Mirabel Airport to become amusement park

[spmarshall]

According to the book I have, the four shortlist sites were just southeast of Guelph (Puslinch/Eramosa Twps), Mono Twp (near Orangeville), near Sutton, and near Port Perry. A fifth was added, Beverley (Flamborough) (at this point, why not just expand Mount Hope). Pickering, a site rejected early, reappeared just after these five were on the list.

 

[samsonyuen]

I guess Pickering was added after they realized the Concorde wasn't going to be jetting people around everywhere, and they didn't need airports in the middle of nowhere.

 

[spmarshall]

At the time (early 1970s), Pickering Township was in the middle of nowhere - Markham was a small town at the corner of Highways 7 and 48, Pickering as we now know it wasn't much.

Pickering was rejected early beacuse there would be some interferance with Pearson's aerospace, but also becayse the terrain was too hilly and most of it is prime class A agricultural land. It was brought back partly because the province wanted it to support its Toronto-Centred Region plan, shifting more growth east, and for other factors (Orangeville was too snowy and too far, for instance).

But even early on, there were forecasts that found that the government wouldn't have to even think about a second airport until at least 2000, but those where cast aside by bureaucrats and politicans who wanted to build a shiny new airport. The calculations they used to measure air travel grown assumed a constant rate of increase, though in reality, the increase started to level off.

 

[unimaginative2]

I disagree. Flamborough is far superior to Mount Hope as a site, for a number of reasons. Travel time from Toronto, Kitchener, Mississauga, etc. would be increased by up to 30 minutes, even outside of peak times. Moreover, all the transportation infrastructure to provide access to Mount Hope from the GTA would have to pass over the escarpment and through the City of Hamilton, causing significant environmental impacts.

 

[spmarshall]

The Airport site would have been north of the Highway 5/8/52 intersection, and that is over the escarpment - it would have required the connections over the escarpment, though it would be a bit closer to Toronto and Kitchener than Mount Hope.

And I doubt few projects have more significant environmental impacts than a brand new international airport.

 

[jks]

Wow, OK, so I was having some fun, so I decided to look back to the last page of the T&I section, and look what I found!! THis is quite interesting, but I'm guessing it's dead now.

 

[Archivist]

The Mirabel project is definitely a go. In fact, they just announced the official mascot for the theme park. It is below.

 

[jks]

The death of this airport is rather sad, it has a very beautiful terminal building!

That elephant is soooo cute, where do I get tickets??

 

[Prometheus The Supremo]

the mirabel project is definitely a go. In fact, they just announced the official mascot for the theme park. It is below.

lol!!!

 

[Transportfan]

Now this billion dollar white elephant is being turned into a theme park. Pathetic! Another testament to megaprojects gone mental.

I think the main reason Mirabel was a failure was because shortly after it was completed, the PQ came to power which resulted in the mass Anglo exodus and caused Montreal's growth to slow dramatically. Had this not happened, Mirabel might have been much more succesful.

 

[ShonTron]

I think the main reason Mirabel was a failure was because shortly after it was completed, the PQ came to power which resulted in the mass Anglo exodus and caused Montreal's growth to slow dramatically. Had this not happened, Mirabel might have been much more succesful.

But Montreal's population never really declined, even as the city declined relatively in economic importance and population-wise. It had to do with the gradual deregulation of the aviation industry (trans-Atlantic flights used to have to fly into Montreal, soon they could fly directly into Toronto) and that passengers resisted the move from Dorval.

Toronto's slow positioning as the first city started back in the 1950s, well before there was a separatist threat.

 

[Archivist]

Mirabel was a failure for a number of causes, but I think it's fair to say that the decline of the city due to the separatist threat was a contributing factor. Biggest factor, in my opinion, was the distance from the city.

 

[nfitz]

Mirabel was a failure for a number of causes, but I think it's fair to say that the decline of the city due to the separatist threat was a contributing factor. Biggest factor, in my opinion, was the distance from the city.

The rise of the PQ might have slowed population growth, but it hasn't reversed it - this factor if minor is any; remember that Mirabel was supposed to serve Ottawa as much as Montreal, and the population there has grown significantly.

Distance is a major factor. But remember that the main expressway to Mirabel (13) has never been completed, and stops at the 640. The expressway (50) from Mirabel to Ottawa is only scheduled to be complete in 2010 - and even then as a Super-2. The express train to Mirabel was never constructed, beyond the platforms being roughed out in the basement of the terminal.

But most importantly, a basic assumption of the project was that Dorval was to be closed and redeveloped. At the last minute they decieded to keep domestic flights into Dorval, and only move international flights into Mirabel. Had Dorval been closed and turned into houses, Mirabel would have been a real airport.

 

[interchange42]

Meanwhile, over at http://www.iparks-ogerinternational-consortium.com/, things do seem to be stalled, literally: there's still an operating website for this project but it quit loading its intro for me when it hit 31%, which coincidentally is the same likelihood that this project will get built.

You guys have a go at it and let me know what happens.

42

 

[adma]

The rise of the PQ might have slowed population growth, but it hasn't reversed it - this factor if minor is any; remember that Mirabel was supposed to serve Ottawa as much as Montreal, and the population there has grown significantly.

I don't think it's so much a matter of the PQ slowing growth, as much as the "internalizing" effect the separatists had on Quebec culture...