Ontario Northland Railway

Ontario Northland Railway

The ONR owned tracks in blue, with trackage rights in red.
A pair of Ontario Northland diesels in Hearst in 2003.
Reporting mark	ONT
Locale	Northern Ontario
Dates of operation	1902–
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Headquarters	North Bay, Ontario, Canada

Ontario Northland Passenger Service
Moosonee Flag stop only Cochrane Porquis Junction Matheson Swastika Englehart New Liskeard Cobalt Temagami North Bay South River Huntsville Bracebridge Gravenhurst Washago Toronto

The Ontario Northland Railway (reporting mark ONT) is a Canadian railway operated by the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission, a provincial Crown agency of the government of Ontario.

Its north-south mainline is located entirely in Ontario, and has a southern terminus at North Bay, passing through Cochrane, and a northern terminus at Moosonee, several miles south of the shore of James Bay. An east-west secondary mainline connects (near Hearst) with Cochrane, and a line extends from Swastika (south of Cochrane) into the neighbouring province of Quebec, where it terminates at Rouyn-Noranda. The railway's branch from Swastika to Rouyn-Noranda, including 40 kilometres of track in Quebec, is operated by a subsidiary, the Nipissing Central Railway. Shorter spur lines also exist running west from Rock Junction to Sherman Mine, south-west from Porquis Junction to Kidd Creek Mine, about 22 km east of Timmins, north-east from Porquis to Iroquois Falls and south from Opaz Junction to Agrium mine site.

Originally built to develop the Lake Timiskaming and Lake Nipissing areas, the railway soon became a major factor in the economic growth of the province. After decades of difficult construction through the Canadian Shield, workers reached James Bay in 1932. While blasting the route through the shield, geologists discovered deposits of valuable minerals such as gold, silver, copper and nickel. The railway also made it possible to exploit the timber resources of Northern Ontario.