Ottawa Valley Railway
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | North Bay, Ontario[1] |
| Reporting mark | OVR |
| Locale | Ontario, Quebec, Canada |
| Dates of operation | 1996–Present |
Ottawa Valley Railway (reporting mark OVR) is a Canadian railroad that operates 342 miles (550 km) of track in the province of Ontario and Quebec, and is owned by RailAmerica.
The railroad began operations on 30 October 1996 under the auspices of RaiLink Canada, and fell under the control of RailAmerica after that company bought RaiLink in July 1999.[1][2] It was formed to operate both local trains and through-service Canadian Pacific Railway trains.[2]
The OVR operates between Sudbury, Ontario and Temiscaming, Quebec,[3] reduced from its original routing between Sudbury and Smith Falls, Ontario with a branch to Temiscaming.[4]
The rerouting came about as a result of the reduction of both local traffic on the line and through traffic operated by the Canadian Pacific. As traffic was reduced on other CP routes, that railroad was able to redirect trains onto its lines through Toronto, and RailAmerica's lease on the line to the east of Petawawa, Ontario ended in December 2009.[2] The OVR continued operating the route between Sudbury and Temiscaming, and in early October 2010, RailAmerica and CP reached a new agreement under which those operations would continue, while CP would continue procedures for ending service to the east of Mattawa.[3] On 3 August 2011, it was announced that the rails between Renfrew and Pembroke, Ontario were planned to be removed by the end of the year, with the remainder of the Mattawa—Smiths Falls route to be removed in following years.[5]
The OVR interchanges with the Canadian Pacific at Sudbury and Cartier, Ontario, as well as with the Canadian National Railway at North Bay, Ontario, the Ontario Northland Railroad at North Bay, and the Huron Central Railway at Sudbury.[1]
The railroad hauled around 70,000 carloads a year, the majority of which came from CP's intermodal bridge traffic. Roughly three quarters of the OVR's traffic was CP bridge traffic. The rest of it was self-generated, and included chemicals and forest products.[4]. However, very little of this traffic came from east of Mattawa.[6]
References
- ^ a b c "Ottawa Valley Railway - OVR". Canadian Pacific Railway. Retrieved 8 October 2010.
- ^ a b c Cummings, Andy (2010). "Short line falls to recession". Trains Magazine. Kalmbach Publishing.
{{cite journal}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ a b "RailAmerica inks new deal to operate Ottawa Valley Railway". Trains Magazine. 4 October 2010. Retrieved 8 October 2010.
- ^ a b "OTTAWA VALLEY RAILWAY (OVR)". RailAmerica. Retrieved 8 October 2010.
- ^ "Workers begin salvaging Canadian Pacific's Ottawa Valley line". Trains Magazine. 3 August 2011. Retrieved 7 August 2011.
- ^ http://www.millstonenews.com/2011/08/ottawa-valley-rail-lines-being-torn-up.html