Canadian Railroads > ONR Northlander

https://www.insideottawavalley.com/news/ontario-northlander-train-schedule/article_5c61bcc5-9af2-5682-aab0-3cc8b7e548ce.html

Overnight schedule, in Siemens seats no less, and It goes to "Timmins" (Porcupine), not Cochrane. The latter is a bus connection - at 5am.Cochrane has a motel within the depot. 

You won't catch me on it, except maybe some day to North Bay. Overnight stay required for bus connection to Sudbury. Here they had an opportunity to connect Toronto with Sudbury with a partial rail option and blew it. VIA Rail's biweekly, unreliable Canadian is not relevant transportation for that. 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/04/26 06:52 by joemvcnj.

The insideottawavalley article makes a reference to a rail connection to Cochrane.  This doesn't show in the Ontario Northland schedule, unless I missed it.  The Timmins (Porcupine) station is in Porcupine which appears to be 16 km from central Timmins.  The tracks to Timmins were lifted many years ago.

Not surprisingly the interiors of the three coaches are similar (I'm reluctant to say identical however temping it is) to VIA's Ventures, including seats with no windows.  The Business Class configured coach is interesting.  That reminds me of the ex-TEE Northlander which, being all first-class,  had 2+1 seating and traditional compartments for six.

It's unfortunate the attractive Gravenhurst station is not available for this revised service.    Frequency will vary between four and seven days a week.

https://ontarionorthland.ca/en/northlander
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/04/26 08:36 by DrawingroomA.

I think before I ride ONR Northlander, I will probably be getting pictures of it around the GTA. I have no plans to ride it anytime in the next five years. I really don't like the schedule very much for ONR given that many of the stations will be served in the middle of the night. It will be great for those who live in Washago who want to make a daytrip to Toronto. Hey, the travel time on ONR Northlander between Washago and Toronto is probably faster than taking the Canadian. Of course, we all know that the punctuality of the Canadian is often unpredictable. If ONR ever decides to add another trip for the Northlander, they really should do it serving all of the stations when many people are up. Then I will be very happy to take a trip on it. 

Why don't they have sleeping cars add to this train??

railcity Wrote:
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> Why don't they have sleeping cars add to this train??

They simply tagged along the VIA Rail Corridor contract, with no other thought process. It should be a day time run. 

I don't believe Cochrane will be served. Timmins is the ending(for now at least)

With Siemens equipment, quite often no one will be served.

Agreed they are having their issues,

joemvcnj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> railcity Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Why don't they have sleeping cars add to
> this train??
>
> They simply tagged along the VIA Rail Corridor
> contract, with no other thought process. It should
> be a day time run. 

I have yet to see an explanation as to why the ONR had to pay about double for three-car consists compared to what VIA paid for five-car consists.

DrawingroomA Wrote:
> I have yet to see an explanation as to why the ONR
> had to pay about double for three-car consists
> compared to what VIA paid for five-car consists.

Pella windows and doors ?