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Cycling: West Toronto Railpath (City of Toronto, Phase II Proposed)

DonValleyRainbow said:
If there are any significant impacts proposed, prepare to hear hell about it.

The other things that strike me are a) the City is now open about potential plans to extend WTR northwest, as well as create a new railpath along Barrie, and b) the WTR east of Lansdowne may become a trunk for bike traffic if significant ridership is generated by both of these expansions.
Click to expand...

The Barrie corridor connection has been pushed strongly by local residents ever since the Davenport Diamond Grade Separation project came up again. Make sense to attempt to connect that proposed trail to the Railpath instead of leaving it as an unconnected stub. I think the City is on board with that idea, but it's a matter of working with Metrolinx within the rail corridor to make that connection between Bloor and Dundas. There's also a push to get the north end of that Davenport Diamond trail connected up to Earlscourt Park...and the proposed Green Line..... See how that all comes together so nicely? I hope that can all happen.
 
I went to the railpath/fourth track info session last night. Some of the takeaways, in no particular order:
  • A tunnel is proposed at Randolph Ave with an elevator and stairs. Construction is set to begin in 2018 and will take six months to a year, during which the railpath will be closed at Bloor Station.
  • The tunnel will have knock-out panels to connect through the Crossways garage to the TTC platforms, but the timeline for completion of that connection is still sometime after 2022 (!).
  • The fourth track won't be usable until the tunnel under the 401 is expanded, and that is not scheduled to be complete until 2025. So this expansion is unlikely to come with service improvements in the short term.
  • The city has been working with Metrolinx to develop the drainage infrastructure to leave as much space as possible for the path. The latest plans maintain the width of the railpath through all pinch points and minimize realignment.
  • Metrolinx is proposing to repave and update the landscaping for the entire corridor between Dupont and south of Bloor, even where the path doesn't require realignment. They have brought on Scott Torrance, who worked on the original landscape design. They are also proposing some new public art, including a mural on the Red Cross building south of Randolph Avenue.
  • Metrolinx will require 3600 sq m of city-owned land along the existing railpath alignment (18% of the gross area). The city has negotiated a land swap with Metrolinx to allow development of the south extension of the railpath. (Metrolinx had previously been proposing a long-term lease arrangement with the city, which the city was not enthused about.)
  • A new park is proposed for the east side of the railpath just north of Ernest Ave. I believe the land was the parkland dedication for a nearby development. Three concepts were presented at the meeting: one was mostly plantings, one was a plaza, and the other was a sort of raised tabletop with seating on the edge by the path.
Some snaps of the plans are attached. Hatched green area is the new park, dotted lines are present-day railpath alignment. I didn't get any pics of the park concepts, but the plans are supposed to be emailed out to attendees soon.

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smably said:
I went to the railpath/fourth track info session last night. Some of the takeaways, in no particular order:
  • A tunnel is proposed at Randolph Ave with an elevator and stairs. Construction is set to begin in 2018 and will take six months to a year, during which the railpath will be closed at Bloor Station.
  • The tunnel will have knock-out panels to connect through the Crossways garage to the TTC platforms, but the timeline for completion of that connection is still sometime after 2022 (!).
  • The fourth track won't be usable until the tunnel under the 401 is expanded, and that is not scheduled to be complete until 2025. So this expansion is unlikely to come with service improvements in the short term.
  • The city has been working with Metrolinx to develop the drainage infrastructure to leave as much space as possible for the path. The latest plans maintain the width of the railpath through all pinch points and minimize realignment.
  • Metrolinx is proposing to repave and update the landscaping for the entire corridor between Dupont and south of Bloor, even where the path doesn't require realignment. They have brought on Scott Torrance, who worked on the original landscape design. They are also proposing some new public art, including a mural on the Red Cross building south of Randolph Avenue.
  • Metrolinx will require 3600 sq m of city-owned land along the existing railpath alignment (18% of the gross area). The city has negotiated a land swap with Metrolinx to allow development of the south extension of the railpath. (Metrolinx had previously been proposing a long-term lease arrangement with the city, which the city was not enthused about.)
  • A new park is proposed for the east side of the railpath just north of Ernest Ave. I believe the land was the parkland dedication for a nearby development. Three concepts were presented at the meeting: one was mostly plantings, one was a plaza, and the other was a sort of raised tabletop with seating on the edge by the path.
Some snaps of the plans are attached. Hatched green area is the new park, dotted lines are present-day railpath alignment. I didn't get any pics of the park concepts, but the plans are supposed to be emailed out to attendees soon.

View attachment 128561 View attachment 128562 View attachment 128563
Click to expand...

Thanks very much for the update. Was there any info shared about timing for either design or completion of the southward extension?
 
