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VIA Rail

Bordercollie said:
This person claims that they retiring the LRC's early as an excuse not to restore service and to help privatize VIA.

Other people on this and other boards have made similar comments about the privatization of VIA in the corridor.

Considering we don't really know how that's going to pan out, I don't see where these assumptions are coming from.
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I acknowledge that we all do mistakes, but I would appreciate if you would next time at least consider that something might be wrong with your post when someone seemingly struggles to identify any link between what you quoted and what you wrote and maybe even have a quick glance over the post in question before you write two more posts which just add to the confusion as nobody would know what you are talking about by simply reading your post:
F791BE70-5041-4E83-A4DB-2113BD8E25FB.jpeg

6BB24069-37D9-4C05-A0B5-2C97B1BA4F91.jpeg

Bordercollie said:
Is there no way to put that first train into service now? Has it officially been accepted by VIA?
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You seem to believe that railroads in this country have the certification power to decide when a new type of trainset can transport revenue passengers…
 
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roger1818 said:
Given that the new trains will be significantly cheaper to operate, VIA will be more anxious than anyone to get the new train(s) into service, but as anyone who has been keeping up with the O-Train inquiry will know, taking shortcuts on the validation process is a recipe for disaster.

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That's a bit of a different situation given that the entire system was new.

Are there any other stop gap solutions until the new trains can enter service?

Possibly sidelining the HEP fleet during COVID using LRC'S exclusively was not such a good idea in hindsight.
 
Bordercollie said:
Possibly sidelining the HEP fleet during COVID using LRC'S exclusively was not such a good idea in hindsight.
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Developing a new timetable at VIA used to be a process which took several months in which crafting a new cycling plan is by far the most time-consuming task. With the arrival of Covid, the entire lead time shrank to 2-3 weeks (or even a single week in late-March 2020). The only way to make this happen was to drastically reduce the number of iterations which was circulated for feedback from the various stakeholders and that required that all train sets were identical.

By September 2020, enough timetable scenarios had been developed ahead of an actual management decision to increase service, so that HEP cars could be reintroduced (IIRC, the weekend-only trains which were reintroduced on September 11, 2020 were all-HEP) and I believe that they remained in service since then…
 
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Urban Sky said:
Developing a new timetable at VIA used to be a process which took several months in which crafting a new cycling plan is by far the most time-consuming task. With the arrival of Covid, the entire lead time shrank to 2-3 weeks (or even a single week in late-March 2020). The only way to make this happen was to drastically reduce the number of iterations which was circulated for feedback from the various stakeholders and that required that all train sets were identical.

By September 2020, enough timetable scenarios had been developed ahead of an actual management decision to increase service, so that HEP cars could be reintroduced (IIRC, the weekend-only trains which were reintroduced on September 11, 2020 were all-HEP) and I believe that they remained in service since then…
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Since so many were idle could they have accelerated the rebuilt program for the HEPII's?
 
Bordercollie said:
We still don't have replacements for non corridor fleet so it will be more than 5 years.
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No HEP2 car is used for non-corridor services and if there is one car type for which there certainly won‘t be any shortage after the HEP-I cars currently deployed on the Corridor get swapped out for the new fleet, it will be coaches…
 
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With GO coaches currently sidelined, and need for the full fleet likely years away, I can see plenty of room to reactivate a half dozen specifically for the Kingston and London "commuter" markets. Not ideal, but a shortstop until sufficient new Siemens trainsets are available. I would not want these trains to see expedited Charger use - whatever cycling plan VIA has during the transition period should not be impacted.

Locomotives with compatible HEP may be the kicker.

- Paul
 
crs1026 said:
With GO coaches currently sidelined, and need for the full fleet likely years away, I can see plenty of room to reactivate a half dozen specifically for the Kingston and London "commuter" markets. Not ideal, but a shortstop until sufficient new Siemens trainsets are available. I would not want these trains to see expedited Charger use - whatever cycling plan VIA has during the transition period should not be impacted.

Locomotives with compatible HEP may be the kicker.

