Ontario Northland Railway

Ontario Northland Railway (ONR) is a Canadian railway and provincial Crown corporation. Its north-south mainline has a southern terminus at North Bay, passes through Cochrane, and a northern terminus at Moosonee, on the south shore of James Bay - all in its namesake province of Ontario. An east-west secondary mainline connects Calstock (near Hearst) with Cochrane and a line extends from Swastika (south of Cochrane) into the neighbouring province of Quebec where it terminates at Rouyn-Noranda.

Construction of the railway began in 1904, under the name Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway. It became the Ontario Northland in 1946 when the system was purchased by the provincial government.

Originally built to develop the Lake Timiskaming and Lake Nipissing areas, this railway soon became a major factor in the economic growth of the province. After decades of hard construction through the Canadian Shield it reached James Bay in 1932. While blasting the route through the shield, geologists discovered vast deposits of valuable minerals such as gold, copper and nickel. The railway also made it possible to exploit the vast timber resources of northern Ontario. The importance of the ONR is witnessed by the vast increase in mineral exploration and exploitation, giving rise to the valuable mining stocks on the Toronto Stock Exchange and indirectly leading to Southern Ontario's economic boom during the 1970s.

The railway is still operated today by the Ontario Northland Transport Commission, which also runs various other transport enterprises, including a bus coach services along the Toronto-North Bay-Timmins-Hearst and Toronto-Sudbury-Timmins corridors, and a telephone and telecommunications company. The commission is an agency of the Ontario government and is used to promote development in northern Ontario.

Ontario Northland is best known for the daily Polar Bear Express train which runs from Cochrane to Moosonee, bringing tourists as well as essential supplies to this remote northern town, which cannot be reached by road. The "Express" part of the name is something of a joke, because the train will happily stop along its route to pick up or drop off canoeing parties. There is also a "mixed" freight/passenger train affectionately called the Little Bear, as well as the Northlander which runs from Toronto to Cochrane.

In the late 1990s, CN applied to abandon sections of its underused former National Transcontinental Railway mainline across northern Ontario. A significant portion between Calstock-Cochrane was sold to ONR.

Connections with other railway systems are made as follows:

• North Bay (Ottawa Valley Railway which connects to CP and CN)
• Hearst (CN)
• Rouyn-Noranda (CN)

External links

• Ontario Northland's official Northlander site (http://www.northlander.ca)
• (Un)official Ontario Northland Railfan Site (http://onr.stabler.org)