News   Jan 26, 2026
 135     0 
News   Jan 23, 2026
 1.1K     0 
News   Jan 23, 2026
 1.8K     2 

Ontario Northland/Northern Ontario Transportation

Some trains are used as test beds for new technologies. With the need for a solution in Canada with these trains, putting it on a train that can be horribly late but still be acceptable, they have the chance to see whether they work or not. This train will be shorter than Via's.
A safety related item, trialed on a grant total of three trainsets, used on a route that may only contain a small number of impacted 'predictive' crossing signals, travelling at speeds that are lower that the corridor. Ya, maybe.
 
A safety related item, trialed on a grant total of three trainsets, used on a route that may only contain a small number of impacted 'predictive' crossing signals, travelling at speeds that are lower that the corridor. Ya, maybe.
If I were testing something safety related,I would use it somewhere that if failing would likely not cause major issues.

The other thing could be that these are no being installed on all Siemens equipment regardless of whether they are actually used or not.
 
If Shunt Enhancers are in fact installed on the ONR trains (and it wasn't a misunderstanding by MTO) this would be huge news for Via, who has been saying it's impossible to install shunt enhancers because they're not approved for use in Canada
They have not been certified for use by Transport Canada - they haven't even tested them yet.

It is possible that Siemens has developed some alternate mounting method for the shunt enhancers, but none of the photos of the trainset show the system as designed and tested by Amtrak, and approved by the FRA and Siemens. It would be located below the lead truck on the locomotive and lead truck of the cab car, with horizontal piping located a couple of inches above the railhead.

Dan
 
Next set will soon be on the move.

Screenshot_20260125-112626_Facebook.jpg

FB_IMG_1769358435367.jpg

FB_IMG_1769358437928.jpg
 

Back
Top