September 1, 2026

ONTARIO NORTHLANDER TRAIN PLATFORM UNDERWAY IN GRAVENHURST WITH SURPRISINGLY SOME WORK BY CN CREW

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GRAVENHURST — Work on a new Ontario Northlander train platform got underway here last week a sign that commuter rail is gaining track as fencing has gone up and workers are digging in now.

Weeks after a large blue Northlander billboard when up on the north side of Brock Street next to the railway line, CN Rail crews began work last week clearing and beginning to level adjacent land as piles of construction material and heavy equipment appeared on site on Centennial Drive behindnex to the YIG grocery store.

Notably some of the massive “4 tonne” slabs of grey concrete with rebar and marked on the ends of a three of them with date references to “Gravenhurst Nov. 19 and 21 / 2025.”

Which, unless that purpose built for another, seems to indicate that the controversial site north of the town’s existing Train Station already had been ear-marked as the new platform destination ahead of discussions about where passengers north- and southbound was embark and disembark when the passenger trains commence operation.

The province had predicted 2026.

Premier Doug Ford had even touted to us last winter that it could have been “August or even July.”

Resident Bob Barnes, who has been keenly following the saga while advocating for the former Train Station as the pick-up and drop-off, said yesterday “I talked to the Elis Don construction supervisor this morning and the completion schedule is November.”

A sign of the times last week and preceded construction off Brock Street in Gravenhurst, where concrete beams dated November 2025 hint at plans that plans had already been in the works for almost a year. PHOTOS Mark Clairmont MuskokaTODAY.com

Indeed the province’s new blue and yellow trains had in recent months been seen passing through and back through Washago and Muskoka on trial runs.

That was all before an accident this summer when a northbound Northlander on a training struck a tow truck at the north end of Gravenhurst in a major yet minor accident for the driver who walked away.

Since then there haven’t been any locally reported sightings of the Northlander.

All of this as ownership of the track was supposed to revert to Ontario Northland after an announced sale this winter.

As of the last week of August that deal didn’t appear to have gone through.

So it was CN workers who have undertaken initial track and preparation work.

And the platform underway may just be a temporary one for now.

In the meantime electrical work and conduits are part of the work plan to prepare the sight for a drop off of a passenger shelter, which some watchers surmise could one day be dropped off by a passing train.

Work on the Bracebridge platform that has slowly been ongoing for close to a year continues as does similar site preparation in Huntsville.

Could Santa come down from the North Pole on the Northlander?