West Toronto Railpath
Construct will be stalled on the southern portion until Blue22 is settled.
Construction's a go on West Toronto Railpath built on defunct CN line
Aug 06, 2008 04:30 AM
Theresa Boyle
Construction of the first trail to be built on an abandoned rail line in the Greater Toronto Area has finally begun, 10 years after the idea was first conceived.
Rough grading on the northern half of the highly anticipated bike trail was completed earlier this summer, and this week a crew will begin building steps to elevated sections of the path.
"I'm really thrilled that it's finally happening. It's been so long!" says Netami Stuart, of the group Friends of the West Toronto Railpath.
Still, she's holding her excitement in check. That's because the southern half of the trail is in limbo. It will remain stalled until the fate of the high-speed rail link from Union Station to Pearson airport is decided, say city officials.
"It's very annoying. By the time they make a decision on the fast link to Pearson, maybe I will have ... had children and they will be too old to bicycle," says Stuart.
When completed, the WTR will cut diagonally across the west end, from the Junction to Strachan Ave., along a rail corridor that was once part of the Grand Trunk Railway.
Though cyclists have been the most excited about the 5-kilometre trail, it will also be open to in-line skaters, dog walkers and joggers looking for a shortcut to the western edge of the city core.
Creating linear parks on old rail lines and hydro corridors is a practice cities across North America are increasingly adopting, taking advantage of rare vacant swaths of land.
The idea for the West Toronto Railpath was first raised by landscape architects Victor Ford and Associates in a 1998 report to the Toronto Cycling Committee as one of 46 cycling trail opportunities in rail and hydro corridors in the GTA.
"The (WTR) path is part of what is envisioned to be a pan-Toronto network of off-road bike paths. We're looking to complete that over the next 20 years," says Ward 18 Councillor Adam Giambrone. The city's plan is to have 1,000 kilometres of bikeways; so far, there are only 385.
"(There is) such a built-up city fabric already, so to get this sort of continuous flow through the city is quite a challenge," remarks Alex Shevchuk, an acting supervisor with the city's parks department.
The Roncesvalles-Macdonell Residents Association seized on Ford's idea for the WTR and began pushing for it in 2001. The Community Bicycle Network and Evergreen, a group supporting healthy communities, then joined the effort.
"I suspect once the southern piece is built, you're going to see tens of thousands of cyclists using it. It's an efficient corridor because it's diagonal," says Tom Timmins, formerly of the residents' association.
Still, it's anyone's guess when that half of the trail, from Dundas St. W. to Strachan Ave., will be built.
"It's going to be a few years before that's a reality, definitely, but that's the big dream," Shevchuk says.
This section would let cyclists connect to Wellington St. or the Martin Goodman Trail and make their way into the city centre.
The problem is West Toronto Railpath's proximity to active rail lines there. The closer the lines get to Union Station, the more they converge, forming a bottleneck. Running right through this would be the so-called Blue 22 high-speed rail link to Pearson, a project that has been stalled since 2006.
"It's all tied up in an environmental assessment process being conducted by GO Transit that is addressing both GO expansion and also the air-rail link," Shevchuk says.
Stuart disagrees with critics who contend that the 2.2-kilometre northern half of the path – from Cariboo Ave., north of Dupont St., to Dundas St. W., west of Lansdowne – will be a trail to nowhere.
"It connects to a lot of different things. It will get a lot of use," she argues of the path that borders on five neighbourhoods: the Junction, Wallace-Emerson, High Park, Dufferin Grove and Roncesvalles Village. At Bloor St., it hooks up with a GO station and a subway station.
The city spent about $4 million to buy the property from CP in 2003. The line has not been in use for about 40 years. Some $1.5 million is being spent to build the linear park, which will include a 3.5-metre-wide asphalt trail, landscaping, lighting, benches and public art.
Stuart, who lives and works in the area, plans to be a regular user.
"I'm thrilled to see it, as someone who can use it to go and get Mexican food in the Junction or go to the grocery store at Lansdowne and Dundas West. It's going to be a very useful thing to get from work to anywhere."
