Jack Layton Ferry Terminal | |||||||||||||||||||
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![]() View of Jack Layton Ferry Terminal and the wharf | |||||||||||||||||||
General information | |||||||||||||||||||
Location | 9 Queens Quay West Toronto, Ontario M5J 2H3 | ||||||||||||||||||
Coordinates | 43°38′25″N79°22′31″W / 43.64028°N 79.37528°W | ||||||||||||||||||
Owned by | City of Toronto | ||||||||||||||||||
Operated by | Toronto Ferry Company (1892–1926) Toronto Transit Commission (1926–1961) [1] Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation Division (1961–present) | ||||||||||||||||||
Line(s) | Toronto Island ferries | ||||||||||||||||||
Connections | ![]() ![]() | ||||||||||||||||||
Construction | |||||||||||||||||||
Accessible | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
Other information | |||||||||||||||||||
Website | City of Toronto webpage | ||||||||||||||||||
History | |||||||||||||||||||
Opened | 19th century | ||||||||||||||||||
Rebuilt | 1972 [2] | ||||||||||||||||||
Passengers | |||||||||||||||||||
2009 | 1.2 million per year [3] | ||||||||||||||||||
Services | |||||||||||||||||||
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The Jack Layton Ferry Terminal (formerly called the Toronto Island Ferry Docks) is the ferry slip for Toronto Island ferries operated by the City of Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation Division. Three ferry routes provide transportation between mainland Toronto and Centre Island, Hanlan's Point and Ward's Island in the Toronto Islands, with levels of service to each destination differing depending on time of year. The terminal is located in the Toronto Harbour, behind the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel and adjacent to Harbour Square Park. It is south of Bay Street and Queens Quay in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The Toronto Island Ferry Docks were renamed the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal in 2013 to honour Jack Layton, who served as a Toronto city councillor, and was later leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) and leader of the Official Opposition.
The main departure point from the city to the Island has been at the foot of Bay Street since the 19th century. [1]
The original terminal was located on the east side of the Toronto Harbour Commission Building at Bay and Harbour Streets. The terminal in the picture was destroyed by fire in 1907 and was rebuilt. A steamship terminal and berth areas was added to the east side. The site is now filled in and occupied by a parking lot.
When the infilling of the harbour took place after 1918 the docks moved to Queen's Quay west of Bay Street. It had a waiting room [4] and was heated in the wintertime. [5] [6] This terminal would be there until it was demolished during the redevelopment of the Toronto waterfront that began in the 1970s. The Harbour Square condos are built on the site.
The third terminal opened in January 1972, shifted about 100 metres to the east. [2] The new terminal was part of a planned 85 million dollar waterfront project started in 1964, and completed in the early 1970s at the cost of 250 million dollars [5] that would see the Bay Street shipping slip filled in and Harbour Castle Hilton and Harbour Square condos built. [7] The cost of the new terminal was CA$519,000 [5] But unlike the previous terminal, no waiting room was provided (as the ferries stopped operating during winter time), [4] and had crowding problems starting in its first season. [2] Metro Parks Commissioner Tommy Thompson would have liked to see the new terminal right at the foot of Bay Street, where the old one was, but it was placed where it was to be part of the condo-hotel complex. [2] [5] [6] Minor upgrades have been made to replace the original ticket booths with newer and larger ones located just north of the original entrance and partially covered by a canopy.
In 2012, the Toronto City Council voted unanimously to rename the terminal in honour of the late Jack Layton, who served as a Toronto city councillor, and led the NDP and Official Opposition. [8] [9] In 2013, on the second anniversary of Layton's death, the terminal was formally renamed and a bronze statue of Layton riding on a tandem bicycle was installed at the site. [10] [11]
In 2015, a winning design was announced for a renovation and redesign of the terminal building. [12] The first phase of construction is expected to be complete in April, 2019. [13]
There is an estimated 1.2 million passengers to the station per year, mostly in the summer months. [3]
The three larger ferries are stored here during the winter months. The ferries' exposed decks are covered by a white tarp.
Harbourfront is a neighbourhood on the northern shore of Lake Ontario within the downtown core of the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Part of the Toronto waterfront, Harbourfront extends from Bathurst Street in the west, along Queens Quay, with its ill-defined eastern boundary being either Yonge Street or York Street. Its northern boundary is the Gardiner Expressway. Much of the district was former water lots filled in during the early 1900s to create a larger harbour district. After shipping patterns changed and the use of the Toronto harbour declined, the area was converted from industrial uses to a mixed-use district that is mostly residential and leisure.
The Toronto waterfront is the lakeshore of Lake Ontario in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It spans 46 kilometres between the mouth of Etobicoke Creek in the west and the Rouge River in the east.
Toronto Harbour or Toronto Bay is a natural bay on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Today, the harbour is used primarily for recreational boating, including personal vessels and pleasure boats providing scenic or party cruises. Ferries travel from docks on the mainland to the Islands, and cargo ships deliver aggregates and raw sugar to industries located in the harbour. Historically, the harbour has been used for military vessels, passenger traffic and cargo traffic. Waterfront uses include residential, recreational, cultural, commercial and industrial sites.
The Toronto Port Authority (TPA), doing business as PortsToronto (PT), is a port authority that is responsible for the management of the Port of Toronto, including the International Marine Passenger Terminal, and Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport. It was established under the Canada Marine Act as a government business enterprise that is self-funded, with directors appointed by three levels of government – the Government of Canada, the Government of Ontario and the City of Toronto. The TPA rebranded itself as PortsToronto in 2015.
The Toronto Island ferries connect the Toronto Islands in Lake Ontario to the mainland of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The main city-operated ferry services carry passengers (all) and commercial vehicles (some) from the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal at the foot of Bay Street to three docks on the islands. Private motor vehicles are not carried. The ferry operated by PortsToronto carries passengers and vehicles to Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport on the island from the foot of Eireann Quay. Additional private ferries carry passengers to various island boat clubs. Ferry services to the islands began in 1833, and the Toronto Island Ferry Company began in 1883.
Queens Quay is a prominent street in the Harbourfront neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The street was originally commercial in nature due to the many working piers along the waterfront; parts of it have been extensively rebuilt in since the 1970s with parks, condominiums, retail, as well as institutional and cultural development.
The Westin Harbour Castle Toronto is a large hotel opened in 1975 on the waterfront of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is part of the Westin Hotels chain within Marriott International.
Queen's Quay Terminal is a condominium apartment, office and retail complex in the Harbourfront neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was originally built in 1927 as a marine terminal with office, warehouse and cold-storage facilities. When shipping to Toronto declined in the 1960s and 1970s, the building was bought by the Government of Canada to be repurposed along with a section of the industrial waterfront. The Terminal Building itself was rebuilt in the 1980s with the addition of four floors of residential above the original facility, which was converted into retail and office uses. The cold storage wing was demolished and its plant building became The Power Plant gallery and Harbourfront Centre Theatre.
Queens Quay is an underground streetcar station of the Toronto streetcar system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Along with Spadina station and Union station, it is one of three stations open overnight to support late-night streetcar routes. It is the only underground streetcar station that is not part of or connected to a Toronto subway station. It was opened in 1990 as part of the former Harbourfront LRT route. The station is now served by the 509 Harbourfront, 510 Spadina daytime routes and the 310 Spadina night route.
Captain John's Harbour Boat Restaurant was a restaurant and banquet hall in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. For most of its existence it was located in the MS Jadran, a former Adriatic passenger ship that was permanently docked at the foot of Yonge Street at 1 Queens Quay West on Toronto's waterfront. The ship was moored off on a small laneway at the foot of Yonge Street called Captain John's Pier. Once a prestige destination, the restaurant was open every day of the year, including all major holidays such as Christmas and New Year's Day, for almost 40 years. When it opened, the waterfront was an industrial portland. The Harbourfront redevelopment turned the area into a recreational destination for residents and tourists and a residential neighbourhood; Captain John's helped begin a gentrification process that ultimately claimed it as a victim.
Amsterdam Bridge is a bridge on the waterfront in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The steel structure is a cable footbridge that crosses over the Simcoe Street Slip from York Quay to Rees Street Slip.
The Auckland waterfront is a city-side stretch of the southern Waitematā Harbour coastline in Auckland, New Zealand. Previously mostly dominated by Ports of Auckland uses, from the 2000s on it is becoming increasingly open to recreational public use, with a number of former wharves being converted to office, entertainment, and later also some residential uses.
The Toronto Harbour Commission (THC) was a joint federal-municipal government agency based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The agency managed Toronto Harbour as well as being responsible for major works along the Toronto waterfront. It built both Malton Airport and the Toronto Island Airport in 1939. The agency was founded in 1911 and operated until 1999 when the port operations were transferred to the new Toronto Port Authority (TPA), now PortsToronto.
East Bayfront, or the East Bayfront Precinct, is an emerging neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is currently undergoing a transformation from industrial use to mixed-use as part of Waterfront Toronto's plans to create a residential and commercial district urban core near the lake.
East Bayfront LRT, also known as the Waterfront East LRT, is a planned Toronto streetcar line that would serve the East Bayfront and Port Lands areas in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It would run from Union station under Bay Street and along Queens Quay and Cherry Street to a new Villiers Loop along Commissioners Street east of Cherry Street on Villiers Island. It would complement the existing 509 Harbourfront service that connects Union Station to Queens Quay west of Bay Street. Longer-term plans are to extend the East Bayfront line from Cherry and Commissioners Streets to the planned East Harbour Transit Hub along GO Transit's Lakeshore East line and the planned Ontario Line.
William Inglis is a Toronto Island ferry operated by the Parks, Forestry and Recreation Division of the City of Toronto government. The ferry serves the Toronto Islands from a dock at Jack Layton Ferry Terminal in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Trillium is a side wheeler ferry operated by the City of Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Now 114 years old, she is one of several Toronto Island ferries operating between the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal at Bay Street and Queens Quay and three landing points on the Toronto Islands. She is the last sidewheel-propelled vessel on the Great Lakes.
South Core is a neighbourhood located in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The South Core occupies the eastern portions of the Railway Lands. The remodeling and restoration of Union Station and the construction of a new wave of business and condominium towers is central to this area's forecast growth.
Forecasters expect the downtown population to grow 80 per cent to 130,000 by 2031. With the financial district just to the north and the new high-rise South Core on the other side, Union is right at the centre.
Harbour Square Park is a park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada right on the Toronto harbour. It is next to the Harbour Square condos, the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal and the Westin Harbour Castle. It is south of Queens Quay and adjacent to the Queens Quay streetcar station. It contains a boardwalk and a permanent public art installation.
Wharves in Wellington Harbour have been essential to the operation of the Port of Wellington and to the development of the city and the lower half of the North Island of New Zealand.