VIA Rail

[SamStar]

Well, it looks like long-haul services are here to stay. Announcement tomorrow:

Media Advisory - VIA Rail will announce investment for train car renovation

MONTREAL, April 2, 2018 /CNW Telbec/ - VIA Rail President and Chief Executive Officer Yves Desjardins-Siciliano will join the Honourable Marc Garneau, Minister of Transport; the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of VIA Rail, Françoise Bertrand; the Vice President, Corporate Strategy, Bombardier Inc., Sylvain Lévesque; and the Chief Operations Officer, Bombardier Transportation, Americas, David Van der Wee, to announce an investment for the renovation of a part of VIA Rail's long-haul fleet.

It seems that the work will be done by Bombardier in Lapocatière, Quebec.

 

[cplchanb]

Well lets see what the news announcement today entails....Hopefully one day the govt can grow a spine and order CN and CP to give priority to passenger rail or lose their licences to operate. Then again if they would only build dedicated track across the prairies.....
As samstar has mentioned....6hrs of non movement is just unacceptable on any passenger rail standard regardless of reason save for natural disasters or acts of god.

 

[cplchanb]

http://www.royalcanadianpacific.com/luxury.html

For the scenic tourists they should give the end to end Canadian route to them. The route is originally CP's anyways right? As theyre doing now on the ocean route invest on shorter trips to improve on frequency and reliability.
Have the trains terminate east and west at Winnipeg or Saskatoon.

 

[robmausser]

Well lets see what the news announcement today entails....Hopefully one day the govt can grow a spine and order CN and CP to give priority to passenger rail or lose their licences to operate. Then again if they would only build dedicated track across the prairies.....
As samstar has mentioned....6hrs of non movement is just unacceptable on any passenger rail standard regardless of reason save for natural disasters or acts of god.

License to operate? CN and CP own the rail lines that VIA operate on. It's their private property.

The government could do something, but it would not be a simple process and would involve the courts and a lot of taxpayer money wasted.

 

[cplchanb]

License to operate? CN and CP own the rail lines that VIA operate on. It's their private property.

The government could do something, but it would not be a simple process and would involve the courts and a lot of taxpayer money wasted.

i wonder what would be cheaper...invoke govt legislation and courts to force them to prioritise passenger rail or build their own?

 

[robmausser]

i wonder what would be cheaper...invoke govt legislation and courts to force them to prioritise passenger rail or build their own?

Build their own.

And would have better bang for the buck.

Freight traffic is only on the rise, and going to continue to rise with the globalization of goods.

 

[lenaitch]

http://www.royalcanadianpacific.com/luxury.html

For the scenic tourists they should give the end to end Canadian route to them. The route is originally CP's anyways right? As theyre doing now on the ocean route invest on shorter trips to improve on frequency and reliability.
Have the trains terminate east and west at Winnipeg or Saskatoon.

No, it's an approximation of the route for the CN Super Continental (west of Toronto). The original Canadian route was on CP trackage. As far as know, the only remaining parts of the original route are from (sort of )Parry Sound to (sort of) Sudbury and the Fraser Canyon area of BC due to directional running agreements.

 

[cplchanb]

No, it's an approximation of the route for the CN Super Continental (west of Toronto). The original Canadian route was on CP trackage. As far as know, the only remaining parts of the original route are from (sort of )Parry Sound to (sort of) Sudbury and the Fraser Canyon area of BC due to directional running agreements.

Yea I was unclear about my original comment. I meant the latter where the route is not the original Canadian route from CPR.

 

[SamStar]

It seems that the HEP1 Coaches will be refurbished.

http://montrealgazette.com/news/loc...contract-to-bombardiers-plant-at-la-pocatiere

Via Rail awards $54 million contract to Bombardier's plant at La Pocatière
A reprieve for workers at risking of losing their jobs after failed bid for REM contract
Presse Canadienne
A reprieve for workers at risking of losing their jobs after failed bid for REM contract

LA POCATIÈRE — The Bombardier transportation plant in La Pocatière has won another reprieve: Via Rail has awarded it a $54 million contract to modernize part of its fleet of cars that date back to the 1950s.

The announcement was made Tuesday afternoon by the federal Minister of Transport, Marc Garneau, and chief executive of Via, Yves Desjardins-Siciliano.

