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3 hours ago, Shaun said:

https://winnipegsun.com/news/news-news/via-rail-workers-protest-across-the-country
I wasn't aware of cuts being made to the Canadian. Are they referring to the changes in the schedule due to CN construction over the Rockies? 

Yes, they seem to be referring to the temporary suspension of the third frequency on the Toronto-Winnipeg-Edmonton segment during the summer 2019 season... 

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16 hours ago, Shaun said:

https://winnipegsun.com/news/news-news/via-rail-workers-protest-across-the-country
I wasn't aware of cuts being made to the Canadian. Are they referring to the changes in the schedule due to CN construction over the Rockies? 

IF anything Via Rail should be adding a train 2x week at min between Winnipeg and Calgary and 2 x week between Calgary and Kamloops/Vancouver, and add an extra leg Cal to Kamloops in summer. Then they could connect it onto the Canadian at Kamloops for continued travel to Vancouver. