After 18 years, the Alpine Way is coming back to the Canadian National Exhibition, but under a new name.

The CNE says its new Sky Ride “does not pretend to be a replacement” for the fan favourite that carried millions of people during its 28-year tenure. But it will perform the same functions.

Like the Alpine Way, the Sky Ride will lift people into the air and transport them across the sprawling CNE, offering a bird’s-eye view of the grounds and Toronto skyline.

The biggest difference is how high the ride goes — the Alpine Way went up more than 100 feet (about 31 metres), while the Sky Ride will only reach 42 feet (about 13 metres) — and what people will see when they look down.

Passengers on the Sky Ride will be able to see soccer games going on at BMO Field, which didn’t exist when the Alpine Way was operating. They’ll also see a vastly different skyline, dotted with more highrise buildings.

CNE general manager David Bednar started at the CNE in 1997 and never got to ride the Alpine Way, which was dismantled in 1994.

During his first 10 years on the job, people always gave him the same two pieces of feedback. They told him to improve the food building and bring back the Alpine Way.

“It would be pretty difficult if not impossible to recreate it as people remember it,” Bednar admitted.

The Sky Ride will inevitably draw comparisons to the Alpine Way, but Bednar said they didn’t consider naming the new ride after the old. The Alpine Way was removed in preparation for the construction of a trade centre, now the Direct Energy Centre.

Don Odbert took the last ride.

Then the CNE’s operations and sales manager — he retired in 1998 — he smoked a celebratory cigar along the way and was greeted by cheers when he got off.

“People don’t like too much change. (Dismantling the Alpine Way) was a piece of radical change to a lot of them,” Odbert said.

They stored the parts on site for a few years, planning to rebuild. It never happened.

“Nobody had the eagerness to charge forward with it. It just sort of disappeared into the depths,” Odbert said.

Odbert says he’ll line up to try the Sky Ride when it opens.

The CNE runs from Aug. 17 to Sept. 3 this year.

Comparing new and old

Alpine Way

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Opened on Aug. 20, 1966. Crews began dismantling October 12, 1994.

Distance: 2,300 feet (701 metres)

Height: 103 feet (31 metres)

Route: Travelled on a slanted line from the area by Princes’ Gate toward Dufferin Gates.

Cost: $710,000 in 1966. About $40,000 to dismantle in 1994.

Sky Ride

Opens on August 17, 2012.

Distance: 1,600 feet (488 metres)

Height: 42 feet (13 metres)

Route: Travels on an east-west axis from near the Princes’ Gate to near BMO Field.

Cost: More than $1 million.