Bordercollie
Senior Member
Sudbury is served by the Canadian 3x per week.
Running passenger trains on existing track requires investment. Who's going to pay for it?
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- Thread starter CDL.TO
- Start date
Running passenger trains on existing track requires investment. Who's going to pay for it?
Urban Sky
Senior Member
As a QC taxpayer, I have no problem with all you lovely ON taxpayers paying for your vanity passenger rail projects…
roger1818
Senior Member
As a QC taxpayer, I have no problem with all you lovely ON taxpayers paying for your vanity passenger rail projects…
Its a better "investment" than Doug Fords plan to dig a tunnel under the 401 from Brampton to Scarborough.
roger1818
Senior Member
I was under the impression that the Northlander will be 7 days a week for at least half the year. Would your plan only be for when isn't 7 days a week?
micheal_can
Senior Member
Sudbury is only served twice a week, not 3 times a week. And, we already do pay for it. So, maybe we pay more to get something more useful.
Run it later in the day. Even 12 hours later. So, if the Northlander leaves at 4am, why not have this one leave North Bay at 4pm.
Garuda
Active Member
The last I heard is that it's 3 days a week.
Given Sudbury's population and the high population density (for northern Ontario) between Sudbury and North Bay (Sturgeon Falls/West Nipissing has a higher population than you think) and the population density through the Muskokas and Almaguin Highlands I'd like to see the train run 7 days a week at least up to North Bay.
Would make for some fun car free trips to Screaming Heads.
rbt
Senior Member
That's unfortunate. The initial business case was for daily service using 3 train-sets. The options were all daily operations but the spare and staffing schedules varied.
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micheal_can
Senior Member
Would be nice to alternate them back and forth till the demand is enough for them to be dailies.
What l;likely will happen is that it may run 3x a week till demand grows for 7x a week. If the talk of wanting it back is not just talk,that may be something implemented rather quickly. They are getting 3, but it may be they get the first 2 at the same time and then a third later. My hope is for a Friday, Saturday,Sunday and Wednesday initial schedule.
lenaitch
Senior Member
I don't know if the Commission has definitively stated the schedule. Depending on what press you check, it is reported as both daily and 4-7 times/week.
West Nipissing is about 13K population scattered over a very large area. Sturgeon Falls itself is about 7K.
micheal_can
Senior Member
Sturgeon Falls - Wikipedia
Markstay-Warren - Wikipedia
If I were 'plunking down' stations,I would put one at Downtown Sudbury, Coniston, Markstay, Hagar, Warren, Verner, and Sturgeon Falls.. Sturgeon Falls would be the busiest one outside of the 2 within Greater Sudbury. Verner and Hagar stations would be well served by places south of them,like the St Charles area. My hope is that a bus serving this section meets the trains and it shows the demand is thereto upgrade the line and have a train run it.
dowlingm
Senior Member
3-4x Timmins and 7x North Bay would work for me. But North Bay only 3-4x seems dopey.
micheal_can
Senior Member
The problem is the province isn't just going to run a North Bay - Toronto run. And, they are not openly in talks with the OVR about going to Sudbury. My hope is the suck it up and just have daily from the start.
lenaitch
Senior Member
That's a lot of cost for a very small and scattered population. Of that very small population, how much of it urges to travel to Toronto on a regular basis. Do the Sudbury - North Bay buses regularly fill up in this stretch? Are you assuming so kind of rail-based induced demand ('there is a train - I must go to Toronto')? Travel demographic data is important.
micheal_can
Senior Member
Right now, I do not think there is a demand. A few years after the Northlander is running, and providing that ONR has buses between Sudbury and North Bay meeting the Northlander, it may become feasible. This expansion would only be if the buses are full. Currently, there are 2 buses on this route. Adding 2 more, and if they are full would show the demand. Some of this demand could be the reverse; people going to Sudbury for things like medical appointments.
This is all about rolling out the Northlander in the best possible way that will make it successful.
micheal_can
Senior Member
Regardless of my fantasies about trains to everywhere, My number 1 fantasy is that if any new service is added that it be a success. So, for the Northlander, I want it to be a success. And not a success in my eyes, but a success in the eyes of the people who get elected that could cancel it.