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Deal to save Canadian Pacific line falls through
How is it that the route from Montreal to Sudbury/Capreol, which a few years ago had two busy transcontinental main lines - CN and CP - is about to vanish? Is it really more economical to send trains all the way to Toronto and back up to Sudbury than it is to maintain even one much shorter east-west route? From a passenger’s perspective, It’s pathetic that a person cannot travel from Montreal or Ottawa to Sudbury or Western Canada without changing trains in Toronto.
In this day of emerging railroads such events are a shame.
Talks broke down because Bill’s working on liquidating CP. This is just the beginning.
I’d just be happy to be able to get out of Sudbury by rail.
I scouted this line for Unstoppable back in 2006 and 2007. Made 8 cab rides between Sudbury and Smiths Falls. CP and RailAmerica had just spent millions on track upgrades, stack trains were howling along at 40 mph, and the Ottawa Valley RR was a healthy bridge line. Now this. Clearly, there is a larger strategic plan driving this abandonment. (Have great photos of the line in its heyday…maybe I should do a story for TRAINS.)
I agree with William McFadden, all is based on the bottom line not on customer’s service and personal
Canadian Rail, issue 541, March-April 2011, has a history of this line from 1978.
It is cheaper to send trains from Montreal to Toronto and then up to Sudbury rather than maintaining the Ottawa Valley route.
A comparison is SP years ago closing the Alturas line from Oregon to the transcon mainline east of Reno. It was cheaper to operate trains on the longer route via Roseville.
ITs sad when you are offered from interested parties 1million dollars to lease a line you don,t want and you turn it down with no maintence involved. It goes to show you the smarts of the highier ups, their is none. C.P. rail likes wasting money & time by not double tracking main lines, no let the crews sit for hours waiting for the other train to pass on the siding and run out of hours Double tracks no never.
This is a line of crap CP or CN has always carried pass, form Montreal and Ottawa north without sideling to Toronto. Is this part of the new way of train travel in Canada???
Figures. The old outdated standards are alive and well in Canada. I’ll bet in ten or twenty years, under new management, someone will come along, and rebuild the line. It has happened here in the states a couple or more times. God Bless our Canadian brothers. Hang in there Canucks !
Canadian Rail, issue number 541, March-April 2011, has a good article explaining the history of this line from 1978 to 2011.
The routing of Montreal traffic via Toronto to Sudbury and west is comparable to the SP closing the Alturas line from Oregon to Nevada and making Oregon trains for the east travel via Roseville.
A bad comparison, perhaps, as look what happened to the SP.