dowlingm
Senior Member
In the interview he said the new reservia went in and nobody noticed because there were so few problems… by which he presumably means “didn’t make any of the newspapers that the minister’s office takes clippings from”
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VIA Rail
- Thread starter ehlow
- Start date
micheal_can
Senior Member
With all the problems the various transportation projects have had, it was one of the most problem free thing. I feel that is what he meant.
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Superstar
Sneaky Venture / Canadian at Willowbrook last night from a friend:
Bojaxs
Senior Member
As more Siemens venture sets become operational, is that going to free up more of the older locomotives for VIA? Are we going to see more of the older trains having dual locomotives on each end?
dowlingm
Senior Member
Theoretically yes, but this may depend on the intended tempo of the F40 re-re-build program, the impact of the F40s damaged in BC (impact) and ON (fire) lately, and how urgently the P42s need to be sent to pasture. The additional loco will also impact axle count charges and fuel usage so may not make sense on all services.
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Superstar
The Canadian one damaged in BC - is that able to be fixed? Or is that now just out of service? It punctured the fuel tank, if I remember correctly.
Urban Sky
Senior Member
I’d assume that the question is less whether it can be fixed than whether th ressources (funding, material, parts, labour) to fix a 40-year-old locomotive are being made available…
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micheal_can
Senior Member
Considering that the plan is they are the ones being kept,not the P40s, one would hope they have the parts to fix them.
SamStar
New Member
New Radio-Canada interview with Martin Imbleau, CEO of VIA TGF/HFR. In French.
Frank_Lee
Active Member
For what it's worth, took two Amtrak trips in the past week, and while it was pleasant to move on electrified trains at higher speeds, Via's cleanliness and customer service is clearly superior.
Frank_Lee
Active Member
That is to say, we clearly have been doing something right. If only Government would stop standing on Via's neck...
robmausser
Senior Member
IMO that applies to almost everything when comparing the USA to Canada.
cplchanb
Senior Member
that is honestly a very LOW bar to gloat on. Amtrak isnt exactly the pillar of amazing or pristine service. N American passenger rail in general lags behind even some african and south asian countries when it comes to service/cleanliness
lead82
Senior Member
Agreed. Let’s compare us to the UK or France. Our VIA system is a disgrace. Even compare us to Australia which has a similar development level and had much better rail system.
dowlingm
Senior Member
Can we not with this. We are comparing entire countries to an individual inter-regional operator. Within those countries there will be operators who provide good service and those that do not, and in other situations where the same operator may have better stations than VIA and worse on train service or vice versa. Whatever about France and Australia, whose systems I don’t follow closely, it is not hard to find examples of where some UK train operators do a pretty awful job.
There is a desire to justify what is wanted by a national rail system by virtue to what other nations have. Other nations have more favourable ownership environments or treat rail as a “national champion” or are fortunate in their geography. Canada suffers from having quite different needs in different parts of the same country, and therefore in creating a national strategy which won’t immediately be attacked by those who don’t benefit from it, or if they did benefit from it just dislike national public services on spec. We can’t even refurbish the residence of the leader of our Parliament without it being decried as waste and a favour to a politician others dislike. We can’t even get consensus here, a self selecting group interested in transportation and infrastructure. How the hell are we going to get a step change to a Shinkansen at the end of every laneway?
The answer is - we can’t, and shouldn’t fool ourselves. We had an opportunity with HFR to spend politically achievable sums on gradually reinforcing the part of VIA’s network that really worked, a 100mph core that might become 125 in spots, with add-ons like the north Shore and Peterborough.
And then, someone put a spoke in the wheel with this P3 business, VIA’s 32 trainsets and options for 16 because just 32 trainsets and any expansion was deemed someone else’s responsibility, and that someone then said “HSR! Tens of billions!” and the result is we are unlikely to see any material improvement in the next 20 years any more than we did in the last 30.