VIA Rail

[bearcat]

It looks like CN's motion to strike VIA's judicial review has been rejected. CN did get somewhat of a win, with some of its crossing-warning material sent to Transport Canada remaining confidential. So February 25 in Montreal, VIA's application for judicial review that it brought before the court back on November 12 of last year will be heard in a one-day proceeding.

We'll see if the review will withstand CN's attempts to argue it's out of the Court's jurisdiction, whose evidence is more compelling, and what the direction from the Federal Court judge will be!

More of CN and VIA's affidavits now in this just-published post: http://tracksidetreasure.blogspot.com/2025/02/via-and-cn-in-federal-court-facts-part-2.html

It really sounds like VIA is fully at the mercy of CN

 

[crs1026]

The most encouraging thing in that writeup was a small aside somewhat related.

I don't know what issues stand between CN and VIA - but it is encouraging that they are headed to a third party for adjudication, rather than just accepting a standoff. This is how the law is intended to work. Hopefully there is a publicly-discoverable resolution or award.

CN's demand for confidentiality, and the positioning of the VIA-CN TSA as a "private agreement" is in my mind unjustified. We have commented in other threads about changes to the balance of negotiating power between railways and public operators. This is a legitimate first lever for Ottawa to apply as correction. VIA runs with public money, and the need to protect CN's alleged business interests is waaaay overstated.

- Paul

 

[Trackside_Treasure]

The most encouraging thing in that writeup was a small aside somewhat related.

View attachment 631177

I don't know what issues stand between CN and VIA - but it is encouraging that they are headed to a third party for adjudication, rather than just accepting a standoff. This is how the law is intended to work. Hopefully there is a publicly-discoverable resolution or award.

CN's demand for confidentiality, and the positioning of the VIA-CN TSA as a "private agreement" is in my mind unjustified. We have commented in other threads about changes to the balance of negotiating power between railways and public operators. This is a legitimate first lever for Ottawa to apply as correction. VIA runs with public money, and the need to protect CN's alleged business interests is waaaay overstated.

- Paul

In this 2017 CTA case, it was both CN and VIA wanted the TSA kept confidential. The Canada Transportation Act, S.C., 1996, c. 10, as amended (CTA) normally requires the disclosure of any agreement in its entirety. In this case, however, disclosure excluded the amounts to be paid to avoid irreparable harm to CN and VIA.

There is definitely something in the CN data sent to Transport Canada that is not meant to be public. Hmmm.

Watch for an upcoming Trackside Treasure blog post on the 2009 and 2023 versions of the TSA.

 

[micheal_can]

I am looking at doing a train trip between Toronto and Montreal at the beginning of March, on a weekday. Are there particular train numbers that tend to be more on time than others?

 

[Allandale25]

Article by Transport Action on fleet availability.

VIA Rail Struggling with Fleet Availability

One daily roundtrip between Ottawa and Toronto and some weekend departures have been cut from VIA Rail’s schedule at least until at least March 2025 as the company struggles with fleet availability. Caught between the need to retire its legacy corridor fleet, including life-expired LRC cars, and...

www.transportaction.ca

 

[Allandale25]

Covers the Sudbury-White River trip on the RDCs.

BACK ROADS BILL: Take the winter train, part 1

This week, in part one, of two installments, Bill does a repeat on the Budd car – a train ride through a winter wonderland and more

www.timminstoday.com

 

[Bordercollie]

Article by Transport Action on fleet availability.

VIA Rail Struggling with Fleet Availability

One daily roundtrip between Ottawa and Toronto and some weekend departures have been cut from VIA Rail’s schedule at least until at least March 2025 as the company struggles with fleet availability. Caught between the need to retire its legacy corridor fleet, including life-expired LRC cars, and...

www.transportaction.ca

I guess they can't bring back the ren set to the corridor to fill the gap?

There are no additional HEP equipment?

 

[Urban Sky]

I guess they can't bring back the ren set to the corridor to fill the gap?

The former Corridor Renaissance sets won’t return to Corridor service, as they are required to donate parts to support the Ocean until the new Long-Distance Fleet finally arrives.

There are no additional HEP equipment?

Everything which is available already operates.

 

[micheal_can]

The former Corridor Renaissance sets won’t return to Corridor service, as they are required to donate parts to support the Ocean until the new Long-Distance Fleet finally arrives.

Everything which is available already operates.

