Toronto GO Transit: Davenport Diamond Grade Separation | ?m | ?s | Metrolinx

I think VIA used to use that corridor when the rails were still in place between Barrie and Orillia but now it only uses the section between downtown and Vaughan (Snider Diamond) northbound to get to the line through Richmond Hill and comes southbound through the Don Valley due to the steeper grades on the line which runs up the Don Valley. I am fairly certain "The Canadian" never stopped at St.Clair but numerous other trains to Barrie and beyond did including the "Continental" (northbound at least).
 
Grades might have something to do with it, but I've heard that The Canadian is simply too long to turn around at the VIA Toronto Maintenance Centre. It arrives from Vancouver with the locomotives facing westbound and has to stay that way. As a result, the only way "forward" out of downtown is to use the Newmarket Sub.
 
RedRocket191 said:
Grades might have something to do with it, but I've heard that The Canadian is simply too long to turn around at the VIA Toronto Maintenance Centre. It arrives from Vancouver with the locomotives facing westbound and has to stay that way. As a result, the only way "forward" out of downtown is to use the Newmarket Sub.
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Toronto Maintenance Centre being Willowbrook?

Thanks for the info!
 
SGHA504 said:
Toronto Maintenance Centre being Willowbrook?
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Toronto Maintenance Centre being VIA's equivalent to Willowbrook in this part of the world. It is located opposite the mainline from GO's Willowbrook Shops.

For the record, the actual reason why The Canadian uses its current route is two-fold - one, the wye at TMC is only about 500 or 550 feet long, not nearly long enough to turn the whole train. Two, there isn't enough time to head to the nearest, longest wye (Bayview) to turn the train AND to clean and restock before its next trip back west.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.
 
smallspy said:
For the record, the actual reason why The Canadian uses its current route is two-fold - one, the wye at TMC is only about 500 or 550 feet long, not nearly long enough to turn the whole train. Two, there isn't enough time to head to the nearest, longest wye (Bayview) to turn the train AND to clean and restock before its next trip back west.
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I suppose Via could have built a westbound-to-northbound wye track at Canpa Junction, allowing them to do three-point turns immediately west of TMC using the Canpa Subdivision.

That said, I guess speed isn't really of the essence on The Canadian these days, so the current little maneuver at Snider isn't really causing them any harm. I know in part of northern Ontario they've relatively recently moved back to CP trackage for travel in one direction and CN the other. There's no real reason they couldn't use the CP MacTier sub when heading outbound and then rejoin the current route north of Lake Simcoe.
 
Anyone heard anything about the Barrie EA (and thus the Davenport Diamond) process getting going again? We're running out of 2012...
 
Davenport Diamond

This is about to go full-steam again.

I haven't heard any real details yet, but from what I understand, Metrolinx will be proposing a north-south overpass. Basically, start ramping upwards from Bloor St. and over the diamond. This would leave Wallace Ave. open, and possibly allow re-connection of Paton Rd. and Antler-Lappin. This could also mean flattening the Dupont St. underpass.

I don't think this was one of the options presented last time around. Does anyone have a copy of the previous info, anyway? The links on GO/Metrolinx sites have all disappeared.

Anyway, really itching to hear more detail, if anyone has it.

-Vic
 
vic said:
This is about to go full-steam again.

I haven't heard any real details yet, but from what I understand, Metrolinx will be proposing a north-south overpass. Basically, start ramping upwards from Bloor St. and over the diamond. This would leave Wallace Ave. open, and possibly allow re-connection of Paton Rd. and Antler-Lappin. This could also mean flattening the Dupont St. underpass.

I don't think this was one of the options presented last time around. Does anyone have a copy of the previous info, anyway? The links on GO/Metrolinx sites have all disappeared.

Anyway, really itching to hear more detail, if anyone has it.

-Vic
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Vic, what do you mean that "Wallace Ave" would be open? As in, Wallace would go under a new bridge? I wonder if it would have to be a low clearance bridge.

