Well now, that's different; on so many levels.
If I'm reading that correctly, they're proposing to twin track the Don Branch for the portion designated as a layover facility. That, I believe will require reconstruction of the rail embankment.
As far as I can tell, that is correct.
I take it they would store trains on both the new track and the 'mainline' (which isn't right now since it goes nowhere).
I'm less certain of that, although I do think that it is a fair assumption to make.
If the intent is storage on both tracks, that would preclude VIA HFR from running through at this location.
Not inherently. There no reason why they couldn't later remove the train being stored on the "main" should the need arise to run trains through there.
For instance, there are currently two trains stored on the main in Lincolnville. This is a temporary situation, but it has been this way for a couple of years now.
This may be related to the apparent move to abandon the Portlands/waterfront spur and the associated rail yard. There is clear talk about improved access to the Unilever site, which would imply no tracks at all north of Lakeshore, east of the Don.
To the best my knowledge, there are no plans to abandon the Portlands trackage. Indeed, that decision would rest on Ports Toronto and whatever they have planned for the area, and not Metrolinx.
All this, in turn has impacts on the OL discussion again, if VIA HFR is to be routed through Stouffville Sub.
Again, in theory. There are still a lot of unknowns about the HFR project.
I may have to oppose this yard; given the associated access road project, it may prove very disruptive to plans for Lower Don Park.
I'm not sure that it would be that disruptive. There is already an access road virtually all the way to the planned location of the layover office. It isn't used often, but it is used. And this access would certainly not be used other than a small handful of times each weekday by Metrolinx staff.
Discussions inside the City have been getting serious around removing the Bayview offramp cloverleaf and reducing Bayview to one-lane each way to allow for a more park-like setting.
While the cloverleaf is superfluous, the access road that already exists is not, and will have to be maintained for Toronto Hydro to access their site. The City as well uses it for major construction projects on the Prince Edward Viaduct. Metrolinx would simply be using this same road.
Dan