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VIA Rail

Allandale25 said:
Post by Transport Action cc @TerryJohnson

www.transportaction.ca

Long distance train fleet replacement RFI issued

VIA Rail Canada has posted a Request for Information for Long Distance Regional and Remote Fleet Replacement, a significant step toward securing a suitable replacement for VIA's legacy stainless-steel train fleet, originally built for Canadian Pacific in 1955, which has been the backbone of...
www.transportaction.ca www.transportaction.ca
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It would be nice if they kept the stainless steel look with the new fleet.
 
Bordercollie said:
VIA should just contract out the service to a bus company or to GO transit.
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Why would the federal government want VIA to do this? At the same time, nobody prevents the province of Ontario and the cities affected from contracting such a service…
 
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Urban Sky said:
Why would the federal government want VIA to do this? At the same time, nobody prevents the province of Ontario and the cities affected from contracting such a service…
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I don't think the affected cities are going to do anything until VIA comes back with a firm yes/no. It's going to be a waste of money to do preliminary work for a replacement service if randomly VIA comes back and says 651 is coming back.

VIA's strategy is very unpredictable. This unpredictability negatively impacts its riders and the communities it serves. For example, in September I said:
littlewill1166 said:
I acknowledge the constraints VIA is under, but the lack of advance notice to the frequent changes to those products isn't very conducive to retaining long term frequent riders. For example the new midweeker pass has a last possible travel date of February 2, 2023. Someone who buys this pass and plans on using VIA long term has no idea if they'll be able to continue using this pass in the future or budget their travel costs beyond this date with any reasonable certainty.
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The midweek pass is now gone.

It's not just a VIA Rail problem, these delay/deny communications tactics have gotten increasingly worse in the public transit space.
I don't get why public transit agencies have been getting progressively more and more opaque over recent years. These (some more than others) are publicly funded services owned by the public. I think the public and riders would be more understanding if these agencies were more open about what's happening rather than delaying/denying and pretending that everything is roses and butterflies in press releases.
 
Allandale25 said:
Post by Transport Action cc @TerryJohnson

www.transportaction.ca

Long distance train fleet replacement RFI issued

VIA Rail Canada has posted a Request for Information for Long Distance Regional and Remote Fleet Replacement, a significant step toward securing a suitable replacement for VIA's legacy stainless-steel train fleet, originally built for Canadian Pacific in 1955, which has been the backbone of...
www.transportaction.ca www.transportaction.ca
Click to expand...

It will be interesting to see if this purchase gets funded. I'm not holding my breath. I expect that the replacement long distance fleet will cost twice as much as the replacement corridor fleet, possibly more with inflation.

Bordercollie said:
It would be nice if they kept the stainless steel look with the new fleet.
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While it might be nice, there are other considerations that are more important IMHO (modern and comfortable accommodations for one and some type of scenic dome for another).
 
roger1818 said:
It will be interesting to see if this purchase gets funded. I'm not holding my breath. I expect that the replacement long distance fleet will cost twice as much as the replacement corridor fleet, possibly more with inflation.



While it might be nice, there are other considerations that are more important IMHO (modern and comfortable accommodations for one and some type of scenic dome for another).
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not to mention youre going full on custom design which will add another billion to the price tag.
 
cplchanb said:
not to mention youre going full on custom design which will add another billion to the price tag.
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I don’t think that is unavoidable, as long as you can fit the kind of amenities you envision into a regular car shell (so, say bye-bye to panorama cars). How well such modern designs would fare in the harsh clinate of Northern Manitoba is a different question, of course…
 
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Urban Sky said:
I don’t think that is unavoidable, as long as you can fit the kind of amenities you envision into a regular car shell (so, say bye-bye to panorama cars). How well such modern designs would fare in the harsh clinate of Northern Manitoba is a different question, of course…
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i meant the corrugated sides. no off the shelf trains have that these days.
 
Urban Sky said:
I don’t think that is unavoidable, as long as you can fit the kind of amenities you envision into a regular car shell (so, say bye-bye to panorama cars). How well such modern designs would fare in the harsh clinate of Northern Manitoba is a different question, of course…
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There are off the shelf Panorama cars. Rocky Mountaineer uses them.
 
robmausser said:
There are off the shelf Panorama cars. Rocky Mountaineer uses them.
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Those were made by collorado rail car and they are out of business. Unless you mean the Stadler cars. Are they maintained at VMC? If that is the case then at least they are familiar with them.
 
The feasibility of VIA buying new dome cars depends, in part, if Amtrak is also interested in buying some. Given difficulties in making them accessible (even for those traveling through the car), I suspect that, as much as I would like them, they won't be feasible though.
 
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