Toronto Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport | ?m | ?s | Ports Toronto | Arup

Toronto Islands airport ranked among top 10 most beautiful
Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport ranks among the world’s most beautiful, according to a global poll.

Fans of the airport wrote about the convenience of travelling in or out of the city’s downtown core, while others praised the combination of skyscrapers and natural beauty they can see when landing at or leaving from the airport.

“The gleaming city skyline to your north, the vast blue sweep of the great Lake Ontario to the south, and lush green parkland of the island mixed with the boats in the harbor directly below you make this airport’s approach truly majestic,†one person wrote on PrivateFly’s website
http://www.ctvnews.ca/lifestyle/toronto-islands-airport-ranked-among-top-10-most-beautiful-1.2370236
 
And they have an electric (street) railway, the Union Billy Bishop Local, running from Union Station and past the Bathurst & Queen's Quay stop. And at a cheaper fare than the Union Pearson Express.

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Now if only they could build a weather protecting walkway from the stop to the tunnel entrance.
 

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According to that update, having the pedestrian walkways functioning, having most of the finishing done, the escalators nearly complete, and having the elevators in progress, it sounds like they could realistically do it by June 20th (last day of spring). Seems very possible. I don't see it happening before June, and I'm personally betting that it'll be done after the Union Pearson Express goes live on the 6th as an interesting coincidence, but I am inclined to believe end of spring. Maybe at the worst they'll slip very slightly into late June, but I have difficulty believing with it so near completion that they'd slip as far as July.
 
The Gardiner debate really put the airport expansion issue on the back burner. However, you can draw a lot of parallels between the two. Both issues concern waterfront development and expose a divide between a corporate, time-is-money mindset and a progressive-oriented, quality-of-life alternative.

Do you think the Gardiner debate - the lobbying, the stakeholders, the council divisions - show any hints of what is to come with the island airport expansion debate?
 
The Gardiner debate really put the airport expansion issue on the back burner. However, you can draw a lot of parallels between the two. Both issues concern waterfront development and expose a divide between a corporate, time-is-money mindset and a progressive-oriented, quality-of-life alternative.

Do you think the Gardiner debate - the lobbying, the stakeholders, the council divisions - show any hints of what is to come with the island airport expansion debate?

I don't think so. The Gardiner debate is different because the road is right there literally in your face (or over your head). The airport infrastructure is on the island, sure you might hear a plane, or see it landing, or argue about the pollution it doesn't have the same impact as the Gardiner does IMHO
 
I don't think so. The Gardiner debate is different because the road is right there literally in your face (or over your head). The airport infrastructure is on the island, sure you might hear a plane, or see it landing, or argue about the pollution it doesn't have the same impact as the Gardiner does IMHO

When I lived near the airport and Gardiner (between the two actually), the airport was far worse and eventually caused me to move. I miss the water view but not the noise; bought new-construction before Porter was a thing.

Now that I no longer live there, I would say the Lake Shore and ramps to/from Gardiner impact me far more as a visitor to the waterfront. Gardiner without ramps or Lake Shore would be perfectly ignorable.
 
I live in a condo very close to both the airport and the Gardiner and have the opposite experience. The Gardiner is definitely louder for me, even though I'm facing the airport. In both cases, closing my windows blocks out most of the noise.

I think what complicates the issue with the airport is the tripartite agreement where jets are currently banned, and the fact that expanded runways would be new infrastructure rather than rebuilding something that already exists in it's current form like the Gardiner. Another strike against the airport expansion is how much people from all over the city are enjoying the newly revitalized waterfront. More people are going to be prioritizing recreational activities in the area over extending the runways into the inner harbour.

It also hinges on Bombardier getting their act together and actually finishing the C-Series jets.
 
No pics but tunnel looked finished and some new signage is already visible between ferry portal and Porter check in desks (island side) last night.

Looks like they were setting up for a media event at island side tunnel portal. Hoarding has been replaced with curtains.
 

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