That is where the branch to the Canpa Subdivision to the CP line breaks off and that passes a major intermodal terminal on North Queen St. Also at the same point a track breaks off the mainline into the south side of the Mimico Yard which CN might be keeping.
Yeah, seconding this.... in railgeekspeak, they're looking to buy from the west end of USRC to Canpa Junction.
I think if you dig back a month or two, you'll see we actually talked about just this matter, and what-sized bites of track GO/Metrolinx was in a position to be swallowing at time.
Canpa Junction is a sensible-enough transfer point for ownership: it ensures that GO has full control over all train movements between Willowbrook and Union, lets CN retain ownership of most of the trackage which has industrial spurs leading off of it (one notable exception being Mr. Christie, who will now need to ask GO nicely to let his good cookies roll out via their tracks when they're not using them), and allows the occasional CN-to-CP (and vice versa) freight movement to occur along the CP Canpa subdivision without entangling a third actor in the horse-trading.
GO buying this would also mark a critical "snip" moment for CN's history in Toronto. While GO, via the TTR, has owned the Union Station Rail Corridor for some time, the Union bypass tracks have meant that CN's never had to worry about being encumbered when running through the city from their Oakville sub in the west, through GO's central portion of trackage from Bathurst to Cherry, and then onwards onto their Kingston sub in the east.
This exchange, however, will mean that CN loses their veto position on the corridor, and we'll go from a system where dozens of daily GO trips are "tenants" and two or so CN freight runs are "landlords" to the reverse. While I have no doubt that, as part of the fine print in any deal, GO will be obliged to be more than generous in allowing CN to continue making guest jogs across town along the tracks, it marks a legal point of no return. Indeed, assuming CN is okay with making a deal, it also erases any further psychological obstacle to them selling the Bala sub south of Doncaster Junction or parts of the Kingston sub---definitely any of it west of Scarborough Junction, and most likely any of it west of Durham Junction.
