Rail trail in Toronto, Ontario
Beltline Trail
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![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/df/Beltline_Bridge.jpg/264px-Beltline_Bridge.jpg) Bridge over Yonge Street
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Length
| 9 km (5.6 mi)
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Location
| Toronto
,
Ontario
, Canada
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Established
| 1989
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Trailheads
| Bowie Ave. - Marlee Ave.
Allen Rd.
-
Mt. Pleasant Rd.
Moore Ave. -
Bayview Ave.
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Trail map
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Bowie/Croham
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Caledonia
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Montcalm
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Ronald
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Miranda
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Fairbank
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Dufferin
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Hopewell
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Salinas
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Walter Saunders
| Memorial Park
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Tommy Douglas
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Beograd
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Marlee
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Old Park
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Bathurst
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Chaplin
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Eglinton
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Russell Hill
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Larratt/Duncannon
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Oriole Parkway
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Oriole Park
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Lascelles
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Yonge
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Merton
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Mount Pleasant
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Mount Pleasant Cemetery
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Moore
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Heath
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Canadian Pacific
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Governor's Bridge
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Chorley Park
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Don Valley Brick Works Park
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Don Valley Brick Works
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To
Park Drive Reservation Trail
| Milkman's Lane
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The
Beltline Trail
is a 9-kilometre (5.6 mi)-long cycling and walking
rail trail
in
Toronto
,
Ontario
, Canada. It consists of three sections, the
York Beltline Trail
west of
Allen Road
, the
Kay Gardner Beltline Park
from the Allen to
Mount Pleasant Road
, and the
Ravine Beltline Trail
south of
Mount Pleasant Cemetery
through the Moore Park Ravine. Built on the former
right-of-way
of the
Toronto Belt Line Railway
, the
linear park
passes through the neighbourhoods of
Rosedale
,
Moore Park
,
Forest Hill
,
Chaplin Estates
, and
Fairbank
.
History
[
edit
]
The Toronto Belt Line Railway opened in 1892. It was constructed as a
commuter
railway line to service and promote new suburban neighbourhoods north of the then city limits. The railway consisted of two separate loops both starting and ending at
Union Station
. The east loop started at Union Station, running east until turning north along the
Don River
, passing the
Don Valley Brick Works
, up through Moore Park Ravine and along the northern edge of
Mount Pleasant Cemetery
.
[1]
Crossing over
Yonge Street
and what is now the
Davisville Subway Yard
, the loop continued northwest until
Spadina Avenue
, where it crossed
Eglinton Avenue
and turned west, eventually meeting up with the
Grand Trunk Railway
(GTR) railway tracks (now the
GO
Barrie line
) just west of Caledonia Road.
[1]
From there, the route circled south back to Union Station.
The passenger train service was never profitable and only lasted two years. Parts of the rail line then sat unused. In 1910, the GTR rebuilt the northern portion of the Yonge St. loop for freight service. Trains ran along this line until the late 1960s when a small part of the
right-of-way
was expropriated to build the
Spadina Expressway
, now
Allen Road
. This ended rail service east of Marlee Avenue, just before Allen Road.
[2]
In 1970,
Canadian National Railway
(CN) tried to sell the right-of-way east of Allen Road for housing since the land was quite valuable. This set the stage for one of the first public battles on biking trails.
[3]
Most homeowners adjacent to the line wished to buy the land to extend their backyards, complaining of safety issues, vandals, and lovers.
[3]
Metro Toronto parks officials and
York
Mayor
Phil White
saw it as an opportunity to build a bike path. Toronto Mayor
William Dennison
and his executive committee favoured buying portions of the Belt Line to expand roads and existing parks.
[3]
Dennison told the
Toronto Star
that he opposed a continuous path along the Belt Line because "people have demonstrated they just won't use it", as well as echoing fears of the homeowners.
[3]
After two years of talk, the land was purchased by the city in 1972 as part of a land swap with CN that included the
Metro Toronto Convention Centre
on
Front Street
.
[3]
One of the supporters of turning the rail bed into a bike path was alderman
David Crombie
, who was elected as mayor of Toronto soon after.
CN sold the remaining line west of Allen Road to the city in 1988 and its conversion to a trail began.
[2]
The bridge over Yonge Street had deteriorated and was refurbished in 1993.
[2]
In 1999?2000 the part of the trail from Allen Road to
Mount Pleasant Road
was designated the
Kay Gardner Beltline Park
after a local councillor,
Kay Gardner
, who was also involved with the negotiations for that segment of the trail.
[4]
Trail description
[
edit
]
The trail reuses almost all of the old railway space from west of Caledonia Road east to the Don River. Most roads are crossed at grade, with no formal pedestrian crosswalks; the addition of crosswalks was recommended in a 2013 report.
[5]
[6]
From the west, the York Belt Line trail section begins just west of Caledonia Road at the former GTR line, now GO Transit's Barrie line.
[1]
It proceeds east to the
limited-access
Allen Road, first passing over the old iron bridge that crosses
Dufferin Street
, between Castlefield Ave. and Eglinton Ave.
[7]
There is no crossing over the Allen, and trail users must use footpaths parallel to the Allen to reach the nearest road bridge a half-
block
north or south. The Kay Gardner Beltline Park trail heads east, crossing the bridge over Yonge Street and the Davisville Subway Yard south of Davisville Avenue, passes through Mount Pleasant Cemetery and ends at Mount Pleasant Road.
The trail then continues southwards through the Moore Park Ravine alongside
Mud Creek
, a small tributary of the Don River. From this section, an alternate switchback trail through
Chorley Park
was opened in November 2018.
[8]
The trail passes the Don Valley Brick Works and terminates shortly after reaching
Bayview Avenue
, at a crossroads with two other trails, Park Drive Reservation Trail and Milkman's Lane.
A series of technical biking or hiking trails including Cudmore Creek and
Crothers Woods
[9]
can be reached from Bayview, making it possible to extend the trail through to the
Sunnybrook Estates
to the north-west or
Taylor Creek Park
and
Scarborough
to the east.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
Schabas, Jake (July 16, 2009).
"Throwback Thursday: The Belt Line Railway"
.
Spacing Toronto
.
- ^
a
b
c
Boles, Derek.
"Toronto Belt Line - 1892"
. Toronto Railway Historical Association.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Bradburn, Jamie (January 5, 2013).
"Historicist: Cycling Through the Seventies"
.
Torontoist
.
- ^
Minutes of the Council of the City of Toronto, October 26, 1999, and October 27, 1999, item 12.40
[1]
; clause no. 35 of report no. 13 of the Toronto Community Council, September 27, 1999
[2]
; press release May 26, 2000
[3]
Archived
2014-04-26 at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
The Beltline Trail - Past, Present and Future
, Cycle Toronto, Jan. 29, 2013
- ^
Beltline Trail Study
Archived
2013-07-28 at the
Wayback Machine
, City of Toronto, May 13, 2013
- ^
"The Beltline trail keeps growing: Micallef | Toronto Star"
.
thestar.com
. Retrieved
2016-10-27
.
- ^
Micallef, Shawn (November 16, 2018).
"Chorley Park switchback opens after winding path through Rosedale objections"
. The Toronto Star
. Retrieved
10 February
2020
.
- ^
"Don Valley on Trailforks"
.
Trailforks
. Retrieved
2016-10-18
.
43°41′46″N
79°23′54″W
/
43.695998°N 79.398397°W
/
43.695998; -79.398397
External links
[
edit
]
"Beltline Trail Map"
. Google My Maps
. Retrieved
24 May
2015
.
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Beaches
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Gardens
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Parks
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Squares
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Trails
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