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VIA Rail

Just to keep our eye on the ball.....

At .081kg/km/seat, a 272 seat VIA train produces 22.032 kg of CO2 per km. (VIA's figures)

To compare, 272 2021 Honda Accord sedans are rated at 45.424 kg of CO2 per km. (Honda's figures)

So, for every additional trainload of (single passenger) auto driving customers it attracts, VIA can reduce emissions by marginally more (45.4-22.0 = 23.4 kg) than if it eliminated the emissions of one current diesel train. And that's assuming electrification/battery/whatever can be considered completely carbon free.

Capital spent on HFR improvements that boost ridership will have a higher ROI than capital that makes VIA greener but does not grow ridership. Batteries don't boost ridership. They can wait.

- Paul
 
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That's not really how battery train operations work. And you'd need deep modeling to figure out exactly how much battery is needed and the tradeoff between extra battery capacity and catenary extensions. That's far beyond the scope of this forum.

It is not. If someone is suggesting battery power and then showing what is out there, the question needs to be whether it would work with Via's system. So, at what point would Via aquire these battery trains? How much of their line would be fed by some sort of shore power? How many trips a day would this one train make? Using all that, you could come up with some very rough numbers that for most of us, would help us understand the basic feasibility of it.

So, how much of their line would be electrified before they would bring a Battery train in service?
How much of their route would be not electrified?
How many trips of that route in a day would they travel it?

That number would be km per day that a train is without shore power.

Now, if you want to make sure we have all the information, then we would need to know how many km to charge the batteries to full, and if in the route is there enough of those km. If there iss not, then we need to assume that it will need to last most of the day and be charged where it lays over for the night.

This is kinda like how often do the engines get refueled. I am guessing it's normally once a day along the Corridor.
 
I normally wouldn't share random YouTube videos, but this YouTuber recently travelled from Winnipeg to Jasper on The Canadian and provided a glimpse of the refurbished HEP1 coaches in service.


From what l can see, they look pretty great! I was wondering whether anyone had a clearer shot of the interior?
 
I normally wouldn't share random YouTube videos, but this YouTuber recently travelled from Winnipeg to Jasper on The Canadian and provided a glimpse of the refurbished HEP1 coaches in service.


From what l can see, they look pretty great! I was wondering whether anyone had a clearer shot of the interior?
Love the new interior refurbish, new leather seats an colour scheme. Feels modern and retro at the same time and a good reuse of old rollingstock.
 
This was making the rounds today on the interweb.

- Paul

Screen Shot 2021-01-24 at 10.24.55 PM.png
 
This was making the rounds today on the interweb.

- Paul

View attachment 295959
Will there locomotives be used to haul anything other than venture cars? Will there be no more HEP cars in the corridor?

What will be retired first, F40's or P42's? And to keep the F40's long haul routes is there any refubishmwent programs planned? Since they will expect to be in service for at least another 5 years.

Can't wait for corridor testing.
 
I hope that isn't the finally livery because it is one of the worst liveries I have ever seen. Especially when you consider than ideally, a passenger train should look attractive. Imagine if we had put effort into the livery like Brightline.

The nose looks to be a different shape to what was shown in renderings. More bulbous and again, less attractive. Though I will reserve full judgement on the body styling until we get another angle.

Functionality is most important but we should take pride in our passenger trains. The first step in that is appearance. It isn't a good idea to go with a blackwash livery to make it look like a ww2 era austerity milk run train.
 
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I hope that isn't the finally livery. The is one of the worst liveries I have ever seen. Especially when you consider than ideally, a passenger train should look attractive. Imagine if we had put effort into the livery like Brightline.
It says pending decals. That means they haven't applied the stickers and the logo.
 
Will there locomotives be used to haul anything other than venture cars? Will there be no more HEP cars in the corridor?

What will be retired first, F40's or P42's? And to keep the F40's long haul routes is there any refubishmwent programs planned? Since they will expect to be in service for at least another 5 years.

Can't wait for corridor testing.

Could they rotate through the rest of the lines to have the best equipment out with spares strategically stored?
 
^Until we see it with paint, we don't know for a fact that it's VIA's - could be some other buyer's, but I'm trusting the source to know what they are looking at. Hard to tell from the photo. Could be a false alarm, but I figured it was worth passing along.

- Paul
 
Of course, but the colour scheme is just so bland. I can't imagine how a few decals will be able to fix this boring, uninspired colour scheme.

It could be done completely in vinyl panels. The technology has come a long way and is no doubt cheaper and faster than a paint shop.
 
It could be done completely in vinyl panels. The technology has come a long way and is no doubt cheaper and faster than a paint shop.
IIRC Siemens urban transit has been delivering 100% wraps or decals on white for a while now in north america. Wouldn't be surprised to see the same on their other products.
 

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