So whats up with Railpath???
MOST RECENT UPDATE Januray 2023 Railpath Detour at Bloor Station
Starting January 23 2023 and lasting about a year Railpath next to Bloor Station will be closed. Users will have to make a jog around the closure via Symington and Bloor. Access to the Station (GO/UPE) from Ernest Ave., Bloor Street, and Dundas Street will remain open. Full details and map from Metrolinx here: Link to map
Just a reminder that Friends of Railpath are volunteers and not responsible for the construction or the day to day operations of Railpath. Be nice.
Here is further background:
Metrolinx is finally working on adding a fourth rail line at Bloor Station. The entire project will take 2 years. Railpath will get moved over and squeezed right next to the station. In the big picture though the existing Railpath will get a new parkette at Ernest, new greener hopefully tagging-proof walls along the west side of Railpath, more benches, and a much needed major dog strangling vine mitigation. Some of this work improves on the original Railpath design and also mitigates damage done to Railpath in 2014-15 during the build of the UP Express Station.
Trees. To do all this some trees will be removed. Most of them will be replaced. Those that are not will be replaced elsewhere in the city. (Friends of Railpath felt that ALL trees should have been placed in some fashion within the community.) It should be pointed out that quite a few of the trees that are being removed would have been removed anyway as they were invasive fast growing trees that were not part of the original design and were crowding out everything else. In addition to the new replacement trees new plantings will be put in (and maintained by Metrolinx for a few years to take root) and these will recreate the plant diversity that was lost due to dog strangling vine and invasive tree crowding.
There will be temporary detours/slow downs on Railpath for some of this work. Crews will direct users.
The main reason for the long term closure at Bloor is due to the tunnelling needed as part of a direct connection to the TTC (which is a separate Metrolinx project.) and to allow a reconfiguration of the bridges over Bloor. Metrolinx has promised to maintain signage on Railpath to help give notice.
For big picture info about the work along the Kitchener Rail Corridor visit the Metrolinx website for more details.
The Metrolinx team can be reached directly at TorontoWest@metrolinx.com or at 416-202-6911.
For regular weekly updates, one can also subscribe to the Metrolinx e-newsletter that gets sent out every Friday and follow Metrolinx on Twitter @GOExpansion.
2. Railpath expansion south to Abell Street will commence after the above project is done. (They actually overlap a bit.). You can find out how cool this will be by going to the City’s page and clicking on “Project Details”. The bridge you see next to the No Frills at Lansdowne and Dundas is future proofed so that folks over in Parkdale can one day connect a short span to Railpath next to their amazing future community centre. As well we are continuing to work to make sure there is access at the King/Liberty Smart Track station so Railapath users can get into Liberty Village.