Happy 10th anniversary West Toronto Rail Path!

In 2009, this 2.1-kilometre marvel opened alongside the Georgetown GO Train rail corridor. Like an expressway just for bikes and pedestrians, it’s integrated into the city, near where people live and work. Ultimately, it will connect to a bigger network of paths and trails if plans, and some dreams, are realized.

The rail path begins (or ends) just north of Dupont St. at Cariboo Ave., in a landscaped parcel of land along a short stretch of auto body repair shops. Just west of here, two major railway corridors crossed, creating a diamond shape where the tracks touched each other. Though an underpass has separated them now, the last “diamond” section was relocated a few dozen metres and embedded in the path’s pavement.

Once one of the “busiest industrial crossroads in Toronto,” according to Heritage Toronto, passenger trains dominate now. The long-awaited expansion of the rail path will make this even more of a commuter super corridor.

South from Cariboo, the path crosses over Dupont St., running behind a series of older and newer semi-industrial, residential and commercial developments. There are marked entrances to streets such as Osler Ave. and other, smaller passages in between buildings. This connectivity is one of the keys to its success.

South of the impressive Wallace Ave. footbridge, built in 1907, the path runs along side the Bloor GO and UP station, and commuters can walk right from the platform onto the path. Here Gradation, one of the most impressive art works along the rail path, covers an entire building’s cinder block facade facing the train platforms.

The work of artist Lynnette Postuma, 14,508 blocks were painted variations of blue and green to “better integrate the building into its adjacent landscape,” giving it a sense of movement. Existing trees, shrubs and vines are outlined, meant to be a “growth marker” to monitor changes in vegetation since the mural was installed. Other artworks can be found along the path, including four steel sculptures by John Dickson called Frontier and an ongoing series of temporary projects produced by DeRAIL, a public art curatorial project, in between stretches of greenery.

That mix, designed by landscape architect Scott Torrance with Brown + Storey Architects, is its subtle grace. Wild flowers are currently blooming and other trees and plants have slowly grown in over the last decade. There are even shady stretches now and great views from both the Dupont and Bloor St. bridges.

As the Rail Path celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, changes are on the horizon. Metrolinx is widening its rail corridor, taking some space from the existing path, but more land will be given up elsewhere in the extension. Currently the City of Toronto is working on design details to extend it further south along the rail corridor beyond Dundas St. and Sterling Rd., where the path currently ends, to Abell and Sudbury Sts.

Metrolinx will do the construction as it’s their land, but the timeline depends on when their rail work is completed. Still, the potential for a longer path has excited the community.

“There’s going to be a network effect as it heads south,” says Scott Dobson of the Friends of the West Toronto Rail Path, a group that’s been doing years of advocacy for the path and its extension. “It’ll be like a magnetic attraction.”

Dobson lists off planned and possible connections that include bridges over the rails to the west side of the corridor at Bloor, Sorauren Park and others further south in Liberty Village.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Not only would this lessen the east-west divide the railway corridor creates, it would make the path even more useful. Metrolinx has already built the bridge that will eventually carry the path over Dufferin and Queen Sts., and when the new Pessoa Park opens in October adjacent to the intersection, Dobson says the Friends hope to have a celebration of its future connection to the rail path by allowing people to walk over the bridge that day.

Keeping the momentum and community support strong on a project like this is important. Further extensions southeast to the Fort York area are possible, where a new bridge called Garrison Crossing will connect the fort to Stanley Park on the north side of the rail corridor. It’s set to open at the end of summer, could link the rail path to the thousands of people who live in the Fort York neighbourhood now and the trails that lead to the waterfront and downtown.

At the other end, beyond Cariboo, there’s potential to extend the path north of St. Clair Ave., with a route that could connect to the Lavender Creek trail off Weston Rd., and another that follows Davenport Rd. and the nearby Barrie GO train line that Metrolinx will be expanding soon.

However, all these extensions must wait for Toronto’s ever evolving and delayed transit plans, including possible Smart Track stations, to be sorted out and built.

Until then, celebrate the rail path’s 10th anniversary, but ask for more.

Shawn Micallef is a Toronto-based writer and a freelance contributing columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @shawnmicallef

Read more about: