Urban Sky

The Canadian is currently suspended West of Edmonton. I believe that the Skeena is still running normally… The cycling plan shows a Renaissance Trainset for train #29 on Tuesdays, so not sure what was different from what the plan made you expect, apart maybe the F40 instead of a P42, but these locomotives are pretty much deployed interchangeably in the corridor, ever since the F40s got their upgrades for bidirectional operations…

This is the most recent cycling plan I’ve seen:

That also matches what I was told when I worked for them…

When VIA operates a second Business Car, it‘s given the number 91, not: 2.

As I’ve been made aware in the meanwhile, a more recent cycling plan has been posted on groups.io, which shows the same Renaissance cycling, but reflects the strict separation of LRC and HEP sets (a consequence of the buffer car requirement for any train containing HEP cars) and also mentions the testing of the Siemens trainsets on Tuesday:

Unless the Renaissance cycling has changed in the meanwhile, Renaissance can be found on the trains listed in the post below, whereas HEP or LRCs can be found on all other trains (except for the Siemens sets, which seem to only operate Tuesdays on the MTRL-OTTW portion of trains 33 and 26):

A recent cycling plan has been posted on Groups.io (might require registration), which suggests that the following trains have Renaissance equipment: #20 (Monday-Friday) #24 (daily) #29 (daily) #37 (Monday-Friday) #39 (Saturday+Sunday) #622 (Saturday+Sunday)

Did you actually read the description in the photo of which you posted the link? The first five words literally read: “For a few short weeks…” The current “accessible schedules” say that the departure time of 601/603 has reverted to 07:30 in the morning and a previous version says that the overnight schedule was in force from July 4 to August 12: The above is easily confirmed on ReserVIA, which shows train 603 still departing at 15:15 on August 12, but at 07:30 on August 15…

It’s most probably because of heat orders, which impose severe speed restrictions once temperatures exceed certain thresholds and which would make it impossible for the crew to reach their destination within their 12 hour limits…

Prior to March 17, 2020, the Renaissance cars were deployed on the following trains: Monday-Friday: 20MQ-37QMF & 24FMQ-29QM Saturday: 34OM-639MO Sunday: 622MQ-637QMO & 624OMQ-29QM The current Accessible schedules show “Baggage Check-In” for trains 20/622MQ and 29QM, which suggests a similar deployment…

My best bet would be that they are looking into making the seats/benches in the Skyline Dome reversable to make them useful for bidirectional operations…

My expectation is LRC first (because of their severe underframe issues - quite a few had already to be pulled out of service), then Renaissance (because they are only 2 sets) and HEP last…

The Renaissance fleet is extremely unreliable and requires special (metric) tools which are only available at MMC. Therefore, it’s best to have them pass through Montreal as often as possible, which makes QBEC-MTRL-OTTW services the ideal deployment area…

By my own count, VIA currently operates just under two-thirds of its regular Corridor schedule, which (despite some glaring omissions like the morning KGON=>TRTO train) should be pretty similar to what GO currently operates: Source: Cross-post from Urban Toronto I really don’t understand the resistance against private-sector involvement: if the last decades of under-investment and periodical cuts have shown one thing in the intercity passenger rail networks in this country, then it’s that governments of all stripes (and of all levels of government) lack the will and attention span to envision and invest into a more rail-reliant future, as these investment don’t fit into an election cycle of 4 years. Sure, we could ask the governments of Germany, Italy, France or the UK to design and build a 21st-century rail network, but it’s much better to ask private sector companies with decades of experience with such projects and an investment horizon of 40+ years… If I had to summarize the rationale for a private-public partnership for such a (for the modest standards of this country) complex, ambitious and pioneering project, I would probably come up with something like this post: https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threads/via-rail.21060/page-812#post-1800819

VIA does not exercise any control over transit operators. Rail stations with infrequent and often-delayed service are notoriously difficult to connect with any bus service which isn’t entirely dedicated to connect with rail services (like Amtrak‘s Thruway service)… Yes, it worked fine in 2019. However, back then the Ocean was still mostly REN and thus more HEP1 cars available for the Canadian, so not sure there are still enough cars available…