Sudbury

Ontario Northland adds more bus routes

Two years after making cuts to bus service in northern Ontario, the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission will be adding more routes to its schedule.

Hornepayne, Hearst on list for return service, offered five days a week

An Ontario Northland bus on the highway passing a rock face and heading in toward a tree-lined stretch of road.
The province announced it would be returning bus routes to the north via ONTC, with most of the destinations located west of Wawa. (ontc.ca)

Two years after making cuts to bus service in northern Ontario, the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission will be adding more routes to its schedule.

Destinations in the province's northwest will be getting the bulk of the new routes, but Hearst and Hornepayne also return to the bus schedule.

Service along the bus line was cut in 2015, taking Hearst,  Kapuskasing, Cochrane, Timmins and Iroquois Falls off the route. The reason was low ridership, the ONTC said.

In 2016, ONTC announced routes between Ottawa and Sudbury after Greyhound cut its service along the Highway 17 corridor by half. 

In a release this morning, the province said that "return service will be offered five days a week between all communities serviced by the ONTC or private carriers."

"Ridership will be monitored regularly to ensure customer demand is met and service is expanded as needed."

In 2016-17, 243,482 passengers used ONTC bus services, the province said.