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Ontario speeds up Northlanders demise
The fix is in, folks. This is the BC Rail privatization/fire sale played all over again. Get your train trips in while you can.
Keep the Northlander
Just another instance of the provincial government not seeing beyond the Toronto mega city limits. GO McGuinty…AWAY!
Let me guess, the commission is being given advice from rep Shuster of PA?
Oh no not the end of the Northlander, it will be sadly missed one of the nicest trains in Canada to ride on comfortable seats,great food really helpful train crew. I will miss it very much,it just won’t be the same taking the bus.
This whole process is a classic example of elected governments ignoring their own rules. Legalize at it’s best.
At least Via Rail Canada adheres to a ninety day notice when train services are eliminated. Yet promptly turn around and ignore environmental impact hearings as they did in 1990.
Go figure !
The provence must have numbers that over ride the importance of the service the Northlander provides. That they are making this move indicates Ontario is having difficulty fiscally. The CAW, however, will make this a weapon in an election, when ever it is called and one may be called sooner than later.
I too will miss the Northlander. It is all that Mr. Parker writes and more. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again - the train simply didn’t generate enough business to justify the continuing losses. It’s too bad as we’re one step closer to the sameness of Amtrak and VIA throughout North America. I’ll be riding north on the 27th and south on the 28th. Hope to see many fellow Trains readers!
This is a short-sighted move. I will miss the Nothlander. I’m glad I was able to go on it one last time and take my family.
Well Canadians, as the song says, “You don’t what you’ve got, until it’s gone”. I still feel mad that New York’s Penn. Station was distroyed. Good by Northlander! You’ll be missed!
Being of the working majority and as a railfan, I am done with flogging a dead horse! This has nothing to do with politics, this is reality! USE IT OR LOOSE IT!!! I for one am sick paying taxes for a very small minority!
THe “Polar Bear” will SURELY be the next to go, as its source of riders dries up. NOBODY is going to ride a bus all day, then stay overnight to take a several hour train ride through the middle of nowhere to get to the town NEXT to “the end of the earth.” It would be like continuing to run a train between Saratoga and Montreal without connecting services to/from NY.
The Northlander operating costs could be significantly reduced by operating it with a Budd RDC or other manufacturer’s rail diesel car(s). VIA CANADA uses RDC’s on the Sudbury to White River run over Canadian Pacific’s main line.
Old timers may remember B&O’s sucessful RDC train, the “Daylight Speedliner” operated from 1956 between Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh via B&O’s mainline through Baltimore and Washington.
A number of other sucessful long distance RDC trains operated, and the longest run of all, Western Pacific’s Zephyrette running on a 900-mile Oakland CA to Salt Lake City UT comes to mind.
I rode the Northlander many years ago up to Swastika if I recall where I was met by a fellow salesman to make calls in that area. The train was quite busy. Unfortunately the only real way to operate almost anything has to be based on number of riders and I doubt todays Northlander comes even close to qualifying. The Polar Bear Express is a different kettle of fish being a tourist run and well worth promoting but Cochrane is a long drive from any centres of population. It really is a wilderness adventure on board the Polar Bear Express and highly recomended but getting to Cochrane without the Northlander? Hope you like buses or driving,its close to a 700 mile run from Toronto to Cochrane but a great train ride up to James Bay, the real North.