(Ontario) Can someone please tell me what happened to this railroad??

Question

There used to be a havelock railway that used to run passenger service using RDCs from Havelock to Toronto's Union Station. It would usually come to Union via the Bayview CP Rail trestle that spans over the Bayview Extension and connected to the CN's Don Valley Line. I last saw the service in a railfan video about the January 1990 VIA Rail Strike which stopped full passenger service due to government cuts. So can someone please the me what happend to the passenger service between Havelock and Toronto. The line is now owned by SL&H/Kawartha Lakes Railway.

Answer 1

While I can't get specific with this example, what I can tell you is that, like a lot of government services, VIA Rail has been the victim of dwindling government support over the years.

In many cases, unless legislated or politically obligated to do so, VIA has cut, or reduced service, on several lower volume routes.  Add to this that the RDC cars see little, if any, use anymore, and running one locomotive and a handful of mostly empty coaches to sparsely populated areas is a tough case to make.

Bus service still exists to the Peterborough area, and I suppose it serves the surrounding areas as well.  When you consider the high volume of use on the Quebec City-Windsor corridor, some areas of the country where VIA is the only transportation option, and the trains that connect vast areas of the country, some feeder routes like Havelock, sadly, end up on the chopping block.