nfitz
Superstar
What should be there is densified commercial and residential around the new station. If there was to be a yard there, it should be under a development!
Toronto Ontario Line 3 | ?m | ?s | Metrolinx
- Thread starter JasonParis
- Start date
smallspy
Senior Member
No, it's really not the perfect place for it at all. A perfect place for it would be on the lands of the former Leaside Yard.
Dan
fanoftoronto
Active Member
Sorry where is the former Leaside yard?
Did Metrolinx provide a reasoning why it wasn't chosen?
skto
New Member
Poster misleads. The liberals and greens aren't the government so they don't have anymore info than us. Makes it sound they didn't care at the debate. Not what I heard. Mark Saunders lied all night he would find out mystery how metrolinx missed talking to the community and he would make it better because he knows Doug Ford. NDP has no plan. All night train yard or rent control or anything NDP playing on emotions. Never offered a plan for anything.
smallspy
Senior Member
The former Leaside Yard is the large swath of land adjacent to the CP mainline, roughly centered on the Overlea overpass.
It seems to me that the ideal situation for almost all aggrieved parties - not just those from Thorncliffe Park - would have been for Metrolinx to buy the entirety of the lands, pay to realign the CP mainline to the north of the property, and then use the remaining to allow for both the maintenance facility for the Ontario Line and layover storage for GO trains.
I'm not certain that they've ever acknowledged it as an option.
Dan
rbt
Senior Member
Indeed. I look at Davisville station which is severely under-utilitized on one side, and it seems pretty clear that mistake is being made again.
I'm not sure it was a viable option, for political reasons rather than technical ones. The timeline to negotiate such a deal would have pushed tenders on the other side of this election.
Northern Light
Superstar
Just to add to what @smallspy said above, here's an aerial pic of the former yard;
This is a close-up just west of Millwood, the active rails are the current CP mainline:
This is closer to Bayview, you can see a single track to the south (right) of the yard area in a sort of gully or ditch as it descends to go under Bayview Avenue, that track connects (non-operating) to the Metrolinx-owned
track in the valley.
I don't have any official reasons as it pertains to the GO layover function, but informally, I'm under the impression there was a desire to avoid the cost of rebuilding the 1/2 mile bridge in the near-term. I never asked about the site as an Ontario Line layover; also, Mx doesn't own the yard lands, so would have to negotiate a purchase, I believe they thought the valley option would be cheaper and faster to deliver; but I am surmising that.
hawc
Senior Member
I thought NIBYism was bad in Cabbagetown, but I guess it knows no bounds. People hate progress. They always have an excuse for why things shouldn't change. I invite people to drive up (or bicycle or walk up) and see the piece of land the locals are crying over. It'll make you laugh.
fanoftoronto
Active Member
The rail yard seems way too long and thin to be efficient as a rail yard for the OL though. I might be wrong though, but just looking at the building layout in the current plan.
Also, I feel like they're saving that for future expansion of the yard once a westward expansion is built. Notice the tracks leading into the CP rail yard in the image below.
generalcanada
Senior Member
i might be wrong but that track connecting to CP is for train deliveries, that feature exists for the crosstown if you look up there. they could expand into the hydro corridor if Ontario hydro lets them in the future. it could take many years but it could work
smallspy
Senior Member
And yet, Metrolinx's current plan for the storage facility is a goddamned hot mess in how it's been designed. There are three discrete areas all spread out from each other. They could almost accumulate the requisite mileage for all of the equipment simply by running it with the maintenance facility.
(Yes, this is hyperbole. But only slightly.)
For the record, Metrolinx also owns the former Leaside Station property - immediately north-east of the gas station - so there is actually a reasonably wide area with which they could easily build a ground-level maintenance facility for the Ontario Line. All told, the land of Leaside Yard is more than twice the area that they claim they need for the facility.
Not future expansion. Those are various edifices required for the running maintenance of the line, such as the wheel lathe, wash track and a building for the MOW forces. There is also a delivery track that connects with CP.
Dan
M II A II R II K
Senior Member
When will they come up with actual names for the Bathurst and Spadina stations.
asher__jo
Active Member
The horror if those are actually the names
JSF-1
Active Member
Well the names that stand out to me would be "Alexandra Park" for the stop at Spadina, and "Niagara" for the stop at Bathurst although you can make the case this one shouldn't be used. There is also Queen West as an option for the stop at Spadina since that is literally the more well known name of the neighbourhood, but Metrolinx hates cardinal directions. Of course Metrolinx is no stranger to having guidelines and then completely ignoring them (looking at you Cedarvale and Hakimi-Lebovic) so who knows what asinine names they will come up with.
Undead
Senior Member
They'll name it after a menu item at a long demolished local pub.