christiesplits
Senior Member
Is the increase in cargo traffic expected to continue?
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- Thread starter Branden Simon
- Start date
Is the increase in cargo traffic expected to continue?
FF407
Active Member
I would say so, this will be the first full year with multiple 777 flights from Hong Kong via Anchorage several times weekly which for the first quarter of the year included 747s some days as well.
innsertnamehere
Superstar
From SSP:
I have been at the airport recently and construction has been going gang busters. There is hardly any place, wall, floor, ceiling that has not been taken apart. All of the check-in counters have been removed. All of the walls have been primed and at least half of the open ceilings have been repainted. Even the front has had all of the old canopy removed and the new steel work for the new canopy installed and the old concrete removed.
In the boarding lounge, the arrivals hallway has been removed, making the place look larger. Detour YHM Café and Bar is being renovated will be rebranded. All of the gate area has been demolished and a new glass wall similar to what is at Billy Bishop Airport is being installed.
Considering that it was only announced on February 4 and has to be finished by May 31st, they have done a lot but have a lot more to do. The grand reopening is on June 2nd with Porter starting June 3rd. This weekend is helping with no flights Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Play and Sunwing have ended and WestJet changes to a 6 am departure and a 12:31am arrival leaving the terminal empty during the day for 18 hours.
As to bridges, that is phase 2 that will start apparently in June according to a workers on site. They have purchased 9 bridges from LaGuardia Airport terminal B (that Vantage Group manages), and they are wrapped ready to be shipped. Apparently from workers I talked to the first bridge maybe in service by the end of the summer and the 2nd one in the fall. The rest of the bridges depend on how well Porter does.
I listened to a podcast on the spec.com with Scott Radley interviewing the airport’s new CEO, Peter Tong, and executive managing director, Ed Ratuski. They stated that they are here to make passenger service a priority at Hamilton International.
I am posting a new picture that has not appeared anywhere before online. This picture was laminated (hence the poor quality) and taped to the wall outside between the front doors with the other two pictures that they have published everywhere. I don’t know if it was a mistake putting it out there but here it is. It shows, I believe, the final look of the expansion. I could not get it all in, but it shows a large expansion of the airport (the white roof area) on the east side of the terminal, 9 bridges and the planes in the picture are all porter planes. The front of the airport is what phase one is to look like.
I think they really mean it this time to do a full expansion of the terminal, and that Porter is planning a large expansion of flights themself at YHM. Porter still has 38 – Embraer E195-E2’s on order.
ownthesky
Active Member
I'm hoping with Carney's focus on building big projects, maybe Hamilton can get some good N/S transit funding to tie the airport into the Lakeshore, Mohawk, and McMaster. We don't need a UP Express, but the existing A Line bus is not a service professionals would want to take. Hamilton's (Re)Envision transit update has big plans for BRT-lite lines all over the city- maybe a modern electric bus with full low floors that resemble a tram, like in Europe, would entice people to get to the airport via mass transit.
I love using Billy Bishop because it's so easy to get to the airport. If YHM becomes just a smaller version of Pearson's perpetual traffic jam, it would really be disappointing.
rbt
Senior Member
Ask Ford, not Carney. Feds provide funding to provinces [with a few strings] but provincial governments decide what priorities are and how to divvy it up. Ford's announced pet projects are "GO 2.0" and the Sheppard Extension, and they can suck up an awful lot of capital.
That said, Monica Ciriello (MPP) does take some interest in transit issues and should have Doug's ear on occasion. They might fund a BRT or some level of improvements to West Harbour GO if enough people ask for it.
drum118
Superstar
Be careful what you wish for as those so call tram buses are a poor child ride as we have ridden them. Unless poured concrete or a real good pave ROW, a rough ride. Better off with an BRT before moving to an LRT.
There are a number of systems both in the NA and Europe that have only transit buses going to/from the airport, if any at all.
We took a coach bus at 10 euro each form Milano train station to the closes airport 25 minutes away to get to Sweden while the other airport is close to 60 minutes away. Roma airport is a 30 minute ride by train. In a lot of cases, there is an extra fare to/from the airport even by transit.
