The
Canadian National Railway Alderdale Subdivision was a
railway
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
line in
Northeastern
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
, Canada. It originally opened in 1915 as a part of the
Canadian Northern Railway
The Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway. At its 1923 merger into the Canadian National Railway , the CNoR owned a main line between Quebec City and Vancouver via Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Edmonton.
Man ...
's
transcontinental mainline. It connected
Brent in the east with
Capreol
Capreol ( ) is a community in the Ontario city of Greater Sudbury. Situated on the Vermilion River (35 mins north of the downtown core), Capreol is the city's northernmost populated area.
From 1918 to 2000, Capreol existed as an independent to ...
in the west. At Capreol it formed the eastern component of an east-west-south
wye junction
Junction may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Junction'' (film), a 2012 American film
* Jjunction, a 2002 Indian film
* Junction (album), a 1976 album by Andrew Cyrille
* Junction (EP), by Basement Jaxx, 2002
* Junction (manga), or ''Hot ...
. The line's
divisional point In Canada, a divisional point (or division point) is a local operational headquarters for a railway. Divisional points are significant in railway maintenance of way operations. Especially historically, they could be the location of facilities and in ...
was at
Alderdale.
History
Origin
![Ascalon Station, Mink Lake, 1932](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Ascalon_Station%2C_Mink_Lake%2C_1932.jpg)
The line originated as a part of the
Canadian Northern Railway
The Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway. At its 1923 merger into the Canadian National Railway , the CNoR owned a main line between Quebec City and Vancouver via Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Edmonton.
Man ...
(CNoR)
mainline, which was pushing eastward from the
Prairies
Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...
in an effort to connect its network to
Montréal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-p ...
. The segment from Capreol to North Bay opened to passenger traffic in 1915.
After the Canadian Northern's amalgamation with other railways, resulting in the Canadian National Railway (CN), the line was used as CN's most direct route between
Québec and the
Prairies
Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...
, paralleling the competing
CP North Bay Subdivision to the north along its eastern stretch and the
CP Cartier Subdivision to the south along its western. As part of CN's reorganization of the Canadian Northern lines, the stretch from Brent to Capreol became known as the Alderdale Subdivision and was part of the Capreol Division, Northern Ontario District.
Flagship route
Throughout the mid-20th century, the subdivision formed part of the route for CN's flagship
transcontinental
Transcontinental may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* "Transcontinental", a song by the band Pedro the Lion from the album ''Achilles Heel''
* TC Transcontinental, a publishing, media and marketing company based in Canada, a subsidiary o ...
passenger trains, such as the ''Continental'' and ''
Super Continental''.
Its main use, however, was as a
freight railway
Rail freight transport is the use of rail transport, railroads and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers.
A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of Railroad car#Freight cars, freight cars (US) or goods wagon ...
, with large amounts of timber from the mills at Kiosk, Fossmill, and Skead, as well as ore from Crerar, being transported along the line.
Local passenger services declined and were discontinued by CN in the 1960s,
but the ''Super Continental'' continued despite repeated applications by CN to the
Canadian Transport Commission
The Canadian Transport Commission (CTC) was Canada's first fully converged, multi-modal regulator.
The body was created by Canada's Parliament on September 19, 1967, to assume the responsibilities of two bodies: the Board of Transport Commissioner ...
to end it. In 1977,
Via Rail
Via Rail Canada Inc. (), operating as Via Rail or Via, is a Canadian Crown corporation that is mandated to operate intercity passenger rail service in Canada. It receives an annual subsidy from Transport Canada to offset the cost of operating ...
was formed as a
Crown corporation under the Canadian federal government and immediately assumed control of CP's passenger service, while also slowly integrating CN services. This resulted in the ex-CP ''
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
'' from
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
to
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
as the primary transcontinental passenger service and CN's ''Super Continental'' as the secondary one.
[ ] By 1979, services had been reorganized such that the ''Canadian'' was routed along the
CP North Bay Subdivision between
Sudbury and North Bay, and the ''Super Continental'' routed along the modern-day route of the ''Canadian'' south to Toronto from Sudbury along CN tracks, with the Alderdale Subdivision seeing no passenger service along most of its length. However, in 1980, a short stretch of the Alderdale Subdivision near North Bay was used by the
Ontario Northland Railway's ''
Northlander
The ''Northlander'' was a passenger train operated by the Ontario Northland Railway in Ontario, Canada.
The ''Northlander'' operated six days per week year-round in both directions and connected Cochrane with Toronto. The train typically consi ...
'' passenger train as a way to connect Ontario Northland's Temagami Subdivision with Toronto in the south via the
Huntsville Subdivision (which later became part of the
Newmarket Subdivision
The CN Newmarket Subdivision is a rail line in Ontario operated by Canadian National Railway (CNR). The original route runs northward from just west of Union Station, Toronto, Union Station in downtown Toronto, ending just south of North Bay, Onta ...
and then the
Bala Subdivision
The Canadian National Railway (CN) Bala Subdivision is a major railway line in Ontario, Canada. It runs between the provincial capital of Toronto in Southern Ontario and Capreol, Ontario, Capreol in Northern Ontario, where the line continues as t ...
after successive reorganizations of the CN system).
Pépin's Axe and end of passenger service
In 1981, Via Rail experienced its first wave of significant cuts, sometimes called "Pépin's Axe" in an evocation of the 1960s
Beeching Axe in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, under federal
Transport Minister Jean-Luc Pépin
Jean-Luc Pepin, (November 1, 1924 – September 5, 1995) was a Canadian academic, politician and Cabinet minister.
