Council wants 'Railpath North'

Council wants 'Railpath North'.

Council last week approved a motion by York South-Weston Councillor Frances Nunziata directing staff to explore the opportunities to extend the popular West Toronto Railpath northwest along GO Transit's Georgetown corridor (see image to the right).

A second part of the motion directs the city's manager of cycling infrastructure to report back to councillors in the new year on the city's efforts to close a one-kilometre gap in the Humber Trail through Weston, between Crawford-Jones Memorial and Cruickshank Parks (see map at bottom of story). The gap prevents Rexdale and west North York residents from being able to use what is otherwise an essentially uninterrupted off-road path running from Steeles Avenue to downtown Toronto via the Humber and Martin Goodman Trails.

While the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) has acquired about two-thirds of the land necessary to close the gap, it has been unsuccessful in acquiring or getting access through private property north of St. Phillips Road. Steep slopes along the river's east side in that section will also make it challenging to extend the trail along that bank if and when it does have the land necessary to build the trail, according to the TRCA. The west bank of the river is used by the Weston Golf Club.

However, while closing the Humber Gap has been under examination for years, Nunziata's suggestion for a northwest passage along the GO Georgetown rail corridor is relatively new.

The existing West Toronto Railpath is an off-road asphalt track for pedestrians, bicyclists and in-line skaters that runs on the east side of the GO Georgetown corridor from Cariboo Avenue just south of the West Toronto Diamond (the Junction) south to Dundas Street and Sterling Avenue just west of Landsdowne Avenue. Though only a two-kilometre segment right now, a long-planned second phase would see the Railpath continue south to Strachan Avenue and Wellington Street where it could connect to on-road bike lanes.

"To date, GO Transit has met with the Friends of the West Toronto Railpath group to discuss the extension of the bike path to the south," pointed out Robin Alam, a GO Transit spokesperson. "At this time, discussions about expanding the path to the north are only in the very early stages and have not gone through an evaluation process."

From the Junction, GO's Georgetown corridor runs north through residential areas of Mount Dennis and Weston and industrial lands in north Etobicoke. GO this fall will begin a massive $1-billion, five-year project to upgrade infrastructure and add tracks on the corridor to accommodate the planned Pearson Airport to Union Station air rail link trains, which are scheduled to be in service by 2015. North of Cariboo Avenue, the infrastructure GO will build to handle that service includes 14 widened bridges, three new underpasses, and a tunnel in the section between Lawrence Avenue and Weston Road.

"GO Transit will accommodate the bike path where possible," said Alam. "We know that there are a few pinch points where there is simply is not enough room to accommodate the bike path in the rail corridor."

Between the Junction and just east of the Humber River, what is sometimes identified as the Georgetown corridor is actually two rail lines running alongside each other. GO's Georgetown corridor is on the west side while CP Rail owns the rail tracks on the east side. CP currently uses its tracks to run freight trains. However, the provincial transportation planning agency Metrolinx envisions beginning a commuter rail service on the CP corridor between Bolton and Union Station over the next dozen years.

---------------------

HUMBER GAP

View Gap in Humber Trail in a larger map