VIA Rail

[micheal_can]

On the weekend, I was able to take Via between Ottawa and Montreal. The trains were the new fleet. It did have a feel of an airplane, but had some notable differences.
For starters, no baggage inspections. It was annoying that it was self serve for baggage. Thankfully,I just had an overnight bag. If I had a full suitcase, it would have been annoying.
The meals are very simple. I traveled in the economy section. I had wondered if they had any hot meals in the business section. Next time,I may travel in business and see for myself.
I found that even with the placement of the above storage, I was not cramped to stand up. The seats were not that bad. Much better than any airline I have traveled in the last decade or so.
One way, my train was late. Even traveling at 150km/hr, we could not make up the time.
All in all, a nice ride.

Talking to someone, with the bridge work on the A-40, the train will be faster than driving that section.

 

[dowlingm]

The meals are very simple. I traveled in the economy section. I had wondered if they had any hot meals in the business section. Next time,I may travel in business and see for myself.

There are examples of business meals in this blog post

VIA Venture: The new generation of VIA Rail Corridor trains

Meet VIA's New Fleet: The Siemens Venture A Siemens Venture set, with cab car 2305 leading, prepares to depart Drummondville in December 20...

timstraintravels.blogspot.com

 

[micheal_can]

There are examples of business meals in this blog post

VIA Venture: The new generation of VIA Rail Corridor trains

Meet VIA's New Fleet: The Siemens Venture A Siemens Venture set, with cab car 2305 leading, prepares to depart Drummondville in December 20...

timstraintravels.blogspot.com

Those meals look decent. For longer trips, it may be worth the upgrade.

 

[SkylineHorizons]

All does not seem well in VIA corridor

VIA disruption in Toronto

groups.io

Its due to the rest rule changes being implemented by TC later this year; Rest periods have been extended to a minimum 12 hours at home, and ten hours away from home from the previous eight hours at home, or six hours when away from home.

VIA's response was to change most schedule cycles from a 4 on 3 off/3 on 4 off to a 6 on 1 off/4 on 3 off because with the additional rest now mandated they cant build schedules where crews can return in the same day and instead have to return the next day. Yeah it's basically a 5 day work like most jobs now, but its a big change going from the previous 7 days in two weeks. Also one should keep in mind most jobs don't require you to be away from home in between shifts, a time for which one is not being compensated for. Its not full living at a hotel away from your family in another city.

The work force has responded by removing themselves off the emergency call list. The number of engineers on there dropped 10-fold. VIA relyed on the emergency list to fill in vacancies because much like MX/GO they're understaffed and the spareboard is not large enough to regularly fill all vacancies. I'm not sure if this has more to do with there being a general shortage of people working in the railway industry ovetall or if the operators are purposefully doing this to cut costs, probably both factors are at play here. Anyways, when you count on employees to take extra work to fill your basic needs regularly you end up leaving yourself vulnerable to service disruptions like this should the mood sour.

 

[Urban Sky]

Talk about unintended consequences! As someone who has - at VIA - seen and used LE shift rotations to estimate the effect of potential schedule changes on staffing needs, I was already shocked how much of a pain their creation was prior to this rule change. Without HxR, there are no easy fixes for TO and especially TM runs…

 

[micheal_can]

Talk about unintended consequences. As someone who has - at VIA - seen and used LE shift rotations to estimate the effect of schedule changes on staffing needs, I was already shocked how much of a pain their creation was prior to this rule change. Without HxR, there are no easy fixes for TO and especially TM runs…

What would some of those fixes be?

 

[roger1818]

What would some of those fixes be?

I assume it would be some combination of hiring more LEs to do the same amount of work and optimizing the schedule for LE availablility (instead of when demand is highest).

 

[Urban Sky]

I assume it would be some combination of hiring more LEs to do the same amount of work and optimizing the schedule for LE availablility (instead of when demand is highest).

The struggle is to fit a roundtrip into a single day (and preferably: into a 12 hour shift or split-shift). Currently, there are trains like #64, which departs TRTO (11:30) before the first train arrives from MTRL (#61@12:03) and arrives in MTRL too short (17:05) before the last train to TRTO leaves (#668@18:25), meaning that unless you send the LE before or after his scheduled trip on a plane, he will spend one night in a hotel. (Keep in mind that shifts originating at TRTO often start at TMC more than 1 hour prior to departure time at TRTO and that shifts terminating at MTRL often end at MMC more than 30 minutes after actual arrival time - plus any delays).

