C_Johnson_1995
New Member
I am guessing you will never be served by this service.
I am guessing you have never ridden the buses in winter on this route.
I don't understand why people are so averse to busses. Busses are equally capable of providing a comfortable ride experience to train. I have taken many long distance bus journies before and what ever you get with a train is not worth the massive cost. The north would be better served by a dramatic increase in bus departures. These busses would also make the journey significantly faster and with cheaper fares. If you are interested in mobility and not trains for the sake of trains, this would be abundantly clear. In this regard, I am very much in the camp of UrbanSky.
If Vancouver Island or Saskatoon-Regina do not justify a train, neither does Northeast Ontario. This continual bias in urbanist and advocacy circles against busses needs to end.
"Disaster" might be a bit over-the-top.
What funding for freight do you see as currently lacking? Their motive power seems decent, ROW condition suitable for freight operations, customer base seems reasonably solid.
While they may be in good shape now, funds from freight should never be diverted and that fruitful side of the business should be continuously reinvested in to remain competitive. The problem will come when another drop in business comes. ONR will be much better off without having to support a millstone vanity project around their neck. It's important to remember how close ONTC came to divestiture and closure. This shouldn't be allowed to happen again.