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Sounds like you got the old trains - which are in their final months of service as VIA replaces them and as such understandably are in rough shape and with no incentive for VIA to invest in repairs. The new ones are much nicer.
Yes it was just so shocking. I visited Poland last month. Prior to that I was there 10 years ago. The rail investment was night and day. All intercity trains had been upgraded to modern stock. The railways have been rebuild with welded rail and concrete ties. The trains ran a consistent 160km/h or faster if you take a high-speed line. 10 years ago in poland the railways were literally falling apart and the rolling stock was in worse condition than in canada.
Give it 6-12 months.
Seems an odd time to say this, given that the all-new rolling stock is all constructed, if not already here.
Surely 7th ... it depends if you count India as a pluralist liberal democracy, and representative government, which would make us 8th. Poland is closer to 15th.
Via is in the process of upgrading their entire corridor fleet to modern rolling stock with excellent ride quality, solid build quality, good sound isolation and a top speed of 200 km/h.
Nearly the entire Via Corridor network has continuously welded rail. The only exception I'm aware of is the line from London to Kitchener. Metrolinx has already switched to using concrete ties in new construction, but I don't think CN or Via use them yet.
In the absence of CN messing around with their crossing restrictions, trains can pretty consistently cruise at 140 km/h or faster, with fairly consistent 160 km/h running northeast of Brockville. Taking a quick scan of Poland, it appears our speed limits are roughly the same as theirs. Most mainlines in Poland have a speed limit of 160, with slowdowns to 100-150 in curves and urban areas. In the Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal triangle it's typically a limit of 153 km/h with slowdowns to 97-137 km/h in curves and urban areas.
Yes we have a ton of problems (easily the worst Intercity rail in the G7 - orders of magnitude worse than any of the others besides the US) but let's be accurate about what the problems actually are.
more likely that VIA just runs a longer train on an existing service if enough US passengers are connecting beyond Windsor.
What is DXS? Is that 2XS / XS-J?
I can confirm it's not continuous welded rail (Ottawa to Brockville), as i rode the train and saw the tracks (dual tracked areas). The ride quality was poor and the train broke down in Brockville as it was a piece of trash. Train 47 Ottawa to Toronto (Oct 27 1220 hrs departure train). Now the new train sets I rode once before and enjoyed, but there were supposed have all the stock replaced by this summer which was clearly not the case. Also 1 hour delay as VIA began missing their assigned blocks on CN and Metrolinx tracks. You may say not their fault, but VIA decided to deploy a train that was unfit for service.
That WAS all CWR. I haven't felt bolted track when travelling since the early 1980s (well - and on TTC streetcars until they finally finished Dundas in the 2000s).
yes but VIA consistently misses their assigned blocks and then it cascades into delays over an hour. The freight companies have these blocks assigned to VIA, VIA just fails to travel through them at the assigned time. For example travelled Toronto to London last year. The train departed 10 mins late, why because the crew was still boarding people. SO they missed their block to exit union station as GO trains were entering the station. 10 mins delay. Once at Aldershot it was stopped once again. Missed the assigned block and freight trains were now travelling through the switches, 30 mins delay. VIA is in an unfortunate position that they dont have priority. BUT that means VIA must be very disciplined in there departures and scheduling. The view that freight companies purposely block VIA trains and its not VIA's fault is bogus.
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