kEiThZ
Superstar
The place to discuss all regional transport in the Quebec-Windsor Corridor. From VIA's Corridor Services, to future HFR/HSR, to GO and AMT suburban rail services, to bus services and even air services.
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Quebec-Windsor Corridor
- Thread starter kEiThZ
- Start date
Urban Sky
Senior Member
Interesting to include buses and air services. Would suggest to change “regional” to “metropolitan, regional and intercity”. And maybe add a reference that non-corridor rail discussions belong into one of the countless other rail threads…
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Urban Sky
Senior Member
Since there are still a lot of people who haven’t had the chance to try out VIA’s new Siemens fleet (or to schedule their farewell trip with the sole remaining Renaissance trainset in the Corridor), this is the most recent Cycling plan:
| Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon | O-45-T-48-O | M-20-Q-37-O | Q-33-O-26-Q | M-31-O-38-M | Q-35-O-28-Q |
| Tue | O-24-Q-29-M | O-41-T-46-O | Q-33-O-26-M | M-31-O-28-Q | Q-35-O-38-M |
| Wed | M-20-Q-37-O | O-41-T-46-O | Q-35-O-38-M | Q-33-O-26-Q | M-31-O-28-Q |
| Thu | O-41-T-646-O | O-24-Q-29-M | M-20-Q-37-O | Q-33-O-26-Q | Q-35-O-38-M |
| Fri | O-43-T-668-M | M-20-Q-37-Q | O-22-Q-39-O | Q-35-O-38-M | M-31-O-26-Q |
| Sat | M-633-O | Q-26-O | O-24-Q-29-M | M-622-Q-39-O | Q-37-O |
| Sun | O-43-T-646-O | O-35-Q-38-O | M-633-O-26-Q | O-28-Q | O-24-Q-29-M |
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kEiThZ
Superstar
^ They only have five trainsets in service?
Also, are they phasing them in (Corridor East first) or are they going to start Venture services on Corridor West before the East is fully converted?
Also, are they phasing them in (Corridor East first) or are they going to start Venture services on Corridor West before the East is fully converted?
kEiThZ
Superstar
Do the infrastructure constraints limit them to five sets? Cause the fifth set was delivered in April 2023. Can't imagine it takes 8-10 months to get a set into the rotation. When she those MMCs expected to be fully built out?
Urban Sky
Senior Member
In the case of the TMC facility, construction seems to have started only 6 months ago:
VIA Rail breaks ground on Toronto Maintenance Centre modernization
To support its new fleet of Siemens Venture trains for the Windsor to Quebec City corridor, VIA Rail is upgrading both the Toronto and Montreal Maintenance Centres. The formal ground breaking ceremony for the project in Toronto was held on July 10, 2023.
www.transportaction.ca
Urban Sky
Senior Member
They apparently won’t be complete until 2026:
www.trains.com
VIA Rail awards contract to modernize maintenance centers - Trains
MONTRÉAL – VIA Rail Canada is awarding two contracts for the modernization of its maintenance centers in Toronto and Montréal. VIA awarded the contract for construction at the Toronto Maintenance Center to Buttcon Limited, based in Concord, Ontario. Pomerleau Inc., based in Montréal has been...
www.trains.com
smallspy
Senior Member
There is still a lot of staff that need to be trained on the new sets, but apparently that is also moving along quite well. They seem to be keen on having each set accumulate quite a bit of mileage prior to entering revenue service (along with having all of the requisite changes made that weren't done on the production line), so that does explain why they don't seem to be rushing them into service with any haste.
VIA does now have 11 sets on hand, although they did (or still do?) need to do some equipment shuffling still as one of the sets was delivered without its loco and so needed to be paired with one.
Dan
cplchanb
Senior Member
hoping by next June they train 68 and 668 will be using the new sets. I have a via trip first weekend to and from montreal!
kEiThZ
Superstar
Strange that they planned for the TMC to be complete 2 years after the Venture order was supposed to finish delivery. Even with the delivery delays from Siemens, the whole order will arrive before TMC is commissioned. I wonder how VIA deploys Ventures west of Toronto if TMC isn't running.
kEiThZ
Superstar
Any idea how many we see in 2024? Will they average a set a month? I wonder at what point VIA can fully convert Corridor East to Venture service. Was hoping they could achieve that before 2025.
crs1026
Senior Member
If I read that chart correctly, six LRC sets and four HEP-II sets can be replaced by Venture trainsets without sending any west of Toronto. That says that VIA has some breathing room to introduce more Venture trainsets without changing its cycling. Of course cycling gets changed periodically anyways, so maybe an even better cycling pattern can be worked out to address any current limitations.
I'm guessing (hoping?) that trains laying over at TMC can have the most important running work (ie toilet tank pumpout, water fill, fueling, and coolant/oil topup) performed without the new shop layout being finished. That says to me that overnight layovers and turnaround of trains arriving from Montreal/Ottawa should not be a problem.
Even cycling to Windsor seems doable provided the cycle goes all the way from Montreal to Windsor and then back. There could be a LRC or HEPII protection set or two sitting at TMC.
As @smallspy pointed out, the very gradual implementation is largely by design. It should speed up, especially if any glitches with early sets are corrected on the remaining sets at the factory.
- Paul
I'm guessing (hoping?) that trains laying over at TMC can have the most important running work (ie toilet tank pumpout, water fill, fueling, and coolant/oil topup) performed without the new shop layout being finished. That says to me that overnight layovers and turnaround of trains arriving from Montreal/Ottawa should not be a problem.
Even cycling to Windsor seems doable provided the cycle goes all the way from Montreal to Windsor and then back. There could be a LRC or HEPII protection set or two sitting at TMC.
As @smallspy pointed out, the very gradual implementation is largely by design. It should speed up, especially if any glitches with early sets are corrected on the remaining sets at the factory.
- Paul
Urban Sky
Senior Member
Train 668 already is operated by a new set on Fridays. That’s the only reason I was able to ride them so far…
ottbike
Active Member
It's not a bad idea they are taking their time accumulating milage prior to entering service. A couple months ago I was taking one of the new trains from Ottawa to Toronto and it couldn't leave the station due to some sort of power issue with the lead car (in this case, the cab car). After a few hours, we boarded the replacement train, also a new train, and that train became stuck at Fallowfield for about 30 minutes because of an alarm issue that had to be de-activated. They are great trains, but some growing issues I presume.