Passenger Train Service

It was a sad day yesterday to witness the last trip of the Northlander passenger train. This train travelled from Toronto up to Cochrane and return, carrying people back and forth on a regular basis. I took it myself on occassion when going to Toronto on business trips. The Provincial Liberal government, in it's infinite wisdom, has cancelled all passenger train service to the North effective Sept 28. They say that people must now take a bus. As a matter of fact all the ONTC (Ontario Northland Transportation Commission) departments are to be sold off - this includes our current Internet server Ontera, and the Ontario Northland buses, with the lose of many, many jobs. The headquarters for ONTC is in North Bay. So yesterday Harry and I drove to the next town of South River where there is a train stop ( the trains just pass through Sundridge without stopping) As the train came to a stop many people on board travelling only because of the last trip, came off for a very brief talk including the two Northern NDP Members of Parliament who have been fighting very hard to preserve the service. The stop was only about 5 minutes but time enough for us to get pictures and wave at the engineers and conductors ( would be their last trip, and now likely without anymore work) It brought tears to my eyes seeing an institution such as this ending. The governement says that with a deficit, all expenses have to be considered and said ridership was not supporting the subsidies being given the rail line to keep running. Once again, the North gets ignored. There was a huge rally in North Bay at the Station, where the last train from the North going South, and this train we met going North from the South met. Hundreds of people turned out apparently. What a shame! Take care