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Maps of Toronto's old rail lines?

Port Lands rail spur. I was out cycling today and in the last few days 'they' have removed the rail and paved the area where the Port lands Rail spur crossed at the entrance to Cherry Beach Park (at the junction of Cherry Street & Unwin Avenue.) One of the reasons I was given a few years ago on why they had to maintain this line was to serve the port and was told that Ports Toronto insisted it be useable. Well, so much for that!

I bet the whole line will be removed soon as it is clearly not going to be used - at least further west than the Ashbridges Bay sewage plant spur and THAT is inaccessible at the moment because the City agreed to Canada Post building on top of it!
 
^ He also recently did an online lecture series that was fanatic. I attended one of them on the history of Don Station, and another on the history of the John Street Roundhouse. I can't recall if they are online but highly recommend people check them out if they are available.
 
It would be cool to see all of the Interurban lines from Toronto on a map, but without any other rail lines.

All the maps ive seen so far have the interurbans overtop of existing new lines, old streetcar lines etc.

Does a map of just Interurban lines exist?
 
robmausser said:
It would be cool to see all of the Interurban lines from Toronto on a map, but without any other rail lines.

All the maps ive seen so far have the interurbans overtop of existing new lines, old streetcar lines etc.

Does a map of just Interurban lines exist?
Click to expand...

Yes.


spacing.ca

Two of the greatest Canadian railway resources you'll explore for many hours - Spacing National

Two weeks ago I wrote my Toronto Star column on how Toronto was shaped by the railways (as is the case with many Canadian cities and towns). They’re as powerful a force on our urban form as any landform is. You can read it here, but that column led to finding two incredible railway...
spacing.ca
 
UrbanJon said:
www.blogto.com

People want to transform an old Toronto bridge into a nature trail

The Don Valley has many of Toronto's best trails and wild areas in the city, and some people would like to see the city go a step further and create …
www.blogto.com www.blogto.com

Just found this. The Wonscotonach Trail sounds like a much better use for the Don Branch than what Metrolinx has planned.
Click to expand...
I humbly disagree. We've lost so many good corridors which we could have used for new transit projects today. The Don Branch could be a valuable connector between the North Toronto subdivision and Union if passenger rail service is ever allowed on the midtown corridor, such as for VIA's High Frequency Rail plan. I'd rather we save it for some form of rail service in the future than completely loose the option to use it for any transit/passenger rail projects in the future.
 
UrbanJon said:
www.blogto.com

People want to transform an old Toronto bridge into a nature trail

The Don Valley has many of Toronto's best trails and wild areas in the city, and some people would like to see the city go a step further and create …
www.blogto.com www.blogto.com

Just found this. The Wonscotonach Trail sounds like a much better use for the Don Branch than what Metrolinx has planned.
Click to expand...

The Don Branch could be better utilized than train storage; and likely will be.............it has been quietly discussed as the preferred way to handle the need to grade-separate the Bala Sub at Pottery Road; and to mitigate flooding risk to the sub as well.

The impact to nature and the cost of grade separating Pottery are both high, very high.

The way to avoid this is to route trains up the Don Branch, then have them go past the half-mile bridge, hugging the DVP to some point past Pottery Road, where a new bridge would be built to connect to the existing Bala alignment.

This, would in turn, allow the existing Don Parkland from just north of Gerrard, to Pottery Road to be connected to Bayview, no more fences. (removing the existing Bala sub tracks).

****

The other thing is, the Don Branch runs immediately below the DVP, on a high, retaining wall.

Anyone walking/biking up there would not only have to endure the noise and pollution of the DVP right above them, but would also be physically isolated from the valley below (in other words, trapped, for a fair distance, with no means of egress). To be sure, a stair case or ramp could be added in one or two spots, but it would be far from ideal.

The half-mile bridge itself could support pedestrian access potentially, with or without active rail (it needs to be reconstructed anyway, its in very rough shape).....

The north end does have potential for a trail linking the Brickworks to Crothers Woods.
 
Nomad_87 said:
I humbly disagree. We've lost so many good corridors which we could have used for new transit projects today. The Don Branch could be a valuable connector between the North Toronto subdivision and Union if passenger rail service is ever allowed on the midtown corridor, such as for VIA's High Frequency Rail plan. I'd rather we save it for some form of rail service in the future than completely loose the option to use it for any transit/passenger rail projects in the future.
Click to expand...

100%.

Canada transit "planning"

Step 1: Sell off disused railway corridors or use for parks etc.

Step 2: Tunnel under the same area at billions of dollars because there is no room for above ground transit expansion.

Scarb subway would be a non-story if the Canadian Northern railway wasn't sold off to housing development.

Richmond Hill would be electrified as part of GO RER if Leaside Spur wasnt made into rail trail, potentially negating or minimizing the need for the Yonge subway line extension.

We need to put a stop to this.
 
Allandale25 said:
^ But is it all wasted if the City entered into an OMB/LPAT settlement protecting the rail corridor? Why would they do that if it was going to be too expensive to rebuild or go around Canada Post? Won't they need to start a new OPA process to remove the transportation corridor if they want to? Here's what I was told:



I've posted this before in this thread I believe.

I assume things got delayed because of covid-19, so I'll ask for an update.

OPA 387: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JKF-4EaCc2DFo698AIrYM4EnWbT4ltbn/view?usp=sharing

Decision: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JKvDi7BmyDeAVVstuPPK-Aq--iW_vM-W/view?usp=sharing
Click to expand...

Posted an update in the GO Construction thread.

GO Transit: Construction Projects (Metrolinx, various)

Woodbine Station will have to be completed before they can close and demolish Etobicoke North’s platform. - Paul Fully completed? Or could they just align the tracks for the platform configuration and then just build in the platforms, etc.? I'm thinking of the Mount Dennis Station staging as...
urbantoronto.ca urbantoronto.ca
 
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