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VIA Rail

kEiThZ said:
Bids for fleet renewal were supposed to close October 5th. Any word if they closed or extended? And has anybody seen a tentative timeline on bid eval and contract award?
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Given that this is a competitive bidding process, I would assume that it is difficult to change the date without risking a legal battle with any non-successful bidder and any week lost before the final design is approved is an additional week before the new fleet arrives. I'd also assume that once the bids have been reviewed, a final decision will have to be approved by VIA's Board of Directors and, of course, the Federal government before it can be announced. Unfortunately, I can't comment on any timeline before I have seen one published...
 
I really hope they move on to replacing the reservation system soon after they deal with the fleet replacement. Every ticket counter agent I've spoken to hates it because it's so slow, and whenever I bring up the new reservation system they say something along the lines of "in my day people respected deadlines, now they just keep moving them back".
 
Urban Sky said:
Given that this is a competitive bidding process, I would assume that it is difficult to change the date
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What I meant was that I'd not heard or seen anything. Sometimes, you get a presser for something big saying, "Bids are closed. xyz submitted and we are reviewing all the bids. Decision by ...." I thought maybe I missed a change of bid deadline somewhere.

Urban Sky said:
I'd also assume that once the bids have been reviewed, a final decision will have to be approved by VIA's Board of Directors and, of course, the Federal government before it can be announced. Unfortunately, I can't comment on any timeline before I have seen one published...
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I haven't seen any timeline either. I figure they'll want to announce this at budget time or shortly after. Any idea how complicated these bids are and what VIA's capacity for bid eval is? Does VIA take 6 weeks or 6 months for such large bids normally?
 
kEiThZ said:
I haven't seen any timeline either. I figure they'll want to announce this at budget time or shortly after. Any idea how complicated these bids are and what VIA's capacity for bid eval is? Does VIA take 6 weeks or 6 months for such large bids normally?
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The notional timeline is in Appendix A of this document. It set an RFP deadline of Sept-Oct leading to RFP award and commercial close in December.

Given that the RFP closed in October, I'd guess we are still basically on track. However, I can't imagine that the award would just be made, without a trip to Treasury Board, and Cabinet, and.....

- Paul
 
crs1026 said:
The notional timeline is in Appendix A of this document. It set an RFP deadline of Sept-Oct leading to RFP award and commercial close in December.

Given that the RFP closed in October, I'd guess we are still basically on track. However, I can't imagine that the award would just be made, without a trip to Treasury Board, and Cabinet, and.....

- Paul
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Dunno how VIA works, but in the military/DND, we sought Treasury Board and Cabinet approval before RFP. The MC was required before you even put out the RFP.

Thanks for the link! I can see on there that it says RFP Award and Commercial Close Target Date are December 2018. That would imply an announcement before the new year. They could also award the RFP and negotiate the close without actually making an announcement till politically advantageous. So who knows. But I'm happy to see that timeline.
 
kEiThZ said:
Dunno how VIA works, but in the military/DND, we sought Treasury Board and Cabinet approval before RFP. The MC was required before you even put out the RFP.
.
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I don’t have any specific knowledge of VIA’s process, but would assume it is similar to what you describe. Of course, sometimes there may be snags.... such as if all the bids exceed whatever envelope VIA has been given, or all the bids are noncompliant in some way, or some lobbying faction or parochial MP attempts to tip the scales outside of due process.
Hopefully the RFQ stage weeded out any political concerns, all bidders are equally acceptable to the decisionmakers, and VIA is free to award the contract on merit to whatever vendor makes the best bid. In Ottawa, one can’t assume that, but let’s stay optimistic.

- Paul
 
littlewill1166 said:
I really hope they move on to replacing the reservation system soon after they deal with the fleet replacement. Every ticket counter agent I've spoken to hates it because it's so slow, and whenever I bring up the new reservation system they say something along the lines of "in my day people respected deadlines, now they just keep moving them back".
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Some publicly available information on this subject:
WEB & BOOKING
1. Why can the booking system not allow a passenger to select their preferred seat and their preferred meal -at least the preferred 'type' - especially when booking in Business Class? When will you update your internet booking application to allow for seat selection? When will we be able to select our own seats? Why can’t customers see the available seats and select their seat when booking? When booking a train, why isn’t the option available to select your seat online? Are you going to allow Business Class clients to select their own seats?

