the work on the Don River rail bridge that was done 2 years ago was done for safety reasons but if rail is abandoned it can still be used (for ???) and that the Water Treatment Plant is thinking of moving from chemical treatment of the waste water (the line is/was used to bring the chemicals into the plant) and Ports Toronto have not used their line to the Cruise Ship terminal for a decade (though it too has had maintenance.) . Seems like someone wasted LOTS of money maintaining this line and then failed to check it could be relocated cheaply when they sold the land at Commissioners & Leslie to Canada Post. No doubt all the traffic can be handled by trucks but .....
 

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