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Barrie Collingwood Railway (BCRY)

alexanderglista said:
What would make you say that?
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He's a very cheap fellow and this would involve spending money on both capital and operations; his idea of a transportation plan is eliminating the DriveClean testing.

His interest would be something on the Hydro file or House Leader; wouldn't waste any political capital on a tourist train though if you're one of his constituents he'll happily listen to you talk about it then go off and vote (for a second time) in favour of killing Barrie GO service.
 
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Collingwood and nearby Wasaga are increasingly large tourist attractions. I feel there's an opportunity to invest in rail service here and promote non car dependent travel.
 
Towered said:
Collingwood and nearby Wasaga are increasingly large tourist attractions. I feel there's an opportunity to invest in rail service here and promote non car dependent travel.
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They are large transit attractions especially in summer, but the problem with non car travel is "last mile". Each of the possible train stops are quite far from the beach. For nearly everyone who either owns a car or can rent one, it is a lot easier to drive and park near the beach rather than take a train and walk the last 2 or 3 km. The northbound highways may be a bit jammed at times, but not nearly as bad as the Toronto core-bound routes during the morning rush.

Thus, thinking that a seasonal bus service may be more effective in supporting non car travel than rail. The buses could run on route 92, Beachwood Rd, and route 26, and serve multiple stops that are a lot closer to the beach.
 
With Collingwood the expense of rebuilding the rail line for passenger trains would really only be worth it if it were done as an alternative to highway expansion, which would probably cost several hundred million dollars. Seen in that light I think it could be viable. Blue Mountain is one the busiest ski resorts in the country and most visitors come from the GTA. There are literally rural traffic jams to get to the resort on weekends. And driving through a Georgian Bay snowstorm in the dark after a full day of skiing is no fun. The multiple destinations not on the rail line hurts the case, although shuttle buses can help the "last mile" problem. As with Whistler, Wasaga Beach and Blue Mountain are pretty centralized and visitors tend to stay in a compact area.

Now that Barrie has weekend train service, buses from Barrie to Wasaga Beach/Collingwood/Blue Mountain might become more popular. Although the potential won't be fully realized until further service increases are in place. Once faster, hourly trains are available every day, taking the train to Barrie for the weekend will be a lot more established in the minds of the public. At that point more bus services and resort shuttles going north and west from Barrie might start to make sense.
 
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Update on this rail corridor. Collingwood is wanting to sell it to Simcoe County, which intends to use it as a "transportation corridor", whatever that means. See the article below, and the newspaper ad. I've contacted the Town of Collingwood for more info and will post it here.

Rail sale opens doors for master plan (Barrie Examiner)

Newspaper ad courtesy of Charles Cooper, via Facebook
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Allandale25 said:
Report on the recent Essa Council agenda about the propose fuel transloading facility at the CP-BCRY interchange. If it goes through it could help with the viability of the line as the City of Barrie is concerned about the subsidy level. PDF here.
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Good for CANDO for trying to create more business along the line. This project would really go a long way towards making the line more productive.

I’d love to see CANDO involved with other projects like this, such as grain terminals to keep lines like the BCRY and OBRY busy.
 
alexanderglista said:
Good for CANDO for trying to create more business along the line. This project would really go a long way towards making the line more productive.

I’d love to see CANDO involved with other projects like this, such as grain terminals to keep lines like the BCRY and OBRY busy.
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Cando has nothing to do with drumming up business on BCRY, or OBRY for that matter. They are simply the operator of the line.

Marketing and sales is taken care of by the respective oversight agencies of both railways.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.
 
smallspy said:
Cando has nothing to do with drumming up business on BCRY, or OBRY for that matter. They are simply the operator of the line.

Marketing and sales is taken care of by the respective oversight agencies of both railways.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.
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This proposal for the bulk fuel transfer facility is led by Cando, so in this case it is a win-win, as Cando makes money, and there is a chance of the BCRY reducing operating costs.

Also, here is a brief overview of the proposal from the PDF that @Allandale25 posted.

KGujAad.png
 
alexanderglista said:
This proposal for the bulk fuel transfer facility is led by Cando, so in this case it is a win-win, as Cando makes money, and there is a chance of the BCRY reducing operating costs.

Also, here is a brief overview of the proposal from the PDF that @Allandale25 posted.

KGujAad.png
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Perhaps I should have been a bit more specific in my comment....

Cando in-and-of itself is not allowed to single-handedly drum up business on either of the two operations. They have to come up with a proposal, and present it to the respective oversight groups.

In this case, the fuel facility was first proposed for Orangeville, and the oversight group there turned it down.

It then went to Barrie (Utopia, more specifically), and the oversight group there agreed to the project.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.
 
smallspy said:
Perhaps I should have been a bit more specific in my comment....

Cando in-and-of itself is not allowed to single-handedly drum up business on either of the two operations. They have to come up with a proposal, and present it to the respective oversight groups.

In this case, the fuel facility was first proposed for Orangeville, and the oversight group there turned it down.

It then went to Barrie (Utopia, more specifically), and the oversight group there agreed to the project.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.
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I hadn't realized that Orangeville turned it down. Any reason? I would have though BCRY always would have been the more logical choice because of how close it is to the CP mainline. I wouldn't have thought it would be economical to move the tanker cars all the way up to Orangeville to have them unloaded.
 
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