With HxR, you will have the possibility to let the LE travel back on an HxR train (say: MTRL@19:30 to TRTO@23:30), maybe not just as a passenger, but even as driver…

 

[micheal_can]

The struggle is to fit a roundtrip into a single day (and preferably: into a 12 hour shift or split-shift). Currently, there are trains like #64, which departs TRTO (11:30) before the first train arrives from MTRL (#61@12:03) and arrives in MTRL too short (17:05) before the last train to TRTO leaves (#668@18:25), meaning that unless you send the LE before or after his scheduled trip on a plane, he will spend one night in a hotel. (Keep in mind that shifts originating at TRTO often start at TMC more than 1 hour prior to departure time at TRTO and that shifts terminating at MTRL often end at MMC more than 30 minutes after actual arrival time - plus any delays).

With HxR, you will have the possibility to let the LE travel back on an HxR train (say: MTRL@19:30 to TRTO@23:30), maybe not just as a passenger, but even as driver…

What about separate yard and road crews? So, the train arrives at Union and crews switch off. The yard crews work those 12 hours moving the trains to and from Union, saving that 1 hour.

 

[crs1026]

What about separate yard and road crews? So, the train arrives at Union and crews switch off. The yard crews work those 12 hours moving the trains to and from Union, saving that 1 hour.

The problem is not that the crew runs out of time doing their run, it's the amount of time they must then wait before returning in the other direction. And the amount of time that they must wait after reaching their home terminal before they can start their next day's work.

If you are suggesting that crews could double back if they didn't need to work the equipment moves.... that's a level of timekeeping precision that doesn't exist. There would still need to be a layover of some duration so that the returning train isn't delayed if the outgoing train runs late.

The number of yard crews required to move all the equipment is considerable.

- Paul

 

[micheal_can]

The problem is not that the crew runs out of time doing their run, it's the amount of time they must then wait before returning in the other direction. And the amount of time that they must wait after reaching their home terminal before they can start their next day's work.

If you are suggesting that crews could double back if they didn't need to work the equipment moves.... that's a level of timekeeping precision that doesn't exist. There would still need to be a layover of some duration so that the returning train isn't delayed if the outgoing train runs late.

The number of yard crews required to move all the equipment is considerable.

- Paul

So it sounds like the best solution is 1 run a day for each crew. That may severely affect the profitability of the Corridor service as is. If HFR can fix that, all the more reason to get shovels in the ground ASAP. With these new TC rules on rest, I feel that CN and CP will also be feeling that pinch while they sort out their scheduling.

 

[micheal_can]

Something else from my weekend trip,if I were flying,I would not be able to store my carry on bags anywhere in most airports. At Ottawa, I was able to. Not sure of Montreal as I wasn't there long enough. As I understood it, as long as I picked it up 20minutes before the train boarding, I was good. Doing so allowed me to arrive at the station early and meet up with someone from the forum and yammer on about the things we are passionate about, like train travel.

 

[smallspy]

So it sounds like the best solution is 1 run a day for each crew. That may severely affect the profitability of the Corridor service as is. If HFR can fix that, all the more reason to get shovels in the ground ASAP. With these new TC rules on rest, I feel that CN and CP will also be feeling that pinch while they sort out their scheduling.

The rules took effect for the freight railways last year. It wasn't obvious to most outsiders, but the back half of last year was a complete and total mess from an operational standpoint. They are still dealing with the repercussions of that rule change today.

Dan

 

[micheal_can]

The rules took effect for the freight railways last year. It wasn't obvious to most outsiders, but the back half of last year was a complete and total mess from an operational standpoint. They are still dealing with the repercussions of that rule change today.

Dan

Sounds like Via will experience much of the same things while they figure their schedules out. At least with Via, they have a predictable schedule that if they stay on time, can be used to make this an easier transition.

 

[SaugeenJunction]

Next trainset near Chicago. I believe it is number 17.

Consist 18 has that unique paint job, so I hope we can see it soon.