Here are the full resolution cropped sections as promised, in super Grain-O-Vision

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[edit] bah! Foiled again! Uploading as an attachment resized them!
 

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St. John the Evangelist Catholic School is getting a new building as a result of the construction.

See this link from InsideToronto.com.

“The community has been working for this for years,†York South-Weston MPP Laura Albanese said during the announcement outside the George Street school Friday, Sept. 21. “It has long needed redevelopment.â€

The Ministry of Education had previously pledged $5.6 million in funding to build an addition to the school, but another $6.5 million was needed to construct a new building.

With funding now in place, the school will be able to accommodate 600 students. There are currently 400 students enrolled in the Hwy. 401 and Weston Road school.

“Patience is a virtue and good things come to those who wait,†Trustee Frank D’Amico said. “Today we are reaping the rewards for that patience. They say it takes a village to raise a child but I say it takes a village to build a new school.â€

St. John’s principal, Michael Femia, said funding for a new school is wonderful news for the community.

“I’m looking forward to the new school,†he said. “At the end of the day, it’s all about the kids.â€

The news was also welcomed by Dave Bennett, chair of St. John the Evangelist’s Catholic School Advisory Council (CSAC).

“It’s a monumental day for St. John’s,†he said. “This allows us to replace our overcrowded and outdated building. Students will return to a building, not portables.â€

The property currently has a building and nine portables. But students began the school year at Brother Edmund Rice, eight kilometres away, due to the Metrolinx construction of the Weston tunnel for the Union Station-Pearson Airport connection, which is in close proximity to several of the portables. The tunnel is being built in advance of the 2015 Pan Am Games.

“If it wasn’t for the Metrolinx line, we probably wouldn’t have gotten a new school,†said York South-Weston Frances Nunziata. “It would make more sense to build the school now with the tunnel, instead of disrupting (students) down the road. I’m looking forward to putting the shovel in the ground.â€

St. John’s students will continue to be taught at Brother Edmund Rice until the new school opens. Nunziata expects plan approval to be in place by 2013 but couldn’t give a construction completion date, noting many steps still need to be taken, including community consultation.

Wonder if the cost of the new building will be added to the cost of the rail link?
 
Is there any mapping showing where the rail link will run from the Kitchener Line to Pearson? I've only seen very rough maps.
 
Is there any mapping showing where the rail link will run from the Kitchener Line to Pearson? I've only seen very rough maps.
It's in the 2009 Environmental Assessment - http://goweb02.gotransit.com/gts/en/resources/archive.aspx

There's a simple map in Figure 2.2-1 - http://goweb02.gotransit.com/gts/en/docs/finalEPR/2-2-1.pdf

And there's a detailed set of figures in Appendix I showing the exact location in detail. The approach to the airport are in the final figures - http://goweb02.gotransit.com/gts/en/docs/finalEPR/AppendixI_24-35.pdf - but be warned, the files is about 39 MB, the figures don't seem to be in the right order, and there isn't actually a Figure 35. But you can see the entire alignment if you put all the figures together.
 
There was a front page Urban Toronto article a couple weeks ago with a good and accurate map.

Edit:
Here it is. Map by Craig James White.

urbantoronto-6286-20183.jpg
 
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Thanks for that, CDL.

It's okay in the interim, but I have two problems with the alignment. The first is that the station is obviousl meant to be a terminus with no provision for through-running, expansion, etc. The other is that the curve off the Kitchener line is incredibly tight. Ideally, I would have liked the line to branch off near Etobicoke North and follow an elevated guideway along the 409, approaching T1 from the east (admittedly, this is hard without doing expensive tunnel work) so that a western extension can be made in the future, roughly following the spur as it is being built today.
 
It's in the 2009 Environmental Assessment - http://goweb02.gotransit.com/gts/en/resources/archive.aspx

There's a simple map in Figure 2.2-1 - http://goweb02.gotransit.com/gts/en/docs/finalEPR/2-2-1.pdf

And there's a detailed set of figures in Appendix I showing the exact location in detail. The approach to the airport are in the final figures - http://goweb02.gotransit.com/gts/en/docs/finalEPR/AppendixI_24-35.pdf - but be warned, the files is about 39 MB, the figures don't seem to be in the right order, and there isn't actually a Figure 35. But you can see the entire alignment if you put all the figures together.

