Darwinkgo
Active Member
No. What I am saying is the freight market changed significantly, and the railway industry adapted in response, and corridors that could be justified through a combination of long distance commodity transport, and service to local industry, just ended. For Ottawa valley service in particular, long haul commodity freight from the west was significantly diminished for deliveries to Montreal. Smaller volume commodity freight from local producers dried up. Production supply chain shifted mostly to trucks for reasons that left freight non-competitive. The shift to super distribution centres for economy of scale grew distribution centres and moved them to where service is optimized for their catchment rather than smaller ones for each population centre. All of these combined reduced demand on certain lines, and passenger service from Ottawa to North Bay and Sudbury just didn't justify maintaining that infrastructure.If I understand the argument correctly, and there is an even chance I do not so apologies in advance, do you propose to remove on-route freight revenue customers so servicing them doesn't interfere with passenger movement? Industries choose their mode of supply and distribution based on several factors and, in some cases, road is simply not practical.
Just-in-time delivery is a major cause of the commercial truck traffic that clogs the 401, started primarily by the auto industry and copied by many. They essentially foisted their warehousing onto the public highways. A train could provide a week's worth of engines, frames or left front fenders, but they would have to warehouse them until needed. Now, a fleet of trucks parades down the highway to deliver parts that end up in a finished product probably by the end of that day. If rail traffic gets really clogged up on the LSW, do we simply shut down Ford Oakville?
If passenger rail traffic is improved by driving industry out of Ontario, then it could be consider a win by some, but a very Pyrrhic one.
The end result is that more freight is being moved than ever, but the patterns of movement only support certain corridors, and there were only a handful of corridors which were abandoned which parralell those corridors which should possibly be restored/maintained. And since those corridors are so busy, there isn't capacity to move passenger rail at useful speeds (the corridor), and in some places, move passenger rail nearly at all (the mountains).