ONTC and GO Transit are similar in that they are both responsible for transportation services in their respective regions and both use buses and trains to provide that service. There are differences however that require different approaches in determining service levels.
GO Transit operates in a primarily high density population area, while ONTC must service areas of the province where not many people live. Because of this, schedules that make sense in the south do not work in the north. GO Transit has enough passenger volume to operate a train with a bus running on a parallel road at the same time. Not so, in the North....but that did not stop the ONTC from operating duplicating bus and train schedules with very few people on either service.
The train left Cochrane at 8:00 am and arrived at North Bay at 1:20 pm after a 5 hour and 20 min trip. The bus left Cochrane at 8:30 and arrived at North Bay at 3:00 for a 6 hour and 30 min trip, the extra time needed to access passenger stops at small locations, pick up BPX parcels and stop for the driver to eat lunch.
There is another bus departing Cochrane daily at 7:45 pm and arrives at North Bay at 1:30 am. All of the trips have a connecting service out of North Bay, using the same train, obviously, and different buses. The train left North Bay at 1:35 pm and usually arrived at Toronto Union Station at around 6:30 pm, although the schedule was published with a 7:15 pm arrival to avoid complaints when CN regularly delayed the train for an extended period. The duplicating bus schedule left North Bay at 12:15 pm and arrived at Toronto Bay Street bus terminal at 5:30 pm. On Fridays and Sundays there was also an express bus that left North Bay at the same time and arrived at Toronto Bay Street at 4:45
When I came into work on Fridays, I would often see two buses loaded with people heading down to Toronto, then I would take a train out at less than 25% capacity. That made no sense to me whatsoever, but I was informed that the ONTC commission had insisted that Northerners should be given "a choice" of transportation mode. Well, I am all for that, but the choice should be between times of departure also, not only the type of transportation. If it was determined there were enough resources to run 2 bus departures and 1 train departure per day, the departure times should be evenly spaced throughout the day to give the most choice to Northerners.
Another point was how Passenger service was geared toward buses rather than focused on concentrating on utilizing our highest capacity service first, and using buses to feed the train, then filling out time slots with bus service. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the bus service, but when managing a multi-mode transportation system, you have to ensure you are maximizing ridership on the highest cost service first.
For example, the primary target market for Ontario Northland was seniors and students. The fact that North Bay had two education facilities in one spot meant there was a great potential to attract riders from that location. This was recognized by bus services, operating a mini-agency on site and running their schedules up to the Education Centre before leaving town. There was no such effort made to bring the students down to the train, they were on their own for that, provided they knew it even existed.
Then there was the matter of scheduling on CN tracks. It was bad enough being sidelined for CN freight trains, but it got really frustrating being made to wait in a siding while GO Trains went ahead of you and met opposing GO Trains, while you waited for both.
Why someone in the government could not negotiate the same penalty for CN whether they delayed a GO Train or the Northlander was always questioned, since they were all operated and paid for, by the same government. It never changed, because the government never really cared about the Northlander.
Still with scheduling, the Northlander only operated 6 days a week, due to cost constraints, but there was additional demand from the Muskoka area on the weekend for use as a commuter service between Toronto and their region. As cottagers became aware of the service, through word of mouth, they expressed a desire to travel north on Friday night and return later on Sunday. The ONTC incurred storage costs in Toronto for the trainset that remained there over Friday and Saturday night, but even the elimination of those costs would not permit them to go after the additional revenue possible from returning the trainset to North Bay.
Some of these decisions were not the direct result of MNDM staff, but again....when you control the purse, you bear the ultimate responsibility.
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