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VIA Rail
- Thread starter ehlow
- Start date
Urban Sky
Senior Member
Gosh, I’m glad you asked, because I erroneously believed that they had been somehow inherited from SEPTA of Pennsylvania (which of course never really made sense to me)! Thankfully, my 2015 Trackside Guide educates me better:
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Bordercollie
Senior Member
I guess this is different from the program that was cancelled? At least they are doing something to keep them running.
smallspy
Senior Member
Yes and no. Yes in that the specs for what is being done is different. But no in that these cars were allocated to the contract that was supposed to be done - and then cancelled - by Bombardier.
Dan
roger1818
Senior Member
Thanks! So referring back to VIA's website, I am guessing these are the stainless-steel cars (minus number 8136) "acquired secondhand from various railroads in the United States to augment the fleet." This is based on the assumption that cars numbered 8100-8129 were the 30 cars "built in the 1950s for use by the CPR on their Canadian and Dominion trains."
EDIT: Looking at the attachment again, it says exactly that, though it seems like number 8128 (formerly #128) had been retired prior to VIA acquiring them.
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roger1818
Senior Member
I remember seeing a notice about this cancelled project, but I can no longer find a link. Does anyone else have it?
crs1026
Superstar
crs1026
Superstar
Here it is, back at message #7230 in this thread
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- Paul
Bombardier La Pocatière perd un contrat de 54 millions
Ce contrat devait fournir du travail à environ 80 employés de l'usine de La Pocatière.
ici.radio-canada.ca
- Paul
cplchanb
Senior Member
i honestly think this is a good thing as it forced Via to accept the reality that their ancient relics are not suitable for today's railroads. I look
forward to their announcement of the non corridor fleet of trains.
Urban Sky
Senior Member
Agreed, but that doesn’t mean that it’s strategically sensible to distract the government with any non-Corridor fleet renewal proposals before they have made their final decision on HFR...
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roger1818
Senior Member
I saw that, but it is pretty vague, all it really says is, "it is no longer reasonable to expect an extended service life from the Budd manufactured rolling stock equipment."
Here it is, back at message #7230 in this thread
Bombardier La Pocatière perd un contrat de 54 millions
Ce contrat devait fournir du travail à environ 80 employés de l'usine de La Pocatière.ici.radio-canada.ca
Thanks. That helped me find more articles, though it seems as though only the French media picked up on the story. I was sure I saw a report in English, but maybe I was mistaken (my French is poor unfortunately). Using Google Translate, this report says, "Unexpected technical problems due to the age and condition of some cars led to a reassessment of the work."
While I don't disagree, as @Urban Sky said, VIA doesn't want this to be a distraction from corridor upgrades. Also, the size of the non-corridor fleet is substantial (I estimate over 250 cars) and replacing it would not be cheap, especially with VIA saying they would need to grow the fleet to maintain desired service frequencies. I wouldn't be surprised if when VIA does propose to replace it, there is a reckoning, and the government makes the decision to cut service, to reduce the size of the order.
robmausser
Senior Member
We will never get a fleet replacement of the Canadian. The only thing that will ever happen to that will be its eventual selling off to someone like Rocky Mountaineer as a tourist train.
Replacing that money pit with a new fleet would be political suicide.
Darwinkgo
Active Member
Can bury a whole fleet replacement for the long distance trains into an efficiency package once CN and CP have decided a direction for net-zero performance. You can pay for a lot of equipment from operating funds when your alternative is $170 a tonne of GHG charges.
crs1026
Superstar
I thought that was at least candid, and positions the discussion leaving no doubt should anyone in the bureaucracy or political arenas suggest that VIA just put its head in the sand and muddle on.
As noted, this is not the right timing for VIA to make a proposal. But it's worthwhile getting on record (and generally accepted) that a decision must be made before too long. No surprises.
I'm not optimistic that even a token order will ever happen. There may be political pressure to recognise other provinces' interests, but that doesn't imply that the long distance trains will be competitive for public appetite when the "next billion" is available. ROI on things like Edmonton-Calgary HFR will be raised in comparison.
The best we can hope for is for VIA to be allowed to put forward an honest business proposal, laying out costs and opportunities with objective data that is free of political fudging. And then let that debate go where it will. If HFR is built on time and on budget, and gets favourable reception, who knows what's next.
- Paul
trebello
New Member
I think it would be more politically challenging to cancel The Canadian than order new rolling stock. HFR and The Corridor in general are obviously where VIA needs to focus on expansion, but I think cancelling The Canadian because the government didn't want to replace the rolling stock would open a whole can of worms politically. Hopefully they can keep going with the Budd equipment long enough that they're able to get the investment in HFR going without any drama regarding expanding service in Quebec and Ontario while possibly discontinuing it in the west. I think the subtle deal with rail service in this country is VIA maintains a skeletal service from coast to coast and people don't complain (too much) that most of the service is concentrated in Ontario and Quebec (where it makes the most economic sense).