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Ontario Northland/Northern Ontario Transportation

crs1026 said:
The northbound ride is the bigger concern. Commuter passengers (who then leave a seat unoccupied for the rest of the trip) should not be allowed to squeeze out longer distance passengers who offer greater revenue. Some method of holding the commuters until all longer distance passengers are seated is desirable.

A big consideration is whether this option attracts a handful of riders (who are easily accommodated without crowding the train), versus a larger contingent who overwhelm the capacity of the (hopefully popular) long distance ride. I won't speculate what the numbers might amount to. The problem for ON is that once the option is made available, if it's too popular, it will be very hard to withdraw or scale back. I can understand why they might avoid it from the start, even if it leaves revenue on the table.
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you’re basically telling the story of UPX here. They left the money on the table initially, and then they dropped their prices in a panic because the papers were printing bad news stories about ridership, but didn’t yield manage the PM peak when you have the evening commuters and passengers heading for 8pm+ red eyes.

Amtrak has a similar situation with their long distance routes south of NY, where they started selling tickets northbound from Washington but keep a tighter grip on inventory heading south lest they be accused of blocking seats towards the South
 
dowlingm said:
you’re basically telling the story of UPX here. They left the money on the table initially, and then they dropped their prices in a panic because the papers were printing bad news stories about ridership, but didn’t yield manage the PM peak when you have the evening commuters and passengers heading for 8pm+ red eyes.

Amtrak has a similar situation with their long distance routes south of NY, where they started selling tickets northbound from Washington but keep a tighter grip on inventory heading south lest they be accused of blocking seats towards the South
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The thing is, there is no guarantee the Northlander will be able to stay on time. So, for people who may want to use it as a commuter service may not be able to easily, especially going into Union. Remember, south of Washago it will be forced to deal with freight trains that may for it to the sidings.
 
roger1818 said:
Last I checked TTC was a transit agency, not an intercity transportation service. As for your claim that all intercity transportation services allow you to pay cash onboard, I disagree. The reality is, it is getting harder and harder buy tickets with cash onboard any intercity transportation service. From what I can tell, Ontario Northland does not let you buy tickets from the driver (cash or otherwise), requiring instead that you to buy the ticket in advance, so I am not sure why people think the Northlander will be any different.

The only intercity transportation service that I can find that still does accept cash onboard is Flixbus. There might be others, but most that I saw either don't allow payment onboard or, if they do, don't accept cash onboard.
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Apologies. I thought the conversation had shifted to transit agencies.

Even after ONR buses went to online passenger ticket sales, I am told that they held a few seats on the runs that had flag stops and the drivers did accept cash for those, but now that they have onboard Internet I don't know if that is still the case. It is similar with the Polar Bear Express. They also have flag stops for hunters, etc. that includes freight (canoes, ATVs, carcasses, etc.) That used to be done with cash but it also now has Internet so I don't know (there might be some consideration for those FN people who don't have online banking). The Northlander won't have flag stops and I don't know if it will be doing onboard sales. I can try to find out.
 
lenaitch said:
Apologies. I thought the conversation had shifted to transit agencies.
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Understandable. I was trying to bring things back to the topic at hand, but may not have been clear on that.

lenaitch said:
Even after ONR buses went to online passenger ticket sales, I am told that they held a few seats on the runs that had flag stops and the drivers did accept cash for those, but now that they have onboard Internet I don't know if that is still the case. It is similar with the Polar Bear Express. They also have flag stops for hunters, etc. that includes freight (canoes, ATVs, carcasses, etc.) That used to be done with cash but it also now has Internet so I don't know (there might be some consideration for those FN people who don't have online banking). The Northlander won't have flag stops and I don't know if it will be doing onboard sales. I can try to find out.
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It could very well be that while they may not want to encourage payment on the bus, they also don't want to strand anyone who isn't capable of purchasing a ticket online, for whatever reason. The last thing they want is for someone who tried to board the bus but was turned away to die on the side of the road (be it from heat, cold, animal, car, etc.). It isn't quite as extreme for the Northlander, as there is at least a shelter at every stop, but the same principle may still apply (best to pick the person up to ensure their safety, and then take time to evaluate the situation and determine the best course of action).
 
The driver has a mobile phone with a credit/debit card reader for those last minute purchases; it is also used to verify QR codes on printed or mobile tickets. (Ontario Northland, being a government agency, is more forgiving too of things, especially since they operate almost exclusively in Northern Ontario.)

This might be the same way that non-ticketed passengers could be allowed to board for short-distance trips, though I think it’s unreasonable for ONR to accept Presto.
 
ShonTron said:
The driver has a mobile phone with a credit/debit card reader for those last minute purchases; it is also used to verify QR codes on printed or mobile tickets. (Ontario Northland, being a government agency, is more forgiving too of things, especially since they operate almost exclusively in Northern Ontario.)

This might be the same way that non-ticketed passengers could be allowed to board for short-distance trips, though I think it’s unreasonable for ONR to accept Presto.
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I thought it was a tablet, but minor point. Prior to Internet being live on all their routes, they had to contend with dead zones. They might have have taken the information 'on faith' and waiting for the device to get into coverage. That would be a policy decision.

I think it would be unreasonable to expect travellers to dive into a system most would only use very occasionally. It's not a commuter system.
 
Screenshot_20251111-170223_Facebook.jpg
 
I just took a ride on the Polar Bear Express.Just chatting with people on the train and a few in the Cochrane area, a lot are looking forward to the return of the Northlander.They are terrified of how dangerous the highways are, and how challenging it is to get around the GTA. For people in the Far North communities, this will be a life altering thing.

Talking to the train crew, they are also hearing May-June 2026.They even said that it may run even if the stations are not completed.

Does anyone know if any of the new trains have arrived yet? The crew said at least one has.
 
micheal_can said:
I just took a ride on the Polar Bear Express.Just chatting with people on the train and a few in the Cochrane area, a lot are looking forward to the return of the Northlander.They are terrified of how dangerous the highways are, and how challenging it is to get around the GTA. For people in the Far North communities, this will be a life altering thing.

Talking to the train crew, they are also hearing May-June 2026.They even said that it may run even if the stations are not completed.

Does anyone know if any of the new trains have arrived yet? The crew said at least one has.
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None of the new rolling stock has shipped yet from California. When it does, we will know as it has a long way to travel and lots of railfans will capture the journey.
 
SaugeenJunction said:
None of the new rolling stock has shipped yet from California. When it does, we will know as it has a long way to travel and lots of railfans will capture the journey.
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The first set was supposed to leave around the end of November - along with a couple of EXO Chargers - but was held back at the last minute. It now sounds like the first two sets will be shipped in early January, with the third set following a month later.

Dan
 
smallspy said:
The first set was supposed to leave around the end of November - along with a couple of EXO Chargers - but was held back at the last minute. It now sounds like the first two sets will be shipped in early January, with the third set following a month later.

Dan
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I should have shared, here is the most recent update from 6 days ago.

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