Frosty conditions at Pearson Int’l Airport. Image by Flickr user ddewong1.
In case you didn’t hear, Canada’s largest airport basically shut down for 8 hours yesterday due to extreme frigid conditions (-30 degrees celsius to be exact). This immediately caused a massive backlog at the terminal and utter chaos with flight delays and cancellations.
So while nearly every form of transport was affected in Toronto this past week (from streetcars to buses to the Scarborough RT), I was curious to see how the City’s only CPT system would fare in this weather.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the LINK Train operated smoothly and efficiently when I visited last night. Passengers were hopping on and off without a hitch and everything ran like, well, normal.
Just for proof (and admittedly to kill time while I waited for family/friends to arrive), I personally took some pictures and a video.
LINK Train operations during -30 degrees weather. Image by Nicholas Chu.
So once again, let us reiterate: CPT is not a cure-all/best transport solution nor are streetcars, buses, APMs and planes somehow poor/inferior forms of transport.
Rather, I think the fact that the LINK Train — a bottom-supported cable car — was operating problem-free in arctic-like conditions is truly a testament to the robustness and resilience of cable technology.
And for that, we believe its efforts should be worthy of a brief mention and small recognition!