Also, there is some information here from 2009-2010 on this: http://www.junctiontriangle.ca/taxonomy/term/56. I've seen renderings before on what the separation would look like but I can't seem to find them now. For some reason, I seem to recall that one track would stay "at grade" and intersect with CP at a diamond and another track would go over. The diamond would stay for freight movements because the grade would be too steep otherwise. I could be wrong.

As for Paton Road, I would be surprised if it was re-opened as it's my understanding it was previously closed to cars and pedestrians do to crime concerns from the East side of the tracks: http://spacing.ca/toronto/2013/09/03/railways-and-freeways-barriers-to-pedestrians/

There was also the issue of "greening" the stub of Paton: http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2009/11/17/11771376-sun.html and more details here: http://www.junctiontriangle.ca/taxonomy/term/40?page=7
 
trudeau1982 said:
Vic, what do you mean that "Wallace Ave" would be open? As in, Wallace would go under a new bridge? I wonder if it would have to be a low clearance bridge.

Also, there is some information here from 2009-2010 on this: http://www.junctiontriangle.ca/taxonomy/term/56. I've seen renderings before on what the separation would look like but I can't seem to find them now. For some reason, I seem to recall that one track would stay "at grade" and intersect with CP at a diamond and another track would go over. The diamond would stay for freight movements because the grade would be too steep otherwise. I could be wrong.

As for Paton Road, I would be surprised if it was re-opened as it's my understanding it was previously closed to cars and pedestrians do to crime concerns from the East side of the tracks: http://spacing.ca/toronto/2013/09/03/railways-and-freeways-barriers-to-pedestrians/

There was also the issue of "greening" the stub of Paton: http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2009/11/17/11771376-sun.html and more details here: http://www.junctiontriangle.ca/taxonomy/term/40?page=7
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Trudeau,

One of the previously displayed options had a full closure of Wallace Ave. Apparently this new one will leave Wallace open. Yes, maybe it will be low clearance at that point. I also wonder if they would have to slightly dip Wallace down under the bridge.

Yeah...Junctiontriangle.ca is an awesome site with a fantastic webmaster (note: It's me). Unfortunately, when posting in the past about the Davenport Diamond I always *linked* to GO's documents instead of saving copies myself. Now they're gone.

The Paton Rd. safety issue had to do with a pedestrian underpass that was built in the 80s and very shortly thereafter closed. The underpass is still there, just bricked off. You can see the entrances on Google. An at-grade walkway connecting straight out of Erwin Krickhahn Park would be awesome...shorten the walk to Lansdowne subway, and provide access to that whole Wade/Jenet/Paton area that will probably turn into something really cool.

I would *love* to see more ped/bike crossings. Leave the motor traffic to use Wallace.

Just hoping to see more info soon. This will be neighbourhood-changing in scale.

-Vic
 
trudeau1982 said:
Vic, what do you mean that "Wallace Ave" would be open? As in, Wallace would go under a new bridge? I wonder if it would have to be a low clearance bridge.
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I figure that Wallace would work well as a pedestrian and bicycle underpass - those only need a couple metres of overhead clearance. Wallace is not needed as a through car route, Bloor and Dupont are immediately parallel and neighbourhoods on both sides of the tracks have easy access to them.

This pedestrian and bicycle underpass at Utrecht Lunetten station has a 45 metre ramp, which is exactly the space we have between Rankin and the tracks. In the Utrecht example, it doesn't look like the railway is even raised at all, so with even the slightest raise in our railway we could definitely fit in an underpass.
 
vic said:
Trudeau,

One of the previously displayed options had a full closure of Wallace Ave. Apparently this new one will leave Wallace open. Yes, maybe it will be low clearance at that point. I also wonder if they would have to slightly dip Wallace down under the bridge.

-Vic
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Just sent you an email with a copy of the presentation. Can you upload it to your website and post a link here so that others can see it? This is the presentation from Public Open House #1 which was held on April 22, 2009. I don't have the one from Public Open House #2 held in August 2009.
 
vic said:
This would leave Wallace Ave. open, and possibly allow re-connection of Paton Rd. and Antler-Lappin.
-Vic
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If Antler and Lappin are reconnected I propose the combined street be renamed Jackalope.
 
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