GO Coach Behind ON Train

RobertInOntario

Active Member
I usually drive under two train bridges on the Don Valley Parkway each morning as I drive to work. One is a CP line and on the other I occasionally see Ontario Northland (ON) trains. I'm often treated with the sight of an ON passenger train or a CP freight (still have to keep my eyes on the traffic though!!).

Well, yesterday morning, an ON passenger train suddenly appeared with its usual 3-4 ON passengers coaches behind it ... But the very last coach this time was a green & white GO Transit coach!

I was a little surprised to see this. I know that mixing stock has always been common, but the GO coach really stood out because of its different colours and totally different size -- it's so much taller and larger than the silver ON coaches.

Is this common? Just curious!

Thanks,
Rob
 

galt904

Member
GO gets a lot of its equipment fixed by ON in North Bay, since both are owned by the provincial government.
 

cpr_paul

Member
I thought ONR had been sold off by the province. Doesn't CN own it now?

I know at one time ON considered buying the Bombardier Bi-levels as passenger equipment. I think they instead opted to convert the old GO single level equipment.
 

RobertInOntario

Active Member
I thought ONR had been sold off by the province. Doesn't CN own it now?
I know at one time ON considered buying the Bombardier Bi-levels as passenger equipment. I think they instead opted to convert the old GO single level equipment.

Thanks, Paul. I'm not sure if CN owns ON or not -- be interesting to find out! I usually see an ON passenger train (with single level coaches) crossing this Don Valley bridge, usually about once a week.

It does sound as if ON is using GO's older single level equipment though.

Cheers, Rob
 

galt904

Member
No, still government owned (thankfully). The province backed out of selling after after seeing some of the political problems of the CN takeover of BC Rail around the same time.

Interesting thing is ON owns/operates a big chunk of ex-CN between Cochrane and Hearst. And CN still gets into Hearst after they took over Wisconsin Central who owned the Algoma Central from Sault Ste Marie to Hearst.
 
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