Due to the limitations of our current reservation system, seat selection is not yet available when booking online. However, we have initiated the process to replace our reservation system which will make it possible for us to offer this long-awaited functionality. The new reservation system is expected in 2020. This question was also answered during the Annual Public Meeting, which can be watched on VIA Rail’s YouTube channel.
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Source: VIA Rail - 2018 ANNUAL PUBLIC MEETING QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS – Part 2

VIA Rail New Reservation System

kEiThZ said:
Dunno how VIA works, but in the military/DND, we sought Treasury Board and Cabinet approval before RFP. The MC was required before you even put out the RFP.
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As far as I understand, VIA Rail's status as a "non-agent" crown corporation means that it doesn't have any power to enter into a contract involving capital expenditure on its own. Signing such a contract without the signature of the minister might be as legally binding as a thirteen year old signing a contract at a car dealership. The government needs to commit the money and therefore they have to know and confirm the exact contract value (which is presumably not known when approving the RFP) when giving the green light. However, approval was also required before releasing the RFP and you might recall that there was a budget announcement which preceded the RFP...

In any case, all I can say regarding the progress of both projects is that I haven't heard any indication that they are behind their respective timelines at this point...
 
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Allandale25 said:
Churchill update.

Video of the first train arriving: http://bit.ly/2P3vaZT

Live video of the press conference with the PM (via FB): http://bit.ly/2yKEwzr
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Congrats to Churchill, that's wonderful news. I also like how this is a new (partially) indigenous-owned railway, joining the Tshiuetin (Nfld) and Keewatin (QC) Railways; owned by the community that it will serve.

I wonder what the port of Churchill will be used for? I think the grain elevators won't be needed, since the Wheat Board is gone and most of our wheat exports goes to the USA, or out via Pacific or Atlantic ports. Coal or bitumen would be possible, but there's environmental concerns with the latter, and I'd say weight concerns for the rail bed on the former.

So, will VIA resume service summer 2019?
 
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Urban Sky said:
As far as I understand, VIA Rail's status as a "non-agent" crown corporation means that it doesn't have any power to enter into a contract involving capital expenditure on its own. Signing such a contract without the signature of the minister might be as legally binding as a thirteen year old signing a contract at a car dealership. The government needs to commit the money and therefore they have to know and confirm the exact contract value (which is presumably not known when approving the RFP) when giving the green light. However, approval was also required before releasing the RFP and you might recall that there was a budget announcement which preceded the RFP...
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Budget announcements are for public consumption. They have exactly zero impact inside the bureaucracy. The actual budget and its allocations (Vote 1, Vote 5, etc.) is what matters. VIA isn't really any different than any other government department in this regard. No government department or agency can create liability for the crown on a whim.

Every government department and agency does some variation of the following steps:

1) Memorandum to Cabinet. Explains your policy and provides support from other departments. Aside from your own department/agency minister, you need procurement and industry for anything big.

2) Treasury Board submission. Identifies support from cabinet and identifies the funds that can be committed and seeks action from the TB to release/commit those funds.

3) Execution. Be that RFP, RFQ, ITT, whatever the process you proposed to PSPC and industrial strategy (IRBs, offsets, etc.) you got agreement on before the MC.

The powerpoint here is a good explanation of the process:

http://www.fmi.ca/media/423625/Samantha-Tattersall-Eng-presentation-may-22-2014.pptx

So with that in mind, VIA is actually on part 3, so extending an RFP might not be a big deal. We've done it on much bigger procurements. This is why I was wondering if VIA actually closed the RFP or whether they extended. But no news is good new I suppose.

Edit:. Wanted to add a link showing how the budget allocates:

https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-b...government-spending/budgets-expenditures.html
 
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Citizen rail advocates see CN takeover of SW Ontario line as trouble for VIA

CN released no details about the take-back, but rumours swirl about CN using the single-track Guelph Subdivision as a freight relief route for its doubletrack line, also used by VIA, from London to Toronto via Burlington and Brampton
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We've heard this before, that CN may route freight (including double stack) along the London-Stratford-Kitchener segment it owns. In a railfanning group on Facebook that I am in, someone posted a massive pile of new ties in Stratford, for a pending CN track upgrade. If a limited number of freights were run every day, these track upgrades could be beneficial to VIA.
 
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