Rail Deck Park

Rail Deck Park is a proposed large urban park in Downtown, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Announced on August 3, 2016, the park will be set on a constructed deck that encloses the active Railway Lands between Bathurst Street and Blue Jays Way, west of the Rogers Centre. In total, the park will span 8.5 hectares (21 acres) when constructed.[1] As of November 2017, the City of Toronto estimated the park to cost $1.66 billion.[2] In May 2020, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation released a study saying that once exclusions from the city's estimates are factored in the park would cost more than $3.7 billion.[3]

The plan was met with acclaim in local and national media, and was likened to other similar city rail yard redevelopment projects in North America, such as Millennium Park in Chicago and Hudson Yards in New York City.[4][5]

  1. ^ "Tory Announces Plan for 21-Acre "Rail Deck Park" Downtown | Urban Toronto". urbantoronto.ca. Retrieved June 16, 2017.
  2. ^ "Estimated costs for Toronto's Rail Deck Park rise to $1.66 billion | The Star". thestar.com. Retrieved October 10, 2018.
  3. ^ "Rail Deck Park Cost Study Exclusions Analysis & Report" (PDF). Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
  4. ^ Torontoist (August 4, 2016). "Why the Proposed Rail Deck Park Should Make Toronto Hopeful". Torontoist. Retrieved June 16, 2017.
  5. ^ Grabar, Henry (August 5, 2016). "Toronto's Answer to Central Park Could Be a Massive Victory for Public Space". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved June 16, 2017.