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VIA Rail
- Thread starter ehlow
- Start date
tmlittle
Active Member
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.
Streety McCarface
Senior Member
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.
tmlittle
Active Member
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.
lenaitch
Senior Member
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.
tmlittle
Active Member
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.
littlewill1166
Active Member
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.
littlewill1166
Active Member
CN categorizes it as a tourist train and that's the reason it's always delayed.
tmlittle
Active Member
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.
dowlingm
Senior Member
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.
dowlingm
Senior Member
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.
p_xavier
Active Member
Or the Feds force the rail barons to put priority on passenger trains...
smallspy
Senior Member
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.
-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.
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
littlewill1166
Active Member
A CN retiree who sat next to me on the train told me they categorized it as a tourist train. He also told me that he takes the Canadian twice a year. Also CN's freight can't be as delayed because their trains are too long to sit on the short sidings that the Canadian has to sit on.
smallspy
Senior Member
And a friend of mine who happens to be the RTC chief in Toronto has shown me the paperwork and computer screens. The train is very clearly labelled "P001 - Passenger or P002 - Passenger". It's the same rating that they give all of GO's trains, and the runs on the Corridor.
As for CN's freights not getting delayed - why is it that trains were being parked outside of major terminals for 2 and 3 days at a time last winter then?
Just because the trains are too long for the majority of the sidings doesn't mean that they can't get held for meets. There are lots of other ways to do it, such as splitting trains, or holding them in yards and terminals.
Dan