- Paul
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Wouldn’t be the first time GO helps out VIA when their LRC cars are falling apart:
tracksidetreasure.blogspot.com

VIA Operation Axle, March-June 1992

VIA No 62 arrives at Kingston on March 30, 1992 with 6413-15420-5584-3246-5448 (above). VIA No 63 arrives one hour later with 6425-15478-...
tracksidetreasure.blogspot.com tracksidetreasure.blogspot.com
 
Urban Sky said:
Wouldn’t be the first time GO helps out VIA when their LRC cars are falling apart:
tracksidetreasure.blogspot.com

VIA Operation Axle, March-June 1992

VIA No 62 arrives at Kingston on March 30, 1992 with 6413-15420-5584-3246-5448 (above). VIA No 63 arrives one hour later with 6425-15478-...
tracksidetreasure.blogspot.com tracksidetreasure.blogspot.com
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In these cases was it VIA crews since it was led with a VIA locomotive?

As the situation with the LRC'S get worse I wonder if there are talks going on to lease GO equipment?

I guess the schedules will need to be tweeked since the BI-levels can only run at 90mph.
 
Bordercollie said:
In these cases was it VIA crews since it was led with a VIA locomotive?
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The blogpost mentions also GO-locomotives and provides one example of a three-bilevel consist hauled by one of GO‘s F59.

As the situation with the LRC'S get worse I wonder if there are talks going on to lease GO equipment?
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I have no information on this, but it would only work for captive cycles which can be crewed out of Toronto, for instance 82-83, 85-88 or 650-651 (which would even allow for maintenance windows on weekends)…

I guess the schedules will need to be tweeked since the BI-levels can only run at 90mph.
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That would be the least of the problems, as no schedules assume speeds in excess of 95 mph and especially the train numbers I’ve just mentioned hardly ever reach that stop speed…
 
Urban Sky said:
The blogpost mentions also GO-locomotives and provides one example of a three-bilevel consist hauled by one of GO‘s F59.


I have no information on this, but it would only work for captive cycles which can be crewed out of Toronto, for instance 82-83, 85-88 or 650-651 (which would even allow for maintenance windows on weekends)…


That would be the least of the problems, as no schedules assume speeds in excess of 95 mph and especially the train numbers I’ve just mentioned hardly ever reach that stop speed…
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I would think that training Metrolinx crews to work on these trains would be easier than using via crews since there is a larger pool to work from. The train mater? ( Not sure if the title) would be a VIA employee collecting tickets.
 
VIA got rid of the commuter pass. I don't know anyone who's willing to pay $80 to wake up at 5 AM to commute to Toronto from Cobourg, Kingston, etc and arrive back home at 7 PM. A lot of people were also commuting on the unlimited 60-day Canada Pass, which is probably why VIA decided to scrap all the passes and redo them.

Trains 82-83, 85-88 and 650-651 have been gone so long that people have switched to alternatives (work from home, bus, GO + car). Reinstating these trains would just be a band-aid solution to not having similar jobs/opportunities in those smaller communities. The more environmentally friendly solution that would result in people having a better quality of life would be to have jobs/opportunities available in those smaller communities so that the people who live there can spend more time with their families and friends instead of spending hours travelling every day.
 
littlewill1166 said:
VIA got rid of the commuter pass. I don't know anyone who's willing to pay $80 to wake up at 5 AM to commute to Toronto from Cobourg, Kingston, etc and arrive back home at 7 PM. A lot of people were also commuting on the unlimited 60-day Canada Pass, which is probably why VIA decided to scrap all the passes and redo them.

Trains 82-83, 85-88 and 650-651 have been gone so long that people have switched to alternatives (work from home, bus, GO + car). Reinstating these trains would just be a band-aid solution to not having similar jobs/opportunities in those smaller communities. The more environmentally friendly solution that would result in people having a better quality of life would be to have jobs/opportunities available in those smaller communities so that the people who live there can spend more time with their families and friends instead of spending hours travelling every day.
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It might not be so bad if you had a hybrid work environment only requiring you to work at the office 2 days a week.

But considering the cost to own a house anywhere near Toronto, getting up at 5am 2-3 days a week might be the difference between living in a 2 bedroom condo vs living in a 3 bedroom house with a backyard.

Cobourg to Toronto should only take 60 minutes if you only stopped at Port Hope, Oshawa, Guildwood and then Union. Commuting from Kingston is a stretch, considering it's almost 80km farther than London to Toronto.
 
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