LAX just got an LRT line while NYC still waiting for rail.
ericmacm
Active Member
KingJames
Active Member
Some external/internal progress pics posted on X by YHM
innsertnamehere
Superstar
I've discussed this before but YHM, even with this proposed expansion, will just not be busy enough to need a rapid transit expansion.
I do think regular GO bus service connecting to Aldershot GO would be helpful if the expansion ends up pushing the airport into 20+ daily departures, but building real rapid transit into what is effectively a rural area to service an airport which handles only a couple thousand passengers a day, most of which will be coming from areas outside the catchment area of that rapid transit, is silly.
YHM will draw passengers not only from Hamilton but also mostly west and east of it - from Niagara and Brantford, Haldimand-Norfolk, etc. for which it will be the most convenient airport.
If Carney wants to invest in improving YHM, it needs to go to improved parking facilities, a proper rental car facility, building a dedicated bus drop off area for GO buses and HSR buses, and maybe building Hamilton's planned east arterial road connection from the RHVP up to Highway 6 to improve road connections to Niagara from the airport so that buses and driving passengers can get to Niagara easier from the airport.
I do think regular GO bus service connecting to Aldershot GO would be helpful if the expansion ends up pushing the airport into 20+ daily departures, but building real rapid transit into what is effectively a rural area to service an airport which handles only a couple thousand passengers a day, most of which will be coming from areas outside the catchment area of that rapid transit, is silly.
YHM will draw passengers not only from Hamilton but also mostly west and east of it - from Niagara and Brantford, Haldimand-Norfolk, etc. for which it will be the most convenient airport.
If Carney wants to invest in improving YHM, it needs to go to improved parking facilities, a proper rental car facility, building a dedicated bus drop off area for GO buses and HSR buses, and maybe building Hamilton's planned east arterial road connection from the RHVP up to Highway 6 to improve road connections to Niagara from the airport so that buses and driving passengers can get to Niagara easier from the airport.
FF407
Active Member
This won't be a rural area in 15-20 years though. Any planned rapid transit will take that long to be built anyway.
innsertnamehere
Superstar
The planned development around the airport is mostly large-scale industrial warehouses. Important uses to support our modern economy, but not particularly dense on employment to support rapid transit.
The area is going to need better transit service. The A-Line should probably get BRT services closer to central Hamilton in the next few decades. This area will not and does not need rapid transit. It's existing and planned densities do not support it.
FF407
Active Member
Ok
ownthesky
Active Member
The airport is the terminus of the A line, I agree the area immediately surrounding the airport is industrial and low density, but it’s also intended to be an employment growth area and extends through dense sections of downtown and the brow with two GO connections. It would be wise to incrementally improve these existing bus services proactively into a full BRT now, versus desperately playing catchup when Upper James is full of gridlock.
I don’t mean to derail the thread too much with Hamilton transit talk and I do apologize, but I can’t emphasize enough how crappy the A line service is servicing the airport across much of the route. Would anyone like to stand in the rain in a pile of cigarette butts and some flipped over shopping carts? Lmao!
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ownthesky
Active Member
Which bus model were you referring to? I was speaking more about the modern Solaris buses that Vancouver just ordered (Trollino), their Urbano’s seem like a nice low floor bus with lots of windows, optional skirts to look like a tram (looks silly IMHO) haven’t heard anything about poor ride quality. I expect the Chinese gadgetbahn “trackless tram” style buses probably have awful rides!
drum118
Superstar
The 60 and 90 foot artic buses of different manufacturers I have ridden in Europe and will not recommended the 3 section 90 foot artic as you get bounce around badly in that rear section. Most systems mainly use 60'e-buses Have ridden the gadgebahn that look nice, but not the ride.
Europe bus styles are a lot better than NA, with the interior similar to NA buses.. As for riding a buses, it depends on the roads if you get a smooth ride or rough ride regardless where in the world they run.
Hamilton airport only needs an BRT as the ridership is not their from my limited to the airport to pickup or drop off family.
End of the day, a bus is a bus with some having lipstick on them like LRT.