News   Mar 28, 2024
 1K     2 
News   Mar 28, 2024
 562     2 
News   Mar 28, 2024
 851     0 

VIA Rail

If there was an Amtrak order I would like to see VIA cooperate on, it is one for new generation Superliners for west-of-Toronto to replace the legacy single level stock. The Midwest Bilevel order might have formed a basis for that, except for Nippon Sharyo's cratering that project and it being switched to single-levels.
The thing is that people literally take the Canadian for the Budd coaches and their historical significance. The Canadian isn't the Canadian without them.
 
The thing is that people literally take the Canadian for the Budd coaches and their historical significance. The Canadian isn't the Canadian without them.

I won't dispute that, but I have a ticket right now to take the Canadian in December to visit my parents for Christmas. I don't really care about riding in a Budd coach and I'd be fine with taking a modern coach and having the Budds reassigned to a route like the Sudbury-White River that sees less ridership and where they're more appropriate. The Canadian can't just be a tourist train.
 
I won't dispute that, but I have a ticket right now to take the Canadian in December to visit my parents for Christmas. I don't really care about riding in a Budd coach and I'd be fine with taking a modern coach and having the Budds reassigned to a route like the Sudbury-White River that sees less ridership and where they're more appropriate. The Canadian can't just be a tourist train.
In all honesty, you'd probably have a better experience in a Budd than a newer coach even if you aren't a railfan. Those things are built extremely well.
 
I imagine -- despite being a (mild) railfan, I've never taken a Budd before, just because of my geography. I've heard about their reputation. I'm in a lot of Via groups and see the genuine appeal of tourism along the line, but I also wish point-A-to-point-B infrastructural ridership was taken a bit more seriously, and destinations along the Canadian route weren't "touristified" when one of them is my hometown. There's certainly room for both.
 
I won't dispute that, but I have a ticket right now to take the Canadian in December to visit my parents for Christmas. I don't really care about riding in a Budd coach and I'd be fine with taking a modern coach and having the Budds reassigned to a route like the Sudbury-White River that sees less ridership and where they're more appropriate. The Canadian can't just be a tourist train.

I don't have the stats to back me up, but I get the sense that tourism (i.e. riding the route for its own sake), both domestic and international, is the backbone of Canadian ridership and, possibly to a lesser extent the Ocean. I think if it had to depend on inter-community traffic it would have died or be in some other trundling form years ago.
 
I won't dispute that, but I'm also someone who believes that the fundamental function of transportation infrastructure should be to help transport people first and foremost. The only reason I got a Canadian economy ticket was because it was priced the same as a Northland coach ticket due to a sale, and those simply shouldn't be competitive for a 5+ hour journey. It feels like regular passenger transportation gets offloaded to cheaper coaches while Via Rail pursues higher-priced tourist tickets that don't realistically serve any of the destinations it stops at. Sudbury Junction isn't even a real station, yet Sudbury is a major Ontario Northland hub -- the disconnect is palpable.
 
I won't dispute that, but I have a ticket right now to take the Canadian in December to visit my parents for Christmas. I don't really care about riding in a Budd coach and I'd be fine with taking a modern coach and having the Budds reassigned to a route like the Sudbury-White River that sees less ridership and where they're more appropriate. The Canadian can't just be a tourist train.
CN categorizes it as a tourist train and that's the reason it's always delayed.
 
A case in point for why passenger services in Canada will never get anywhere unless either the freight lines are nationalized, or passenger-specific lines are created to cut freight out of the equation.
 
They did renovate the HEP2s to have the same interior as the LRCs (although they're just as bumpy as before), and the HEP1s are great to sleep in.
I recall someone saying about Ocean that while the Rens weren’t the same interior experience as the HEPs that the suspensions were a damn sight better.

If Rocky Mountaineer feel they can go get new double decks from Stadler without messing with the tourist experience, I think VIA could manage it.
 
A case in point for why passenger services in Canada will never get anywhere unless either the freight lines are nationalized, or passenger-specific lines are created to cut freight out of the equation.
STB like public oversight of train delays would be a start. The US setup is inadequate as a solution but at least the numbers are published.
 
CN categorizes it as a tourist train and that's the reason it's always delayed.

No, they don't.

The reason why its so delayed is because there simply isn't enough capacity on CN's lines. CN's own trains are subject to the same delays as the Canadian is. It just happens to be more obvious as the freight doesn't have a Twitter account.

I recall someone saying about Ocean that while the Rens weren’t the same interior experience as the HEPs that the suspensions were a damn sight better.

-ish.

The Rens are far more variable within each car. The 4 bedrooms in the middle of each car are butter-smooth. The 4 directly over the trucks are far, far worse.

I have ridden some HEP cars that were in dire need of suspension work, and my sleep suffered because of it. But I've also been in cars with freshly-overhauled trucks and the ride was light-years better than the tired cars.

If Rocky Mountaineer feel they can go get new double decks from Stadler without messing with the tourist experience, I think VIA could manage it.

In fairness, RMR gave Stadler the blueprints to the cars and said "build these". And they did. Most of us would be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the new cars and the older ones.

Dan
 

Back
Top