Attn. Canadian Simmers

[dfish 1]

What happend to Mirabel and why was it built in the first place? If it's not being used, why wouldn't they demolish it and redevelop the land.Dave

[CanadaOne 36]

Hey Dave,They built Mirabel, after a huge fight to expropriate tens of thousands of acres of farmland, to replace Montreal-Dorval Int. Mirabel is about 30 klicks north on Montreal. They, the government, were supposed to build a high-speed train link between Mirabel and Montreal, and were supposed to build a dedicated highway connecting the two. They built half the highway then stopped. The train never got started at all. The airport, the Great White Elephant, died. Now they use it for maintenance and a few cargo flights.For the past twenty years there have been big signs on the side of the highway showing the airport and saying, "If you're not going to use it, give us the land back so we can grow food."There was also a big deal made by protesters during construction that the Mirabel runways would be big enough to handle US bombers. That did not sit well in highly pacifist Quebec. But we won't discuss politics here.So far the only real use for Mirabel is by me to do high speed shuttle runs in FS9 & FSX betwen Mirabel and Dorval Int. I've done it in a Captain Sim F-104, start to full stop, in under two minutes. (I think.)

[dfish 1]

I drove past it once on my way to Tremblant, thinking what a waste. I think that's part of the reason we'll never see a Pickering airport, not after sinking billions in Pearson.Dave