
July 20, 2018 · 0 Comments
WE MAY NEVER KNOW why it was that Manitoba-based Cando Rail Services Ltd., formerly Cando Contracting, decided it was no longer interested in operating the Orangeville-Brampton Railway, but our suspicion is that it had a lot to do with the Credit Valley Explorer, the brainchild of Steve Gallagher, the former manager of the short line.
Cando, and all the other Canadian short-line operators, specializes in handling freight on lines once owned by Canadian Pacific and Canadian National railways. It had no experience in passenger services of any kind, let alone tour trains, which normally are operated by volunteer organizations like the Tottenham-based South Simcoe Railway.
However, Mr. Gallagher felt there was a real potential in having a unique type of tour train run between Orangeville and Snelgrove (north Brampton). Beyond being the only privately owned tour train in Ontario (and likely the only one east of the famed Rocky Mountaineer), his Credit Valley Explorer featured classic passenger coaches built in the 1950s for transcontinental service.
The service began fairly humbly, with a single coach, but grew over the years to the point where for one season the leased equipment included one of the dome cars used on CP Rail’s (and later Via Rail’s) The Canadian. Another, which rarely saw use, was a former CP Dayliner, the self-propelled diesel car that in the 1950s and 1960s made the trip from Owen Sound to Toronto’s Union Station in three hours, and which still provides service between Sudbury and White River.
Over the years, the Explorer’s service expanded to include meal service, and by last year every scheduled three-hour tour was sold out, with many runs including busloads of tourists.
For reasons never disclosed, all the tours originated and ended in Orangeville, despite the fact the railway line passes next door to the westerly parking lot of the Brampton GO Train station. Although it wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to envision the success of having some tour trains originate in Brampton, with a lunch-hour stopover in Orangeville, it would appear that the idea didn’t find favour with the OBRY.
Now, with Cando having departed the scene and Trillium Railway Co. Ltd. as the new short line operator, we’re back to square one – with an operator that has no experience in the field of tour trains.
In the circumstances, we see an urgent need to preserve the goodwill amassed over the years by acquiring at least two coaches (ideally two of those already bearing Explorer logos) which would be owned by the railway, not the operator.
After all, we still have the train station, concrete platforms and a paved parking lot. Would it really be asking too much for the Town to take a leading role in restoring a service that potentially would bring untold numbers of tourist dollars into the area?
We think that the effort to restore the Explorer should be supplemented by a campaign to have Metrolinx bridge the gap between double-decker train and intercity bus services,
As we see it, equipment of the sort now used successfully for the Union Station-Pearson Airport service would be ideal for the commuter potential found in Orangeville, Peterborough and New Tecumseth, and the smaller trains could also provide off-peak service on existing GO Train lines.
Just how popular GO Train service would be on the former CP Rail line between Orangeville and Mississauga cannot be determined until the service is provided on a test basis for a year or two.
Obviously, much would depend on the train’s speed, the convenience of connections with trains on the Kitchener and Milton GO lines and the cost and convenience of transfers to the local transit services in Brampton, Mississauga and Toronto.