jks
Continuous Lurker
Well, compared to the renaissance cars that currently run on the corridor, they ARE very much hideous.
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VIA Rail: New Funding
- Thread starter 299 bloor call control.
- Start date
waterloowarrior
Senior Member
Like new?... perhaps they bought them from a railway museum where they had been restored and preserved?
from VIA Rail's site
"The VIA Rail RDCs (used primarily on the Malahat and the Lake Superior) are the only remaining RDCs in the world still providing regular service."
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kEiThZ
Superstar
Privatization might not necessarily be all that bad. I would not mind seeing Virgin provide service in the Corridor.
RedRocket191
Senior Member
A company purchased many from VIA Rail as they were retired in the early 1990s and completely rebuilt them. This company is now the supplier for these units. The only original parts are the frame and the truck assemblies. All the other components are brand new.
Automation Gallery
Superstar
Come on this is Canada not India, why retrofit junk, these RDCs should have been phased out 20 years ago. I guess when it comes to rail Canada still has a third world mentality. Hopefully (if for some reason we dont get the federal funds) the TTC does not start to retrofit the existing streetcars to last another 20-30 years.
unimaginative2
Senior Member
France still operates lots of cars and locomotives from the 1950s. These frames are in perfectly good condition. In a more environmentally-conscious age, I think it's great that we're reusing them rather than sending perfectly good equipment off to the scrapyard.
ShonTron
Moderator
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To be fair, the RDCs on the Malahat and Superior (I've rode both) are still kept in very good shape and required by VIA given limited funds. I really think the Malahat (Vancouver Island) deserves major refurbishment, have an second daily opposite run (commuter-based) with new modern DMU equipment (freight on the corridor is all but gone).
The Superior is a really neat service. VIA ran this as a remote service (and before CP) in order to minimize the number of stops the original Canadian transcontinental (which ran on CP, daily) had to do at signposts and mileposts, and survives the end of the transcontinental service on the route. The RDC-2 and RDC-4 run allow for canoes, supplies and sorts to reach really remote places not accessible by road (and towns like Chapleau). The RDC is still well suited to this.
But Blue 22, a super-premium service, is silly to use 60-year old cars refurbished. These would be ideal for trial rail service resumption to places like Peterborough and Sherbrooke.
The Superior is a really neat service. VIA ran this as a remote service (and before CP) in order to minimize the number of stops the original Canadian transcontinental (which ran on CP, daily) had to do at signposts and mileposts, and survives the end of the transcontinental service on the route. The RDC-2 and RDC-4 run allow for canoes, supplies and sorts to reach really remote places not accessible by road (and towns like Chapleau). The RDC is still well suited to this.
But Blue 22, a super-premium service, is silly to use 60-year old cars refurbished. These would be ideal for trial rail service resumption to places like Peterborough and Sherbrooke.
RedRocket191
Senior Member
Come on this is Canada not India, why retrofit junk, these RDCs should have been phased out 20 years ago. I guess when it comes to rail Canada still has a third world mentality. Hopefully (if for some reason we dont get the federal funds) the TTC does not start to retrofit the existing streetcars to last another 20-30 years.
Well, seeing as there are no North American-spec DMUs on the market today, it's either this, no improvements, or a 4200 hp diesel locomotives hauling two coaches when they are designed to pull eight.
Keep in mind that these railcars aren't really 50 years old. Every component accept for the frame and the trucks is brand new. If you styled a 2002 Malibu to look like a 57 Chevy it's still a 2002 Malibu.
DavidJamesTO
Active Member
They've been rebuilt twice--once in the 70s or 80s when the bench seats were replaced with reclining seats and again about five or ten years ago. Should be interesting to see what they do with these new ones, should they exist. Are any of them the RDCs that have been parked in Mimico for the last few years?
Do the Renaissance cars ever go west of Toronto? I've never seen them in person except in the maintenance yard.
