VIA Rail

[cplchanb]

I just thought this was an interesting post from VIA highlighting the age of the long distance fleet given recent news.

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It's actually hilarious that their own PR team is mocking their own company. Have a 70 year old fleet as your mainline national railroad is not something to really boast about. It means that we are either cheap, dysfunctional or draconian. Either way it paints us in a negative spotlight especially when we want to attract new riders.

These miracles are legit miracles since many of these dinosaurs apart from the carbodies are rotting away inside and out

 

[cplchanb]

So.... if you are suggesting that the LD enterprise be taken away from VIA and Ottawa..... whose money would you suggest will fund the new fleet?

Seems to me VIA is doing exactly the right thing..... ie speaking up now, not waiting for permission to do so.....while there is still time to make the decision before time runs out.

- Paul

They'll find the money better than relying on the shifting tides of the political spectrum. We saw what happened in the decade of darkness, it can easily come again with PP.

Youre praising them for being late.They should've spoken up 10 years ago instead of going for more rehab after another rehab. Now when the situation is critical then they're paniking. I guess it's better than never speaking up but seriously it's unacceptable that our national carrier dates back to the Korean war. When India, morroco and other so called third world countries have newer rolling stock than us there is no excuse

 

[crs1026]

Youre praising them for being late.They should've spoken up 10 years ago instead of going for more rehab after another rehab.

This from VIA's 2015 Annual Report. Their commentaries have become more pointed over the past decade.

- Paul

 

[cplchanb]

This from VIA's 2015 Annual Report. Their commentaries have become more pointed over the past decade.

- Paul

Is that in reference to their national fleet or just the LD fleet? So they took care of the corridor fleet but is now leaving the LD and regional fleets behind

 

[crs1026]

Is that in reference to their national fleet or just the LD fleet? So they took care of the corridor fleet but is now leaving the LD and regional fleets behind

If you read VIA's Business Plans and Annual Reports for the last decade, (an exercise that I highly recommend before making off hand comments) they are pretty consistent in saying the whole fleet needed replacement. There was higher priority given to the Corridor fleet, based on its being closer to end of life, and lack of alternatives. Clearly the strategy was to do the Corridor first.

VIA has been pretty clear and consistent through this period that the LD fleet would last until 2035 with refurbishment, (there has been a Heritage fleet program on the books since about 2017, although not all of it got completed). So a decision has never been needed immediately, but clearly time is starting to run out.

BTW VIA has for at least the last decade had a Fleet Replacement subcommittee of their Board. I imagine the facts about the LD fleet have got lots of internal attention. Whether anyone in Parliament cared, is a different matter.

- Paul.

 

[Urban Sky]

Is that in reference to their national fleet or just the LD fleet? So they took care of the corridor fleet but is now leaving the LD and regional fleets behind

Would you mind differentiating more carefully between VIA and the federal government with its bureaucrats (i.e., the masters over VIA’s funding and fate)? As for VIA, it’s only natural that they first pressure/shame their shareholder into replacing the more urgent (LRCs are literally falling apart) and essential (only service group which generates a positive contribution towards its overheads), before they proceed to doing the same for their remaining fleet…

 

[smallspy]

Youre praising them for being late.They should've spoken up 10 years ago instead of going for more rehab after another rehab. Now when the situation is critical then they're paniking. I guess it's better than never speaking up but seriously it's unacceptable that our national carrier dates back to the Korean war. When India, morroco and other so called third world countries have newer rolling stock than us there is no excuse

VIA has been talking about the long distance fleet since the early 1980s.....that's more than 40 years by my count.

Just because you are ignorant of it doesn't mean that it hasn't been happening.

Dan

 

[cplchanb]

VIA has been talking about the long distance fleet since the early 1980s.....that's more than 40 years by my count.

Just because you are ignorant of it doesn't mean that it hasn't been happening.

Dan

that just makes it so much worse. all talk and no action... just like every govt... study study study but no spine to actually put the money down. the amount of money we wasted to keep these dinosaurs alive over these last 20 years probably is enough to pay for half of the new fleet in a timeline of our choosing. now we are scrambling which will inevitably lead to mistakes, cost creep and delays.

 

[lenaitch]

I swear you could take several of the recent posts are replace 'long distance VIA fleet' with Coast Guard fleet or CAF . . . well, just about anything.

People forget that a politicians long range planning is limited to the next writ.

 

[micheal_can]

I swear you could take several of the recent posts are replace 'long distance VIA fleet' with Coast Guard fleet or CAF . . . well, just about anything.

People forget that a politicians long range planning is limited to the next writ.

That is the sad reality of government procurement. They need the photo op of them beside that new piece of equipment to use in the next campaign.

 

[kEiThZ]

They should've spoken up 10 years ago instead of going for more rehab after another rehab.

What is so hard to understand about public servants having limits on what they can say and advocate for publicly?

 

[dowlingm]

I swear you could take several of the recent posts are replace 'long distance VIA fleet' with Coast Guard fleet or CAF . . . well, just about anything.

People forget that a politicians long range planning is limited to the next writ.

At least the Air Force got those shiny new-to-them A330s… albeit secondhand.

 

[crs1026]

What is so hard to understand about public servants having limits on what they can say and advocate for publicly?

I am no expert, but I would bet that a recommendation to spend a billion dollars on replacement railcars, and all the supporting documentation to that recommendation, has a certain amount of Ministerial privilege attached to it.

Arguably, the VIA Board is meeting its fiduciary duty by alerting government to the "imminent" need to act to ensure equipment availability. All the same, the recent VIA statements are pretty courageous given the expectation that Ministers be advised in private and not by "going public" with issues.

The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if government may even have approved the public disclosures. Certainly, it prevents the present government, and possibly a new one, from kicking the issue down the road or claiming this is all a big surprise.

I see the recent media coverage as very much a good thing.

- Paul

 

[PL1]

At least the Air Force got those shiny new-to-them A330s… albeit secondhand.

Actually it's 4 brand new, and 5 converted pre-owned A330s

 

[dowlingm]

Actually it's 4 brand new, and 5 converted pre-owned A330s

The pre owned are coming first though, isn’t that right?