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junctionist said:
A light rail line that passes through the islands before connecting to other neighbourhoods is an idea worth pursuing when the Port Lands and airport are redeveloped.
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I don't know this wasn't planned instead of that "foot tunnel" to the airport. An LRT line (via tunnel) to he airport would have been an awesome addition to the revitalization. I don't foresee one to the "main" islands. I don't think the islanders would want *that* much city traffic coming through via a TTC link.
 
By the time it happens, the Islands will be completely different. The airport lands will be a neighbourhood like central Amsterdam, and Islanders will appreciate the improvement light rail will offer to their standard of living.
 
junctionist said:
By the time it happens, the Islands will be completely different. The airport lands will be a neighbourhood like central Amsterdam, and Islanders will appreciate the improvement light rail will offer to their standard of living.
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Uh, am I missing some grand plans to demolish the island airport here? Where has that been proposed?
 
junctionist said:
By the time it happens, the Islands will be completely different. The airport lands will be a neighbourhood like central Amsterdam, and Islanders will appreciate the improvement light rail will offer to their standard of living.
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The island airport may be replaced with a new neighborhood, but I imagine the Transporters and the Warp drives, Flux capacitors, etc. would still take up a fair bit of space.
 
BurlOak said:
The island airport may be replaced with a new neighborhood, but I imagine the Transporters and the Warp drives, Flux capacitors, etc. would still take up a fair bit of space.
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Well once we have flux capacitors we can go back in time to collect evidence on Rob Ford, put the Queen streetcar underground, build the subway on Bathurst instead of the ravine, prevent amalgamation etc etc.


Yeah I can't wait till the port lands + islands look like Amsterdam :)

So we have the Bloor viaduct, some nice bridges over the ravines, a nice pedestrian bridge near the humber river, but we don't really have any very iconic & beautiful bridges like in SF or NYC or even the bridge in Montreal. Could there be such a bridge to the islands someday? Or am I crazy for dreaming about that?
 
I think some kind of rapid transit to the Islands would be less ridiculous than is commonly assumed. Granted, it wouldn't be my #1 priority, or even in the top 10, but the islands could be a decent travel destination in their own right. During the summer months the ferries see 20-30k passengers per day. If we assume some kind of premium fare for island trips (2x base fare?), during summer months the Island stations would be more or less normal stations, even assuming no overall growth in trips to the Islands.

Also, yes, obviously no plans exist for redeveloping the airport at this time or are likely to exist anytime soon. This is the fantasy section, after all. I'm not even anti-YTZ by any stretch, but it's fun to fantasize about the kind of community which could be built on the airport lands. Who knows, it seems impossible now to imagine YTZ closing down, but who knows; UPX and no C-Series exemption could undermine Porter/YTZ's business case. Maybe anti-YTZ NIMBYs will finally learn that they should focus on what could be rather than the supposed noisiness of the airport? I dunno.
 
Maybe with the dirt from all the subways we'll be building we can create more rings of islands outside the current islands, with canals between like Amsterdam :)
 
Much though a lovely transit accessible new community - Toronto's Amsterdam if you will - on the islands would be nice, I maintain that the utility of the island airport outweighs its negatives. I won't wade into the jets vs no jets debate here :p

And of course, if the airport was ever closed, it would only give more weight to the perennial bugaboo that is the Pickering Airport, which is something that we definitely need to get past the thought of ever building, thanks.
 
There isn't that much utility to the airport. Pearson and the GTA's small airports could handle that traffic fine. Dense low-rise neighbourhoods built on the islands like in Amsterdam would be amazing--unique in the Americas.
 
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AlvinofDiaspar said:
Don't laugh - creating islands out of spoils was discussed as an option just a few years ago:

http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2012/04/03/island_life_coming_to_humber.html

AoD
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Yeah, same with the Leslie Spit aka Thompson Park, it's also an artificial island. I wonder where the Eglinton line dirt is going? Is Leslie Spit still growing outwards? Maybe they should start creating new branches and leave the current ones as a full time park?

If they did create small islands in Lake Ontario, I would expect some people would love to build their own private cottages on the islands, like Muskoka but without the 2-3 hour drive and with a view of the skyline.

Imagine if the islands allowed development. It would instantly fill up with houses & condos. I learned in a "history of Toronto neighbourhoods" class that the islands use to have shops, restaurants and a theatre.
 
My first post! Anyway, I wanted to share a GTA fantasy map I made a few months back.

Link: https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=z3ENd1Q3zp8I.k8c0vYpVoyeI

Highlights:

- Split operation on Yonge and Spadina lines during peak periods only
- (Mostly) Resurrected Transit City
- Downtown Relief line from Fairview Mall to Lambton (at least, until I come up with something better) via Overlea, Pape/Danforth, Union Station, and Dundas West
- Subway extensions to Vaughan Mills on the Spadina line and Major Mackenzie Drive on the Yonge line
- Subway extension to Square One via Sherway on the Bloor line
- Extended Sheppard subway to Downsview
- New light rail line through the Port Lands area
- Upgrading the Spadina, Harbourfront, and St Clair streetcar right of ways to true LRT
- Extensive bus rapid transit network throughout York, Peel, and Durham Regions
- Service to Pearson Airport by Eglinton LRT, Finch West LRT, Union Pearson Express, and BRT along Dixon Road
- High speed rail along Lakeshore corridor from Hamilton to Oshawa, stopping at Oakville, Port Credit, Union, and Pickering
- New GO service to Cambridge, Orangeville, Bolton, Beaverton, Uxbridge, Peterborough, and Bowmanville

I look forward to seeing my ideas torn apart by those more knowledgeable than I in matters of GTA transit. :)
 
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