The province has purchased 205 km of railway between North Bay and Washago.
Officials say the $138 million investment is another milestone in the province’s plan to bring back Northlander passenger rail to northeastern Ontario.
“This acquisition secures a dedicated rail corridor that will improve on-time performance and reliability, creating good-paying jobs and driving economic growth all across the north,” says Ric Bresee, Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Transportation.
Vic Fedeli, Nipissing MPP, says locals remember the previous Northlander service, which experienced delays along that corridor because of heavy freight traffic, with this purchase changing all that.
“The new era of the Northlander will have priority along this corridor, ensuring passengers have safe, dependable service to get them where they need to go,” says Fedeli.
Though passenger rail service will be prioritized, the province says the new acquisition will also support timely freight rail traffic, with revenues directed back to Ontario Northland.
Chad Evans, Ontario Northland CEO, says since the first train set arrived in January, it has undergone a series of static tests and has started venturing along the track in Southern Ontario.
“It’s begun to do some dynamic testing. It’s been moving in the GTA area,” he says. “It’s going to eventually reach a point where we’re going to move it along the entire Northlander corridor, so you’ll see it coming to and through your communities, all the way to Timmins and Cochrane, in the coming weeks and months.”
Evans says the other two trainsets are also slated to arrive in the ‘coming weeks and months’ and will undergo the same testing.
“Once that reaches a point of substantial completion, we’ll be ready to declare a start date,” he says.
The newly purchased stretch of track will represent more than 25 per cent of the rail the Northlander will operate on.
With files from Richard Coffin.
