This is a Listen Up! guest post by Hugh Holland. Hugh Mackenzie is taking a break from Listen Up! this week.
By Hugh Holland
The emerging era of low-emission transportation will bring many changes. Virtually all manufacturers around the world are moving rapidly toward building electric cars, electric trucks, and electric mobile equipment for construction and farming over the next 30 years. (Remember, it took 30 years to get us out of the horse and buggy) More and better public transit is an important part of the future mix.
The early bird gets the worm, so our Federal and Ontario governments have both invested heavily to get in on the ground floor for the development of supply chains all the way from new critical minerals from the Northern Ontario Ring of Fire to new final assembly plants for zero-emission vehicles. Part of that mix is the recently announced reinstatement of the Northlander passenger rail service. According to the Ontario Northland website, the government has already committed $139 million for three new state-of-the-art trainsets. The 60-year business case states that a subsidy of $12 million per year will be required, which is in line with most public transit projects in North America. However, the high cost of the status quo, such as time-wasting traffic density and unhealthy air and noise pollution in urban areas, is not included as an offset to the estimated subsidy.
To understand how all of this affects Huntsville, it is helpful to look back a few decades. Before Highway 11 had four lanes, it went right through downtowns like Huntsville. Passenger rail was popular. In the 1950s, people could go to Toronto in the morning, go to a concert or an appointment, and return with dinner on the train in the evening. Vacationers came by train in droves to resorts in Muskoka. But in the 1970s, a safer and faster four-lane Highway 11 bypassed downtowns. People found car transportation to be more convenient, and train use decreased dramatically. My last trip to Toronto by train was about fifteen years ago. It was very pleasant and convenient to go directly to Union Station and then anywhere in Toronto by TTC, but there were only four people on that train. Everybody said they wanted the train, but nobody used it. So, train service was cancelled in 2012, and Ontario Northland stepped up with an improved bus service. However, as the population continues to grow, highways are becoming more problematic again, and that is likely to increase with the inevitable development of Northern Ontario.
What can we do now to ensure the next few years don’t end with an underused bus service and an underused new passenger rail service? The Huntsville bus terminal has been shifted several times and is currently completely unacceptable for many reasons. The old train station is not readily accessible by bus and has been sold and apparently is to become another restaurant.
Huntsville is at the important intersection of Highway 11 to Toronto and to the north and Highway 60 to Algonquin Park, and Ottawa to the east. Huntsville needs a convenient and attractive station where both bus and rail passengers can interconnect. Popular fall colour tours used to do that. Brian Tapley described a good idea in a recent Doppler article. The area marked with an X on the above map could be an ideal location for a combined bus and rail interconnect. It could provide good access for the bus and for cars and taxis dropping off and picking up passengers. It is close to hotels and restaurants. Ideally, this kind of planning is done 15 years ahead, but with some minor easements and/or land swaps, it could still be done.
The new passenger rail service is coming, and Huntsville needs to be ready.
Hugh Holland is a retired engineering and manufacturing executive now living in Huntsville, Ontario.
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Love the concept and absolutely hope it’s put in place. As pointed out, regular dependable service is essential otherwise people won’t use it. No one has the rime or money to waste sitting on the side track while a freight train takes priority. Double tracks probably essential to allow consistent flow. Expensive but essential. A vision for the future in Canada. A reality in Europe.
Paul Whillans, you are correct that this substantial Northlander Rail investment by the Ford government has the potential to be a white elephant. Success depends on usage and usage depends on convenient schedules and convenient and attractive stations. That is particularly important for Huntsville at the Highway 11 and Highway 60 intersection which is important to tourism. With 3 trainsets added to 23 highway coaches, more convenient schedule combinations should be possible. Hopefully the Northlander business case provides some funding for station improvements along the route.
The idea of having a train again from cottage country to Toronto is enticing. Definitely, Toronto has the infrastructure to support passengers such as access to public transit, parking, although probably not needed given public transit in Toronto and other services surrounding Union station. However, in order to make this kind of service successful one needs to have similar services at the Northern stations. The station needs to have parking including overnight parking. It needs to have public transportation access and other services. It does not appear that plans are in place for this. In addition, it is critical for the success of this service to be faster and less expensive than car travel. There has to be some options for an Express train that runs a couple times a day as well as the milk run.
First allow me to thank you for writing on a matter of particular, local interest (Doppler needs more of this).
There is a romantic notion about rail travel. But I fear that that notion is the only driver of the overwhelming support of this plan.
I lived 25 years of my adult life in North Bay. My employer’s head office was in downtown Toronto. My experience with travel by the Northlander was the same as yours……big train and very few passengers. ( I was required to go to Toronto for 9 am meetings at least once a week…I could leave North Bay at 2:30 am to get there on time …and get back to North Bay at 11 pm at night…..exhausted) Most trips I took had two passengers (myself and a colleague), Estimating the cost in today’s dollars, the round trip was about $140 plus TTC costs.
I fear nothing has changed in the current plan to encourage ridership. The proposal is for 4 round trips a week for the winter months and 7 round trips in the summer.. The proposal estimates that start up ridership to be on average 70 people a train. The south bound train leaves just after midnight in Timmins stops in North Bay at 5:45 am and Huntsville at just before 8 am. This southbound arrives at 11 am in Toronto. To return to the north, the northbound train leaves at 6:30 pm (forget those Blue Jay games and theatre) and arrives in Huntsville at 9:30 pm and North Bay at 11:30….and that poor sucker in Timmins gets back at 5 am the next day.
Of course, cost (as yet unannounced ) will be a determining factor in ridership. Assuming a cost of over $100 per round trip (no doubt grossly underestimated), certainly only single passengers would consider the train/bus (@$96 per round trip). These aren’t options for the average family.
Lastly, the cost of this plan is “estimated” to be between $300 million and $400 million to set up and a $250 million annual operating cost (assuming an average of > 70 passengers per train). These numbers are incremental to the cost of running the Ontario Northland Bus service.
I see no way to come even close to hitting the passenger numbers. For an afternoon in Toronto, this will never be a convenient option for most consumers. And history WILL repeat itself.
For the incremental costs involved, the government needs to enhance the bus service which already offers 4 round trips to Toronto per day (of note from North Bay south train is only 20 minutes faster than by bus). We need buses to get cars off the road not a once a day train service . And the government needs to improve health care and bus service in the Cochrane-Timmins – North Bay – Sudbury quadrangle, to solve a primary reason for the new Ontario Northland..
Besides for all of us Jack Reacher fans, buses can be romantic
PS……Where are the “fiscal conservatives, that frequent this publication?….Anyone?….Anyone?
Is the marked location presently being cleared for a rail transit hub? This location definitely works with on/off hwy 11.
Though nothing wrong with using present station with new occupants as hosts & accommodating the train. Parking has been expanded.
Present bus stop desperately needs a basic shelter – can Huntsville provide?
The old railway station is so neat and hate to lose it but facing facts, the spot marked with the X looks to be good and certainly would work for both the train and bus with shelter for both, which we truly need and would encourage more people to use, whereas no shelter for the bus or places for taxis, etc. to park is not encouraging. It is good to have forethought which is often lacking quite often so thanks to those thinking ahead.