Hi, Regarding transportation…

Hi, Regarding transportation and the development of Northern Ontario, not just good but very good communications is crucial. We living in the "North" has far to each hub, may it be Sudbury, North Bay, SSM, Thunder Bay or Timmins still these are the larger hubs in Northern Ontario.

To be an attractive working and living place people need to be able to conveniently travel from one location to another. Flying is ok, but it does not suit everyone. Busses is far between and not synchronized and timetables are not available for each region. Train travel has been disseminated and is a shadow what it once where. Europe and Asia and elsewhere, even in the USA, efforts are put in place to increase passenger train travel. Even Northern Ontario had once a well developed passenger train network that worked well for the time. However time has cached up and the train travel offerings has not been adjusted according to be able to compete. I understand that CP and unfortunately also CN is privately owned, including the tracks. ONR however is still province owned and that is a very good asset that the province could build upon and extend the rail network. In Europe for example, most rail network is state owned, however it does not stop them from being used by different train operators (at the same time), private or publicly owned. This deregulation took time and there are lessons to be learned to avoid problems, but for sure there are much traffic going on and the tracks are well used in many parts of even remotely located areas in Europe.

Ontario can do the same by building on ONR and its track system, extend it (via a new Pagwa spur Nakina - Calstock) into Ring of Fire, bring back the track Mattawa to Ottawa and open up for business Northern Ontario with Ottawa - Montreal. Today everything goes via Toronto and that is not necessary the best for Northern Ontario. Toronto is one of several markets! Algoma Central Railway (SSM - Hearst), Huron Central Railway (SSM - Sudbury) and Ottawa Valley Railway (for now Sudbury - Temiskaming, QC) can all eventually be incorporated into ONR rail network. Further, a policy should be in place so that track being lifted too hasty must never again happen like the track Mattawa - Ottawa. Abandoned tracks should be offered to the province for free. It is an infrastructure in place and very costly to replace when lifted. There is not reason why there could not be frequent passenger traffic between North Bay and Sudbury, between SSM and Sudbury and daily trains Timmins - North Bay, North Bay - Rouyn Noranda, QC, Timmins - Moosonee and Sudbury - Thunder Bay, Thunder Bay - Winnipeg. Even fast trains (250km/h) should be considered between Toronto - Sudbury and between Toronto and North Bay. In Europe, the ridership increases when new modern train is being used. More frequent traffic helps to maintain a high level of riders as well if the comfort is good and affordable. Internet is a must onboard so people still can work when travelling, and this is one of the large benefits talking for trains compared to other means of travelling. This is called development and lifting Northern Ontario into the 2000! If CN and CP is unwilling to cooperate, then parallel tracks could be built offering them double track opportunity but of course the (new) track then should be owned by ONR. And, a very important step will be to reinstate that passenger trains will have priority over slow moving freight trains! If not, passenger train traffic will not fly, if sharing the same tracks with the freight! Double tracks will then help!

Transit truck traffic (through Northern Ontario) should be forced to take the train like Winnipeg - Toronto, Winnipeg - Ottawa, Winnipeg - Montreal etc. This would save of road maintenance and save lives due to tired truck drivers causing accidents. Do Northern Ontario have any target regarding death accidents in the traffic? It should be 0!

New bioenergy projects is sometime slowed down or even stopped due to no capacity on the grid. That has to be changed. Trains can be converted to run on electricity and would be a good client for many combined heat and power (CHP) plants throughout Northern Ontario. Biomass is considered CO2 neutral and comes from renewable resources and therefore is something good and will help both Ontario and Canada to meet the environmental targets. This is something that the CN and CP among other have to consider when they have to meet the environmental targets!

Passenger train traffic is seldom profitable, even in Europe, but it is a service and will help people to thrive in their regions of the country or province where they live. Northern Ontario has a lot of space and could easily double in population without any problem, therefore the Ontario government should actively start steering new (and established who needs relocating) companies to get established in Northern Ontario instead of Toronto and offer workforce and excellent communications, may it be by bus, train, car, truck, boat or flight.

Hurtigrutten in Norway is a well established tourist attraction where people from all over travel along the Norwegian coast. Similar could be done in Northern Ontario touring the coast from Moosonee to Churchill, MB and back by exchanging passengers (arriving by train). That in turn would help developing the tourism with First Nation communities along the coast.

Further, develop Moosonee into a deep water harbour so multimodal vessels can access Northern Ontario market and the reverse, Northern Ontario to access the world market.

The regional passenger bus service should be synchronized with itself (competing or complementing companies), with passenger train traffic, and passenger boat service (Manitoulin Island, Moosonee etc) so that travellers easily can find information about connections, fares, destinations etc in booklets and on internet. How to travel Timmins - Thunder Bay? Almost impossible today! Northern Ontario should have Passenger travel authorities in all regions where each region decides about what local and regional passenger travel services and way of travelling should be prioritized, developed etc. No parallel train and bus routs but rather complementing services etc.

Regarding flight, everything except Bear Skin fly via Toronto. A lot of time is wasted in transfer. Direct flights from Northern Ontario destinations to Montreal and Winnipeg would be an improvement!

My thoughts, Peter Åsman

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