Political biography
Pepin was a political science professor at the University of Ottawa when he was first elected to the House o ...
(a member of
Pierre Trudeau's
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
cabinet), resulting in the cancellation of the ''Super Continental'' and making restoration of service along the Alderdale Subdivision increasingly unlikely.
This resulted in protests and a political backlash, and after the
1984 election which resulted in the victory of
Brian Mulroney's
Progressive Conservatives, the ''Super Continental'' was partially reinstated, but only between Winnipeg and Vancouver.
![CN North Bay 1925](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/CN_North_Bay_1925.jpg)
In 1986, ownership of CN's passenger station in North Bay was transferred to
Via Rail
Via Rail Canada Inc. (), operating as Via Rail or Via, is a Canadian Crown corporation that is mandated to operate intercity passenger rail service in Canada. It receives an annual subsidy from Transport Canada to offset the cost of operating ...
.
At the time, the station saw traffic from
Ontario Northland
The Ontario Northland Transportation Commission (ONTC), or simply Ontario Northland, is a Crown agency of the Government of Ontario responsible for providing transportation services for passengers and goods in northern Ontario. It reports to ...
's daytime ''
Northlander
The ''Northlander'' was a passenger train operated by the Ontario Northland Railway in Ontario, Canada.
The ''Northlander'' operated six days per week year-round in both directions and connected Cochrane with Toronto. The train typically consi ...
'' running Sunday to Friday, unnamed Via Rail local trains 120 and 123 which served small communities on Fridays and Sundays between Toronto and North Bay, and an overnight ''Northland''
sleeper train
The sleeping car or sleeper (often ) is a railway passenger car that can accommodate all passengers in beds of one kind or another, for the purpose of sleeping. George Pullman was the American innovator of the sleeper car.
The first such cars ...
which ran daily from Toronto to
Hearst. In 1990, passenger services through North Bay were cancelled by Via Rail after severe cuts to its funding by the Canadian federal government.
With abandonment of services along the CN line, Ontario Northland built a
new intermodal station in 1996 along its own track and relocated its services there.
Freight decline
Meanwhile, freight traffic along the line had steeply declined, as available timber in the area had been depleted and several of the
sawmill
A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...
s had closed.
Around 1987–88,
the Alderdale Subdivision was abolished as a designation by CN, with the section from
Brent to Nipissing combined with the
Beachburg Subdivision and the section from Nipissing to Capreol combined with the
Newmarket Subdivision
The CN Newmarket Subdivision is a rail line in Ontario operated by Canadian National Railway (CNR). The original route runs northward from just west of Union Station, Toronto, Union Station in downtown Toronto, ending just south of North Bay, Onta ...
.
This situation would be short-lived, however, as in 1995 CN applied to abandon the Beachburg Subdivision west of
Pembroke, which included the Beachburg portion of the former Alderdale Subdivision.
The application was approved by the
Canadian Transportation Agency
The Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA; french: Office des transports du Canada, OTC) is the independent, quasi-judicial tribunal of the Government of Canada that makes decisions relating to federally-regulated modes of transportation ( air, ra ...
in 1996 and the tracks were removed shortly after. A number of existing communities along the line were devastated, such as
Kiosk, where residents were forced to leave and their houses were demolished by the
Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources
The Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry is a government ministry of the Canadian province of Ontario that is responsible for Ontario's provincial parks, forests, fisheries, wildlife, mineral aggregates and the Crown lands ...
as they fell within the boundaries of
Algonquin Provincial Park
Algonquin Provincial Park is a provincial park located between Georgian Bay and the Ottawa River in Ontario, Canada, mostly within the Unorganized South Part of Nipissing District. Established in 1893, it is the oldest provincial park in Can ...
.
Abandonment and redevelopment
![Hwy 64 ON](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/Hwy_64_ON.JPG)
By the early 2000s, a local community group, Rainbow Routes, was organized to promote the conversion of the section from Capreol to North Bay to a
rail trail. This was projected to occur in 2001, with a CN Rail transfer of ownership of the disused
right of way
Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another.
A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...
to the
Trans Canada Trail Foundation. However, by 2011, development of the trail had not occurred and was still being pursued by Rainbow Routes.
In 2002,
Vic Fedeli
Victor Anthony Fedeli (born August 8, 1956) is a Canadian politician who has been the Ontario minister of economic development, job creation and trade since 2019 and chair of Cabinet since 2018. He is the Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) ...
was elected Mayor of North Bay. As mayor, he engaged in an aggressive redevelopment policy which saw much of the old CN rail infrastructure dismantled after the
right of way
Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another.
A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...
was sold to the city for a symbolic $1 sum, including the demolition of many of the rail-over-road
trestle bridge
A trestle bridge is a bridge composed of a number of short spans supported by closely spaced frames. A trestle (sometimes tressel) is a rigid frame used as a support, historically a tripod used to support a stool or a pair of isosceles triangl ...
s around the city in order to widen roads and eliminate "traffic bottlenecks".
A development boom ensued, with much of the old railway lands undergoing
gentrification
Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and planning. Gentrification often increases the ec ...
.
As a result, a large number of single-family detached suburban homes were constructed in neighbourhoods like Pinewood, with some higher-density, more affordable housing also being constructed in other areas.
References
Further reading
*
{{Rail Subdivisions in Ontario, state=expanded
Alderdale Subdivision
Canadian Northern Railway
Railway lines opened in 1915
Railway lines closed in 1996
Rail infrastructure in Greater Sudbury
Rail infrastructure in Sudbury District
History of rail transport in Nipissing District
Rail infrastructure in Nipissing District
Rail infrastructure in North Bay, Ontario