VIA Rail

[nfitz]

Shame they couldn't add a buffet car instead of a buffer car.

 

[dowlingm]

It seems to me simpler to discontinue White River than go looking to CP for hundreds of more route miles of Canadian ops and relocate Capreol operations to somewhere on the CP route

@lenaitch re your comment about GO north. Before reinstatement of Northlander I would have gone along with that but now that it is returning along with a significant ROW acquisition it’s not unfair to ask what Ontario’s policy is for rail is, and therefore why we would spend there and not in Sudbury, other than some form of electoral arithmetic

 

[Bordercollie]

Breaking...Buffer cars to be required coming Monday on LRC consists...structural integrity issues discovered last September. I've seen this movie before....

Why now?

I believe there are some cars at CAD being repaired as we speak.

VIA should bill Siemens for the extra axle costs and fuel as well as the cost of the repairs for the LRC'S.

 

[crs1026]

That might explain some odd LRC/HEP II consists that have been observed in the past while.

- Paul

 

[lenaitch]

@lenaitch re your comment about GO north. Before reinstatement of Northlander I would have gone along with that but now that it is returning along with a significant ROW acquisition it’s not unfair to ask what Ontario’s policy is for rail is, and therefore why we would spend there and not in Sudbury, other than some form of electoral arithmetic

In terms of an overall rail transport policy, or transportation policy, for Ontario, or at least non-GTA centric commuter rail? I doubt one exists. All of the Northlander activity is to support and enhance operations on a railway they own, and railway that the previous Liberal government, tried to divest. I see no indication that they intend to own more.

 

[micheal_can]

Realistically, nothing concrete from VIA and probably just railfan scuttlebutt. Then there's this: If they used F40PHs on that line, they'd regularly have to deadhead down to Toronto for maintenance, which is a pretty expensive operation because it means running over CP tracks on which VIA doesn't have any running rights.

Could they not move them to Capreol and connect them to the Canadian as it passes through? A much shorter reroute, and regularly done with CN crews.