New schedule for the Northlander

Ontario Northland has announced a new schedule for the Northlander:

http://www.northlander.ca/newsched.htm

Basically, it means all-daytime running both north- and southbound. (Depart Toronto 08:55, arrive Cochrane 19:25. Depart Cochrane 08:00, arrive Toronto 18:30.)

briann

It's good to see the ONR returning to a more passenger friendly schedule. The current schedule, brought in in the fall of 1997, was designed to reduce equipment requirements and train crews but introduced a very early morning southbound departure from Cochrane and a greuling overnight coach trip north from North Bay. This didn't always work out as well as planned since a second trainset was often needed due to a late arrival in Cochrane of the train from the night before.

The new southbound schedule is close to the old 1990-1997 one, while new the northbound schedule is a few hours earlier leaving just before 9:00 instead of around noon.

Before the massive VIA cutbacks in 1990 there were two daily passenger trains on much of this route: ONR's Northlander between Toronto and Timmins (except Saturday) and VIA's ex-CN overnight Northland between Toronto and Kapuskasing. The ONR tried running the Northlander on a daily except Wednesday schedule for a bit but switched back to daily except Saturday.

I wonder of the new northbound timing (just 5 minutes ahead of the Canadian on its running days), will expedite CN's handling of the Northlander between Toronto and Washago? If so, that should resolve most of the scheduling problems for the ONR...

briann

The new Northlander schedule will certainly help the ONR in terms of equipment turnaround but timekeeping probably won't improve all that much. I can see both trains taking the same siding to wait for a southbound freight at times. The five minute difference between departure times will expand by another ten minutes or so due to the "straight" shot for the Northlander versus the reverse move made by the Canadian just north of Toronto. From what I've heard most of the Northlander's delays occur between Washago and North Bay where the two trains have already parted ways.

Ontario Northland has announced that, effective January 15, 2006, there will be slight changes to the Northlander Train schedule (in the Northbound direction only).

NORTHBOUND

Toronto 8:40 a.m.
Washago 10:25 a.m.
Gravenhurst 10:50 a.m.
Bracebridge 11:05 a.m.
Huntsville 11:40 a.m.
South River 12:35 p.m.
North Bay 1:50 p.m. arrival; 2:05 p.m. departure
Temagami 3:35 p.m.
Cobalt 4:20 p.m.
New Liskeard 4:35 p.m.
Englehart 5:05 p.m.
Swastika 5:45 p.m.
Matheson 6:30 p.m.
Cochrane 7:25 p.m.

To summarize, an earlier departure from Union Station (by 15 minutes). Much faster predicted running time to Washago (1h 45m, as opposed to 2h previously; SB remains at 2h).
Washago - Gravenhurst now 25m, up from 18m (20m SB).
Gravenhurst - Bracebridge now 15m, up from 14m (15m SB).
Bracebridge - Huntsville now 35m, up from 25m (still 25m SB).
Huntsville - South River now 55m, up from 50m (still 50m SB)
South River - North Bay now 1h 15m, up from 1h 08m (1h 05 SB).
No changes north of North Bay.
Southbound times are unchanged.

I would have thought this indicated CN's track problems on the Newmarket sub (if that's what it's still called!), except that the SB times haven't been adjusted. Any other thoughts on why?

BrianN