Some months ago I'd heard that after Metrolinx took the project over from SNC Lavalin they went back to the drawing board and redesigned parts of the spur. The servicing yard was dropped (because Metrolinx already had one) and the alignment was adjusted to cut out some of those brutal roller coaster grades that SNC Lavalin had included. (Which would make it more accessible to more types of trains, I guess, but because the station at the end of the line will never fit a GO Train it's a little surprising it was a priority.)

I had wondered if this was another case of some transit fan once saying "they really should do x" and somewhere in the broken telephone pass-along it becomes "they are doing x", but I passed by the site this week and what I saw then compared to those 2009 plans seems to validate the story. Pillars are going in from the Kitchener line junction at least as far down as the turn at the 427/409 interchange. In figure 32, that spot was supposed to be an at-grade segment leading to a dive under Network Road, but the line that's appearing now looks like it'll stay elevated (in fact, maybe even keep climbing, but kind of hard to be sure from a moving car) and go over it instead.

Craig's map also looks subtly different from the EA one in a few other places (the guideway seems a little further east coming across the Airport Road interchange), so I don't know if that's a case of UT getting insider information or not being able to hit AutoCAD-level accuracy when drawing by hand in Google Maps.
 
Thanks for that, CDL.

It's okay in the interim, but I have two problems with the alignment. The first is that the station is obviousl meant to be a terminus with no provision for through-running, expansion, etc. The other is that the curve off the Kitchener line is incredibly tight. Ideally, I would have liked the line to branch off near Etobicoke North and follow an elevated guideway along the 409, approaching T1 from the east (admittedly, this is hard without doing expensive tunnel work) so that a western extension can be made in the future, roughly following the spur as it is being built today.

I see where you're coming from. But keep in mind this line is being built with electrification being implemented a few years after completion. Electric trains will be able to go forward/backwards quickly with no problem. In europe trips between two city centres will often go to a large town in between and then go backwards to get onto the main line.

I think even if HSR was implemented it could still use this terminous and just back out and onto the mainline tracks to continue the journey to Union. it may add another 5 or so minutes to the overall voyage but the cost savings are enormous.
 
I saw some recent pics of the new Pearson Rail spur under construction and it seems to becoming along nicely.

I am curious........is the new spur line being built to be easily transferred to electric such as with overhead poles already in place? I know the new trains can be easily transferred to electric but if they someday electrify the route will this section be able to accomodate EMUs easily or are they going to have to shut it down. I pray they are making this spur line to be easily transferred to electric or better yet building the spur with all electric infrastructure in place.
 
Short answer is yes, long answer is yes. The entire corridor is being built for easy installation of the catenary and other structures.
 
Thanks for the answer. It's nice to know they are atleast trying to be forward thinking about switching to EMU which begs the question why aren't they doing it now. It's going to be very embarrassing for Toronto when the PanAm dignataries and athelits start arriving and find out that Toronto is, quite literally, the only city on the planet that runs a diesel train to it's airport which is made even worse when Toronto says this will be the greenist Pan Am games ever held.
 
... Toronto is, quite literally, the only city on the planet that runs a diesel train to it's airport which is made even worse when Toronto says this will be the greenist Pan Am games ever held.
Where do you get this stuff? I've caught diesels at the London Gatwick Airport train station - the Gatwick to Reading Great Western train for example.

Heathrow is electrified, but the only other Airport train station I've used in the UK is Birmingham International which also has a mix of diesel and electric, as far as I recall.

I'd be shocked if those are the only airport railway stations in the world that have diesels serving them.

To be honest though, I can't think of too many North American airports that have heavy rail at all. Montreal's Dorval station isn't quite an airport station (and is 100% diesel). Newark International is the one train station that jumps to mind with electrified service in North America that jumps to mind. I'm struggling to think of others with heavy rail.
 
Thanks for the answer. It's nice to know they are atleast trying to be forward thinking about switching to EMU which begs the question why aren't they doing it now. It's going to be very embarrassing for Toronto when the PanAm dignataries and athelits start arriving and find out that Toronto is, quite literally, the only city on the planet that runs a diesel train to it's airport which is made even worse when Toronto says this will be the greenist Pan Am games ever held.

Well, a lot of things. Partially because it won't be ready by the games, partially because of the cost, partially because it should be part of a larger plan requiring much more planning - these are the most obvious reasons. From my perspective, this imperfect but scaleable plan complete in 3 years is better than a "perfect" plan complete in five or more years - but this opinion hasn't changed minds before and I don't expect it to now.

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned, but I suspect that for every person who demands electrification there is another scared s-less about EMF coming from the wires. This is before we even count the people who will think the overhead is an eyesore. Stay tuned for that fight...
 

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