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Sauga89 said:
I don't know if a rail link to Collingwood would necessarily make sense right now, but if we're just talking about buses, Flix Bus runs a once-daily Owen Sound to Barrie bus. Presumably, as a private company, they wouldn't run it unless they at least broke even. I don't want to assume a GO bus to Collingwood two or three times a day would break even, but maybe it wouldn't lose much? I can see the argument about leaving it to LINX though.
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That's what I was talking about. GO bus replacing the LINX bus.
 
Collingwood started as a ski area partially due to having a direct train there. The fact that there's no train to Collingwood (even an indirect one) is the #1 reason I haven't gone skiing since moving back to Canada 8 years ago now (in Japan I went a dozen times or more a season). I can't imagine I'm the only one majorly dissuaded by the circuitous & terribly scheduled bus routes that currently exist either from Union or Barrie.

I think it would help with the summer beaching crowd too.
 
Supporting the local economy is a good thing, but seeing as all of the ski hills in Collingwood/Blue Mountain area are either private or corporate, where is their skin in the game? If fair is fair, similar effort should be put into providing passenger rail service to Horseshoe Valley, Snow Valley and Mount St. Louise/Moonstone. All are within shouting distance of an actual, functioning rail line.
 
lenaitch said:
Supporting the local economy is a good thing, but seeing as all of the ski hills in Collingwood/Blue Mountain area are either private or corporate, where is their skin in the game? If fair is fair, similar effort should be put into providing passenger rail service to Horseshoe Valley, Snow Valley and Mount St. Louise/Moonstone. All are within shouting distance of an actual, functioning rail line.
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I'm not going to argue against more trains everywhere! Lol.

I didn't realize until now that Snow Valley is already an option as it's only a 17min taxi ride from Barrie! Thank you.

Perhaps they're basing it on demand & traffic, not just for winter but summer and commuting needs, too, rather than which businesses will most benefit.
 
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lenaitch said:
Supporting the local economy is a good thing, but seeing as all of the ski hills in Collingwood/Blue Mountain area are either private or corporate, where is their skin in the game? If fair is fair, similar effort should be put into providing passenger rail service to Horseshoe Valley, Snow Valley and Mount St. Louise/Moonstone. All are within shouting distance of an actual, functioning rail line.
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Tax base? No different than why commuter rail is used. After all, it does support businesses.
 
lenaitch said:
Supporting the local economy is a good thing, but seeing as all of the ski hills in Collingwood/Blue Mountain area are either private or corporate, where is their skin in the game? If fair is fair, similar effort should be put into providing passenger rail service to Horseshoe Valley, Snow Valley and Mount St. Louise/Moonstone. All are within shouting distance of an actual, functioning rail line.
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So going to push back on the corporate side because yes Blue mountain is owned by a large family of resorts (alterra) but everything to do with our daily operations and engagement with the town of Collingwood is all coordinated by the resort.
Blue mountain as a resort does more for the Collingwood community in terms of jobs and opportunities than any other large corporation I know of it's not a corporation like Walmart or Amazon other than having access to each other's resorts and pooling they're funds All the resorts operate autonomously
but as somebody from Collingwood I would love to see our rail line restored as a kid I remember CN rail passing behind my house with materials for our rim manufacturing plant ethanol plant and glass plant a big thing that killed the Collingwood rail line was whenever the town d industrialized for the sake of the resort there needs to be a balance brought back
 
Yeah unfortunately that would require that we bulldoze about 300 homes and two six story buildings plus I don't see an appetite for Great lakes shipping coming back anytime soon though that too would be amazing I identify as a progressive but there are sometimes I wish we could go back in time 🤣 I was only about three when the shipyards closed down so I've only seen one launch and I was too young to remember
 
lenaitch said:
Supporting the local economy is a good thing, but seeing as all of the ski hills in Collingwood/Blue Mountain area are either private or corporate, where is their skin in the game? If fair is fair, similar effort should be put into providing passenger rail service to Horseshoe Valley, Snow Valley and Mount St. Louise/Moonstone. All are within shouting distance of an actual, functioning rail line.
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Blue Mountain is a much bigger and busier ski resort than any of the others. Plus a rail line to Collingwood wouldn't just be for Blue Mountain.
 
lenaitch said:
I agree and were surprised when they didn't extend it when they improved the Allendale facilities. Although the rails and bed would need to be upgraded since they are currently in no condition to be used to reasonable passenger service in their current condition.
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There's no longer track left to upgrade beyond Angus:

960px-BCRY_rail_removal_2023.jpg


540px-Abandoned_BCRY_Stayner.jpg
 
The corridor has been completely stripped of all rail and is completely overgrown so revitalizing it would be a costly matter but I think given what benefits it would bring given the fact that this entire winter Blue mountain has been at full capacity would be amazing even if you just brought it to Collingwood and then had a transit system from Collingwood to the mountain You would probably take about a thousand cars a day off the road
 
I'm really not seeing the Collingwood thing.

While thousands of carloads converge on the area both summer and winter, one has to consider where those people come from and how much a commuter train would really help them make the trip more conveniently. My take is - not much and not many. All those cars fan out across various highways - no doubt a lot at the 407, more at 401, not to mention 89, 9, and 124. The catchment area for both Wasaga and the ski business extends from Oshawa to Kitchener - and beyond.

Carrying all those folks downtown to Union and then asking them to take further transit to get home is not going to sell. This is a market where the auto is truly more convenient, even with the congestion created.

I could certainly see a demonstration bus service from Allandale GO, meeting GO trains and demonstrating whether there is demand to either ski hills, Collingwood town, or Wasaga Beach. Certainly some business would appear, and that would be useful to calibrate whether a GO extension is justified.

Relaying the 15 miles of track from Utopia to Stayner, and refurbishing the line east of Utopia to achieve reasonable passenger train speed, strikes me as much lower priority than laying down 15 miles of track on many other places in the GO network. That same envelope would likely make a much bigger difference on Stratford - London, for instance.

I can buy extending GO to the west side of the 400, as proposed, as a way of keeping cars out of central Barrie - but no further.

- Paul
 
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It's not just the coming to Collingwood that would be a benefit majority of Collingwood are people who got priced out of Toronto the largest majority of our employment is still from the GTA large majority of people that live in the town of the Blue mountains as well as Collingwood all transit to Barrie and then take the GO train to Toronto so I can see this being viable within the next 10 years if current trends continue
 
I have to agree, Simcoe County is growing rapidly and a lot of that growth is coming from Angus, Collingwood, and Stayner. Those are permanent residents, many of whom will commute to Barrie, Innisfil, and beyond for work.
I think the line should be extended to just south of Collingwood in the future, but a medium-term easy win would be a two-stop extension with stops along existing tracks in western Barrie and outside Angus.
Shuttle buses could run from either the renovated Allandale Waterfront station or a mini-terminal in Angus.
 
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