ADRM said:
Thanks very much for the update. Was there any info shared about timing for either design or completion of the southward extension?
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, no. I did ask some of the Metrolinx staff there about the extension, but it's dependent on the Barrie Corridor double-tracking, and they were all working on the Kitchener Corridor project and didn't know much about the Barrie work.
 
smably said:
  • The fourth track won't be usable until the tunnel under the 401 is expanded, and that is not scheduled to be complete until 2025. So this expansion is unlikely to come with service improvements in the short term.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the report - all in all this is good news for the Railpath and its connections.

I have to gasp at this part, however. The 401 underpass is going to take as long as the West Toronto tunnel did? Ml sees no benefit or service potential from having a fourth track at least as far as the existing interlocking just east of Islington?

I’m pretty sure that the new 401 tunnel could be hand excavated by teaspoon by 2025.

- Paul
 
crs1026 said:
I have to gasp at this part, however. The 401 underpass is going to take as long as the West Toronto tunnel did? Ml sees no benefit or service potential from having a fourth track at least as far as the existing interlocking just east of Islington?
Click to expand...
The info from Metrolinx was in response to a rather irate resident who wanted to know why the corridor was being expanded before electrification was complete, given promises from Metrolinx that diesel traffic wouldn't increase substantially beyond present-day levels. They were assured that the fourth track would be complete around the same time that the corridor was electrified, apparently around 2025. I suspect that this may be the source of the delay.
 
Does anyone have information about the new work that is happening in the parking lot of the NoFrills at Lansdowne/Dundas? It seems that the area along the train tracks is being redesigned and won't be part of the parking lot anymore. I wonder if this is already related to the railpath extension?
 
facepalming_brooklynite said:
Does anyone have information about the new work that is happening in the parking lot of the NoFrills at Lansdowne/Dundas? It seems that the area along the train tracks is being redesigned and won't be part of the parking lot anymore. I wonder if this is already related to the railpath extension?
Click to expand...

I haven't looked closely, but I noticed a couple of weeks ago that they added a drive-thru to their pharmacy back there.
 
[Note: I also posted this in the GO construction thread]

I realize this relates to Phase 1, but Phase 2 did come up at the meeting since it's part of the City-Metrolinx discussions related to this project.

Councillor Ana Bailao posted on January 30, 2018 the roll plan/site plan/track plan for the Bloor Station area showing how the 4th track on the Kitchener Line in this area will be added and the changes to the West Toronto Railpath. This plan was shown at a community meeting in November 2017 and is conceptual/not finalized. There is going to be a further meeting where they will revise the map based on feedback. Approximately 3,600 square metres in a linear orientation will be required from the ROW of the West Toronto Railpath park. The City and Metrolinx are negotiating on extending the Railpath further south. The actual width of the Railpath asphalt/concrete itself would not need to change. The PDF (warning, 25MB file) has a legend which describes what the various line colours represent.

On this PDF just note that the top most track would be the 4th new track for the Kitchener Line (it doesn't have a different colour from the rest) and that the existing centre platform isn't shown. The second-most eastern bridge truss over Bloor (added during the Georgetown South Project) will need to shift a little to the east for the fourth track. This can be done in one evening of work.

There will be a further public meeting on this project.
 
Allandale25 said:
[Note: I also posted this in the GO construction thread]

I realize this relates to Phase 1, but Phase 2 did come up at the meeting since it's part of the City-Metrolinx discussions related to this project.

Councillor Ana Bailao posted on January 30, 2018 the roll plan/site plan/track plan for the Bloor Station area showing how the 4th track on the Kitchener Line in this area will be added and the changes to the West Toronto Railpath. This plan was shown at a community meeting in November 2017 and is conceptual/not finalized. There is going to be a further meeting where they will revise the map based on feedback. Approximately 3,600 square metres in a linear orientation will be required from the ROW of the West Toronto Railpath park. The City and Metrolinx are negotiating on extending the Railpath further south. The actual width of the Railpath asphalt/concrete itself would not need to change. The PDF (warning, 25MB file) has a legend which describes what the various line colours represent.

On this PDF just note that the top most track would be the 4th new track for the Kitchener Line (it doesn't have a different colour from the rest) and that the existing centre platform isn't shown. The second-most eastern bridge truss over Bloor (added during the Georgetown South Project) will need to shift a little to the east for the fourth track. This can be done in one evening of work.

There will be a further public meeting on this project.
Click to expand...

Is the reference to extending it further south a reference to moving forward the already-announced southern extension (to just past Queen), or are they talking about extending it even further south?
 
ADRM said:
Is the reference to extending it further south a reference to moving forward the already-announced southern extension (to just past Queen), or are they talking about extending it even further south?
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's not that far in distance, but a huge difference in terms of avoiding the madness of Queen and Dufferin.
 
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