At its November 20 District Council meeting, the District Municipality of Muskoka rubber-stamped the new location for the Northland bus stop on Main Street West, adjacent to 60 Station Road.
The reason that address is being used is because there is no civic address where the current bust stop has been moved to. “The actual bus stop doesn’t have an address, that’s why we’ve been using 60 Station Road,” explained Huntsville and District Councillor Bob Stone who is also Chair of the Town of Huntsville’s Active Transportation and Public Transit Committee.
The location has benches and a garbage bin in place and discussions are ongoing about putting a bus shelter in place, said Stone. “We’ve been discussing with the Northland bus, hoping to get the shelter. I don’t believe that’s going to happen anytime soon.” He said the Town has offered to help with the creation of the shelter but, again, discussions are ongoing. “It’s absolutely no ideal,” he said. “We’ve asked Northland bus lines for a shelter and said that we’re prepared to help out but we don’t believe there’s going to be a shelter there this winter.”
Asked how difficult it would be to put a small shelter in place, Stone said: “It all sounds so very simple until it costs $300,000 to put a washroom in.” (Stone was referring to the cost of installing the donated washroom facility at River Mill Park).
Stone said the bus has had many stop locations through the years in Huntsville. “We were afraid to lose the bus so we worked to get this particular bus stop. If we can find a better stop, then we may ask for it to be moved again,” he said, adding that any such consideration would have to look at the distance to the highway as well as the ability of the bus to do a turnaround in a tighter location.
As for the return of passenger rail, Stone said there is much excitement about the Ontario Northland Passenger Train returning with a stop in Huntsville. He said negotiations are ongoing with the owners of the former Huntsville train station who also own a few parking spots in that location. “Just the building and a few parking spots are what’s owned. The road is ours and the rest of the property is owned by CN.”
Stone said CN will be building a shelter near or at the existing train station. He said it is his understanding that Ontario Northland is in discussions with the owners of the old train station. “I do know that the train will be stopping in Huntsville and there will be a glass shelter provided by Ontario Northland,” he said, adding that if negotiations with the owners of the former train station are not fruitful, CN also owns property by the train tracks in that location.
With news of the train’s return, Stone was asked whether there is regret that the Town divested itself of the former station for the sum of $2. “No, because there was a lot of expense to remediate the train station so it’s better that it was still sold into private hands,” he said.
Stone noted that while negotiations with the owners are ongoing, “If they can’t come to an agreement with the private property owners then it will be on CN property. I also need to say that if the property owners don’t embrace this opportunity, I think they are missing out,” he concluded.
Image: Stops planned for the Ontario Northland Passenger Train’s return as presented at an October public meeting held in Huntsville.
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I’ve commented before so lest I repeat: people talking here apparently do not have the experience or empathy of a 3am winter bus arrival at a shelterless, information-less (ie. map, taxi phone #) stop. A toilet comes close second to a roof and sidewalls when one is a patron of Ontario Northland (there is no such business as “Northland”). A privy-on-the-spot would do. And this quote: “We were afraid to lose the bus”. Is that true? How so? What criteria created this statement?
Brilliant! we get a bus stop without even a rudimentary roof or wind break and we get it just before winter so there is absolutely no way anyone is going to do anything to fix this. A genius move if ever we saw one.
Next we shall wonder why nobody uses the bus either.
Putting the bus and train stops in the same place makes good sense if a spot can be found that works for all.
Meanwhile, what was wrong with the bus stopping at Hortons out by Hwy. 11? It worked for years with the airport bus, surely it would work for the Northland bus. Hortons will make coffee money from it and it is easy to find and handy as possible to highway 11. The bus only clutters their parking lot for 5 minutes for a stop and Hortons has a good washroom, lots of food and warmth in winter. Looks good to me.
If I was Horton’s I’d be trying to work a deal to become the local bus stop in as many towns as possible so that the two became synonymous. It would be good for business.
Has anyone investigated this? Even for a temporary winter fix?
I find this highly amusing. I’ve never seen a bus shelter with a washroom before.
Perhaps this will enlighten our local council on the reality of what a bus shelter looks like: https://www.brasco.com/products/bus-stop-shelters/
They can even request a quote, lots of models to choose from…