So, did they screw themselves over by not waiting till the last Siemens set arrived before retiring the Ren cars? Everyone knows with new equipment there will be teathing issues. Had they just parked them, ready to be used again, maybe this wouldn't have played out this way. These things are where I sometimes wonder about the people running the show. Some here may say that this is normal, but just because something is normal does not mean we should accept it.Mind you, if those cars have already been used to keep the Ocean cars going, we have bigger problems with the LDF.

 

[Bordercollie]

So, did they screw themselves over by not waiting till the last Siemens set arrived before retiring the Ren cars? Everyone knows with new equipment there will be teathing issues. Had they just parked them, ready to be used again, maybe this wouldn't have played out this way. These things are where I sometimes wonder about the people running the show. Some here may say that this is normal, but just because something is normal does not mean we should accept it.Mind you, if those cars have already been used to keep the Ocean cars going, we have bigger problems with the LDF.

It probably has to do with optics and funding.

You have to understand from the government's perspective, using tax payers funds appropriately.

Why would you retain your legacy feet in service when your shiny new fleet that we paid millions for have been delivered?

The fact that the new fleet has teething issues is a separate matter. They don't want to pay to maintain something when they have paid to replace it.

Also they may be in the shop having work done so to they can be swapped with the ocean fleet.

 

[Urban Sky]

It probably has to do with optics and funding.

You have to understand from the government's perspective, using tax payers funds appropriately.

Why would you retain your legacy feet in service when your shiny new fleet that we paid millions for have been delivered?

The fact that the new fleet has teething issues is a separate matter. They don't want to pay to maintain something when they have paid to replace it.

Also they may be in the shop having work done so to they can be swapped with the ocean fleet.

Which part of “[t]he former Corridor Renaissance sets won’t return to Corridor service, as they are required to donate parts to support the Ocean until the new Long-Distance Fleet finally arrives” did you not understand? Every time you use the Renaissance cars you risk that something breaks and further reduces the already very constrained inventory of parts for this fleet which has close to zero commonality with the rest of VIA’s fleet.

Whatever fleet worries VIA currently has in the Corridor pales to the looming crisis on the Ocean, which critically depends on the Renaissance fleet which is literally falling apart, but won’t receive a replacement until the mid-2030s, if it gets procured at all. Wasting spare parts on Corridor services would border on insanity…

 

[Bordercollie]

Which part of “[t]he former Corridor Renaissance sets won’t return to Corridor service, as they are required to donate parts to support the Ocean until the new Long-Distance Fleet finally arrives” did you not understand? Every time you use the Renaissance cars you risk that something breaks and further reduces the already very constrained inventory of parts for this fleet which has close to zero commonality with the rest of VIA’s fleet.

Whatever fleet worries VIA currently has in the Corridor pales to the looming crisis on the Ocean, which critically depends on the Renaissance fleet which is literally falling apart, but won’t receive a replacement until the mid-2030s, if it gets procured at all. Wasting spare parts on Corridor services would border on insanity…

The corridor HEP cars can be transferred to the Ocean and Canadian. But then you still need sleepers which we don't have enough of.

 

[Urban Sky]

The corridor HEP cars can be transferred to the Ocean and Canadian. But then you still need sleepers which we don't have enough of.

So what do we learn? We need to keep those Renaissance Sleepers and Diners running on the Ocean until (hopefully) a new long-distance fleet arrives in the mid-2030s. And that’s why we can’t afford to waste spare parts while running the Renaissance fleet into the ground on entirely avoidable Corridor deployments. The Renaissance cars won’t return on Corridor assignments. Ever.

 

[micheal_can]

So what do we learn? We need to keep those Renaissance Sleepers and Diners running on the Ocean until (hopefully) a new long-distance fleet arrives in the mid-2030s. And that’s why we can’t afford to waste spare parts while running the Renaissance fleet into the ground on entirely avoidable Corridor deployments. The Renaissance cars won’t return on Corridor assignments. Ever.

What I have learned is our fleet, not just the LDF is in much worse shape than I thought. I have also learned that we need that LDF replacement to happen NOW if the Ocean is to remain active. Things are a lot worse off than I thought they were. I hope our next election doesn't kill off the LDF replacement.

 

[Bordercollie]

What I have learned is our fleet, not just the LDF is in much worse shape than I thought. I have also learned that we need that LDF replacement to happen NOW if the Ocean is to remain active. Things are a lot worse off than I thought they were. I hope our next election doesn't kill off the LDF replacement.

The concervative are down in the polls since Trump got elected so we should be safe.