The plant was at risk of closing, with the termination of the STM contract for its Azur métro trains at the end of 2018. In addition, Bombardier lost the bid to construct rolling stock for the Caisse de dépôt’s $6.3-billion electric commuter train network (REM). The $630-million contract went to competitor Alstom, Bombardier’s chief rival, which is based in France.

That failed bid jeopardized as many as half of the 600 jobs at the La Pocatière plant, about 150 kilometres northeast of Quebec City.

Via’s contract aims to make cars fully accessible to people with disabilities. Each reconfigured car will be equipped with two wheelchair lifts, two accessible spaces with anchors, display screens in the passenger area and in the washroom, and an accessible toilet.

 

[cplchanb]

It seems that the HEP1 Coaches will be refurbished.

http://montrealgazette.com/news/loc...contract-to-bombardiers-plant-at-la-pocatiere

so basically the libs bailed out bbr again by giving them some work to do after they failed to secure the bid......

 

[dowlingm]

Bit of a pincer move on the need for HEP1s with the Canada Transportation Agency on one hand demanding double tie downs, and the seemingly failing Rens on the other. I'd love to have a good go at the political motivations for La Pocatiere to get the work, but with IRSI closed and (I think?) ONTC no longer in the refurb business who else could have done it? Do I vaguely remember some outfit in Hamilton did some LRC work after IRSI came crashing down?

 

[crs1026]

CAD has won a certain amount of passenger car refurb work.

Is there a source confirming that it's the HEP I cars getting the refurb? And, is it the whole fleet of those? As a reminder, the HEP I fleet consists of 25 remaining ex-CP Budd built coaches, plus 17 cars obtained second hand (or more) from US roads. The Canadian uses a small number of these (only a couple per trainset) and they are used to Prince Rupert, Churchill, northern Quebec, and to Halifax when the Ocean is non-Ren equipped. Some are regularly seen in corridor service.

As opposed to HEP II cars - a different bunch of older ex-US cars?

- Paul

EDIT: Answered my own question. Press Release on the VIA web site says 17 cars to be refurbished. So, far from a fleet extension, just compliance with the recent court decisions. Hmmm... 17 cars matches the number of non-CP HEP I coaches, which actually are more often seen on the Canadian than the ex-CP cars these days.

 

[micheal_can]

http://www.royalcanadianpacific.com/luxury.html

For the scenic tourists they should give the end to end Canadian route to them. The route is originally CP's anyways right? As theyre doing now on the ocean route invest on shorter trips to improve on frequency and reliability.
Have the trains terminate east and west at Winnipeg or Saskatoon.

It runs on CN lines.

 

[Urban Sky]

http://www.royalcanadianpacific.com/luxury.html

For the scenic tourists they should give the end to end Canadian route to them. The route is originally CP's anyways right? As theyre doing now on the ocean route invest on shorter trips to improve on frequency and reliability.
Have the trains terminate east and west at Winnipeg or Saskatoon.

I don't know why you seem to question the justification of a service which apparently recovers a larger proportion of its operating costs than Corridor services in Southwest Ontario (SWO) and accounts for 20.4% of VIA revenues, but only 15.1% of its operational subsidies, while serving 2.3% of its passengers and 12.9% of their annual mileage:

Source: VIA Rail's Annual Plan 2016 (p.9)
Note: Figures in Italics are extrapolated from other metrics which are provided, e.g. Passenger Miles (Shortfall / Subsidy per p-mi) and Cost-recovery (Revenues / Costs).

However, if you insist on travelling on luxury trains which are beyond the financial means of most of your fellow citizens, such an alternative already exists and, by the way, started as a VIA service before it was sold off to a private investor:

No, it's an approximation of the route for the CN Super Continental (west of Toronto). The original Canadian route was on CP trackage. As far as know, the only remaining parts of the original route are from (sort of )Parry Sound to (sort of) Sudbury and the Fraser Canyon area of BC due to directional running agreements.

The exact segments where the Canadian runs on both railroads' infrastructure thanks to their directional running agreements can be easily identified on Amtrak's inofficial Moving Map: https://asm.transitdocs.com/map

 

[dowlingm]

The thing about giving Canadian to Rocky is that they aren't interested in serving flag stops in Northern Ontario any more than cruise ships have any sort of significant role as a ferry service.