I’ve never been fond of Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. It’s cold, bereft of useful traveler connection-time-wasters and, for airlines, one of the most expensive airports in the world to set up shop. (Although, for the record, landing fees and terminal charges have been reduced from stratospheric levels). It’s always a giggle to pass through YYZ, though, and see the high-speed walkway beside the regular-speed dealio:
YYZ High-Speed Walkway (2 October 2009)
To my knowledge, it’s never worked, never made its way past testing in the nearly five years since Terminal 1′s been open. Enormously expensive, too, as you might imagine. Worse, YYZ was the first airport for which the manufacturer had been contracted for this particular system. It was doomed to failure from the beginning, though, as its whole intent — moving inbound passengers from flights to baggage carousels — seemed enormously flawed in the first place: passengers quickly are transported to baggage claim areas where they still have to wait ages for their luggage.
Returning to YYZ from TLV was a lesson in security incompetence, too. After five security checkpoints at the Tel Aviv airport, in which we were screened by trained personnel clearly adept in ferreting out ne’er-do-wells and scofflaws (and, apparently, anyone with a Russian accent) we were treated to a wait in line while a Brazilian traveler was detained for her attempt to bring a dangerous vial of cheesy perfume through the checkpoint. She was questioned by four security agents while the entire line was held up behind her, each security agent unsure of how to handle someone bringing more than 100ml of liquid through, as if it was the first time it had ever happened. I am never disappointed by Canada’s first (and only) line of defense against troublemakers.
5 comments
I haven’t flown much at all recently, and when I have I’ve gone to Buffalo and flown from there, but one thing that always used to REALLY piss me off about YYZ was when you came back through customs, you had to pick a line and then wait and pray you didn’t get in line behind the woman with the contraband perfume, or in the case of my last trip, a very confused elderly woman who thought she’d already gone through customs in LA (uh, no, that was security) and was refusing to fill out the customs forms and generally holding everything up for 20 minutes while she argued with the officer. SO frustrating, as I watched all the other people from my flight get processed through their lines in a matter of minutes.
Why they couldn’t set up a one line, go to the next available agent system is beyond me. I always pick the wrong line. Maybe they’ve done that since; like I said, it’s been years.
No, they haven’t done that. Nor have they established specific lines for Canadian citizens. Infuriating.
Did you fly El Al? I have never been to Toronto Pearson but Vancouver is a nice airport. Ya know those people movers are always broken here in Seattle too. The change order costs on that shit must be astromomical.
So what is your verdict on Israel? Of course its beautiful, i would be interested in your take on the vibe between Israelis and the Palestinians.
Jack P.
Seriously? How fucking hard is it to have a moving sidewalk??? Take an escalator (they’re everywhere) and lay it flat. Jeebus!
when i come back regularly from LGA and the plane lands in the end gate they turn it on, otherwise they leave it off to save energy. it’s definitely the fastest i’ve been on, and the way the tracks expand/compress on either end to accelerate/decelerate you at a safe speed is fun to experience. it’s been working for the last 3 years at least… but only if a plane parks in the end gate (otherwise not much point because you can’t get on the walk part way through, unlike the slower ones next to it).