DavidJamesTO
Active Member
And it turns out there is a domestic DMU maker after all. American Railcar Company bought the designs for the Colorad Railcar DMUs.
http://amrailco.com/
http://www.amrailco.com/documents/ARC-Brochure.pdf
A couple were purchased by transit agencies in the US before Colorado Railcar went bust. Hopefully VIA's paying attention and will buy some of these, putting the rebuilt RDCs into off-peak service or use them for trial services on currently unserved lines.
http://amrailco.com/
http://www.amrailco.com/documents/ARC-Brochure.pdf
A couple were purchased by transit agencies in the US before Colorado Railcar went bust. Hopefully VIA's paying attention and will buy some of these, putting the rebuilt RDCs into off-peak service or use them for trial services on currently unserved lines.
RedRocket191
Senior Member
This is good, as it's always a good thing when a product with potential lives on. I'm not sure if you could consider the service pattern that VIA runs to be divisible into peak and off-peak. The VIA of today just isn't that kind of service. It's more like an airline, where the definition of peak and off-peak is very different. The problem with serving unserved lines is that there are very very few of them left in Ontario. The current network serves most of the major towns in Southern Ontario, and most of the other railways are either parallel mainlines or industrial spurs that aren't suitable for passenger service without significant upgrades.
Having said that, I would welcome and encourage those upgrades!
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allabootmatt
Senior Member
If refurbed RDCs are what we got then, well, whatever.
What I would like to see VIA do immediately--and it would cost nothing, or perhaps even save money--is scrap its absurd airport-style boarding procedures. Having passengers stand in massive queues that snake through Union Station while they wait for the sacred doors to the platform to open is a ridiculous waste of time, space, and staff.
Somehow every country in Europe manages to have stations where passengers make their own way to the platform and find their own carriage, even (gasp!) when there are more trains than just theirs using it. In most places you can literally show up 30 seconds before departure, without a ticket, and still get on. If VIA wants to promote itself as a low-hassle alternative to air travel, than there are huge time savings to be had at the boarding end.
What I would like to see VIA do immediately--and it would cost nothing, or perhaps even save money--is scrap its absurd airport-style boarding procedures. Having passengers stand in massive queues that snake through Union Station while they wait for the sacred doors to the platform to open is a ridiculous waste of time, space, and staff.
Somehow every country in Europe manages to have stations where passengers make their own way to the platform and find their own carriage, even (gasp!) when there are more trains than just theirs using it. In most places you can literally show up 30 seconds before departure, without a ticket, and still get on. If VIA wants to promote itself as a low-hassle alternative to air travel, than there are huge time savings to be had at the boarding end.
unimaginative2
Senior Member
I couldn't agree more, allabootmatt! Part of the problem is that we have the typically Canadian approach of just enough capacity to be completely full. In Europe, trains almost always have some spare seating so that even without reserved seats, couples and groups are able to sit together. I think that VIA should move to a reserved seating system on most of its trains. It would prevent passengers in groups from having to line up. If we wanted to get high-tech about it, we could even have a mixture of reserved and unreserved seating, perhaps by car.
waterloowarrior
Senior Member
VIA has a new website design.. haven't explored it yet but it looks pretty nice so far. I like how you can use a map to see information on the train and timetables
http://www.viarail.ca/
http://www.viarail.ca/
nfitz
Superstar
It might look better, but it seems more unusable than ever.
It was painful enough previously to find the PDF of the schedules. But now you have to go to a page for each route, and open the schedule; and then start again to get the return trips! And yet again to check a connecting train.
Hmm ... only 2 trains a day to Kitchener now? When did that cut happen? I thought they had added a 3rd train? The first Kitchener to Toronto train now leaves at 9:19 AM and gets in at 11:05 AM! There used to be one that left early ... 7:15 or so.
It was painful enough previously to find the PDF of the schedules. But now you have to go to a page for each route, and open the schedule; and then start again to get the return trips! And yet again to check a connecting train.
Hmm ... only 2 trains a day to Kitchener now? When did that cut happen? I thought they had added a 3rd train? The first Kitchener to Toronto train now leaves at 9:19 AM and gets in at 11:05 AM! There used to be one that left early ... 7:15 or so.
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