{"id":37969,"date":"2020-10-22T08:38:48","date_gmt":"2020-10-22T12:38:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/?p=37969"},"modified":"2021-01-12T11:37:39","modified_gmt":"2021-01-12T16:37:39","slug":"whatever-happened-to-northern-ontarios-passenger-trains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/22\/whatever-happened-to-northern-ontarios-passenger-trains\/","title":{"rendered":"Whatever happened to Northern Ontario\u2019s passenger trains?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Last ACR Passenger Train to leave Hawk Junction on July 13, 2015.<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u2019m often asked that question by folks who\u2019ve heard of my rail industry credentials.\u00a0 I guess they haven\u2019t listened to MPP Vic Fedeli, who has described me as one of those \u201cconsultants with self-serving agendas\u201d because I pointed out the lack of action by his government and Ontario Northland Railway (ONR).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a fair bet Fedeli & Co. won\u2019t like my explanation of why northern rail service is a disaster.\u00a0 It\u2019s a combination of politicians who never deliver on pre-election rail promises and a lack of the political will (or smarts) to compel the publicly-funded railways they control to do it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And here\u2019s a fresh example.\u00a0 VIA Rail Canada \u2013 always under Ottawa\u2019s thumb \u2013 has announced it will \u201cgradually\u201d relaunch its transcontinental train, the Canadian<\/em>, on December 11. Along with VIA\u2019s other remaining long-distance trains, the Canadian<\/em> was suspended due to the pandemic in March.\u00a0 Most still haven\u2019t been revived.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

However, only the Vancouver-Winnipeg segment will be restored.\u00a0 VIA\u2019s release is mute on the Toronto-Capreol-Winnipeg half of the run or the third frequency promised in 2019, when it was reduced to twice weekly due to sloppy, delay-ridden handling by CN.\u00a0 Nor anything on restoring the Sudbury-White River train to three trips per week from the current one per week.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We shouldn\u2019t be surprised.\u00a0 VIA has been largely irrelevant and docile since 1990, when the Mulroney government slashed it by half, despite a 1984 election promise to restore trains cut by the Trudeau Liberals.\u00a0 At the same time, the ONR service was nose-diving due to Ontario\u2019s failure to properly replace the exhausted European trains bought to launch the Toronto-Timmins Northlander<\/em> in 1977.\u00a0 The eventual substitutes for the classy former Trans Europe Express trains were rebuilt GO commuter cars from 1967.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I thought of all this earlier this week while doing some research for my forthcoming book, A National Dream Reborn?<\/em>\u00a0 This merely involved watching one of the many live cameras U.S. rail buffs have placed throughout the Land of Free Enterprise \u2013 and publicly-supported passenger trains.\u00a0 It was at Galesburg, Illinois, the junction of two Burlington Northern Santa Fe lines linking Illinois and California.\u00a0 The live cam enables you to watch the comings and goings of two Amtrak long-distance trains:\u00a0 the Southwest Chief<\/em> from Los Angeles and the California Zephyr<\/em> from Oakland.\u00a0 The comparison with our passenger service is exciting \u2026 and depressing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Both trains use bi-level Superliner cars.\u00a0 The first batch was built in the late 1970s by Pullman and the second lot by Bombardier, which acquired the designs after driving Pullman out of business using Canadian public financing to secure orders.\u00a0 Amtrak\u2019s Superliners may lack the pizzazz of VIA\u2019s 1950s Budd cars, but this higher-capacity rolling stock compensates with reliability, spaciousness and cost effectiveness.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Both trains set off and picked up a fair number of passengers at Galesburg, all wearing masks and being socially distanced by the masked crews.\u00a0 The trains have grown longer as Amtrak has added cars to spread passengers out, some of whom have taken advantage of reduced rates for enclosed sleeping car spaces for daytime use.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So, why isn\u2019t this being done in Northern Ontario?\u00a0 To be fair to VIA, the fact that the federal government has not extended a cent of emergency funding to our Crown railway is a factor.\u00a0 In its September 23 Throne Speech, the government did say it \u201cwill work with partners to support regional routes for airlines. It is essential that Canadians have access to reliable and affordable regional air services.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This should be uplifting news for the residents of Latchford, Longlac, Levack and dozens of other northern communities without air service, but on existing and unserved rail lines.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This ignorance of rail is at the heart of the problem.\u00a0 Federal and provincial politicians, past and present, have poured billions of our dollars into competing highways and air facilities without including passenger trains in what should be a balanced system of travel modes and options.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Blame, too, the starry-eyed and uninformed citizen advocates, who naively believed political promises in exchange for feel-good \u201cconsultation\u201d meetings and free rail tickets.\u00a0 Joining this gaggle of misguided train disablers are some rail union bosses, looking for political support for unjustifiable northern rail car rebuilding facilities (and jobs).\u00a0 They gullibly linked arms with the faux advocates to endorse politicians making empty promises to restore and improve rail service.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Much could be done in Northern Ontario to make use of our now-mothballed trains to provide safe public travel in these challenging times, as Amtrak demonstrates daily.\u00a0 Restored and expanded rail service would connect Northern Ontarians within their region and the rest of Ontario.\u00a0 It would provide access to visitors, delivering an economic boost to struggling tourist operators on the Sudbury-White River and Capreol-Winnipeg routes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Only the corrosive actions and non-actions of politicians are responsible for this not occurring.\u00a0 Meanwhile, those Amtrak trains keep rolling, as do those of every other enlightened nation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Will Northern Ontarians continue to be passive?\u00a0 If they do, they\u2019ll have a lot more than just vanished passenger trains to ponder in the days and years ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m often asked that question by folks who\u2019ve heard of my rail industry credentials.\u00a0 I guess they haven\u2019t listened to MPP Vic Fedeli, who has described me as one of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":1092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[216],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-13 22:11:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37969"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40995,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37969\/revisions\/40995"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}