A report on the Northern Policy Institute’s website says the return of passenger rail to Northern Ontario would be a boost to the economy and the environment.

Dr. Linda Savory Gordon is one of the authors of Actions to Move Northern Ontario forward: Passenger Rail.

The report looks at how Northern Ontario could benefit from a well-functioning passenger rail system.

She says many user groups, including students and tourists, would want to come to the north by train, but that’s not all.

“Also, people who are getting older don’t want to drive great distances and people with disabilities can take the train too,” she says.

There would also be environmental benefits.

“Those vast distances that we travel over 90 % of the province. We don’t have the option other than road or air and they’re the most two most polluting forms of transportation,” Savory Gordon says.

She says during the election campaign now-Premier Doug Ford promised to return the service in a conversation with the co-chair of the Northeastern Ontario Rail Network and the government will be held to fulfill that pledge.

Savory Gordon says there’s a place for bus and car transportation in the north, but rail should be the spine.

Photo courtesy Pixabay.com

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