West Toronto Railpath Park Official Opening Ceremonies
Councillor Adam Giambrone invites you to the official opening of the West Toronto Railpath Park on Friday, October 30, 2009. Councillor Giambrone, the City of Toronto, and Friends of the West Toronto Railpath are pleased to open the first 2.1 km of this exciting recreational trail.
* Date: Friday, October 30, 2009
* Location: West Toronto Railpath entrance at Wallace Avenue (south of Dupont, west of Perth, north of Bloor). (map)
* Time:
o 2:00 p.m. – Opening Remarks
o 2:15 p.m. – Official Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
o 2:20 p.m. – cyclists gathered ride the trail and enjoy the sculptures
o 2:25 p.m. – interested participants invited walk 2.1 km and explore the trail and sculptures
* RSVP: Toronto Protocol RSVP Line 416-392-7667
The West Toronto Railpath Park is a new 2.1 kilometre multi-use trail that is perfect for cyclists, joggers, and people out for a stroll. Travelling alongside the railway corridor, it features extensive naturalized landscaping to create an appealing public space.
In addition to 2.1 km of park trail, designed by innovative Toronto-based firm Scott Torrance Landscape Architect Inc., the project includes four site-specific sculptures by renowned Toronto artist, John Dickson. The artwork series, Frontier, is inspired by the changing landscape of the Junction Railpath area. John Dickson was selected to work collaboratively with Scott Torrance Landscape Architects Inc. through an open competition coordinated by Toronto Cultural Services’ Public Art Office.
The Friends of the West Toronto Railpath is a community-based working group with the goal of assisting the City of Toronto finance, design and build a 6.5 kilometre path from Toronto’s Junction Neighbourhood into the heart of downtown Toronto and the shoreline of Lake Ontario.
Once future phases of the Railpath are built, it will be both a linear park and a sustainable transportation corridor, giving more than 250,000 Toronto residents a car-free path directly into the Toronto’s downtown core.
Here are some photos of the railpath I took a few months ago:
Looking north from the south end of the railpath.. from the Dundas Bridge.
Still looking from the Dundas Bridge, I zoomed as much as I could to see how far the camera would see. :)
On the railpath, looking up at the Dundas Bridge... you can see that there are plans to extend the path further south... hopefully all the way to the Liberty Village area.
There are rather mysterious metal towers dotted along the path.
More metal tower. You can barely see the Dundas Bridge in the background.
A little turny-ring thing. Yes, that is the technical term for it.</p>
There are very cool road marker signs at the entrances/exits to the path. This one is for Bloor.
The stairs down to Bloor. You can see there are spaces on the sides for bike rails... so it's easy to roll bikes up. :)
My bike on the Bloor bridge.
Another look at the Bloor Bridge.
There are lots of bikeposts and new trees all along the Railpath
Closer to the northern end of the Railpath... it stretches for a long way. :)
Some areas weren't *quite* done yet.
The north end (at Caribou Ave, just north of Dupont) is pretty with lots of trees, but the sidewalks and curbs on Caribou don't drop to meet the street... which will make it hard to actually ride onto the north end of the path.
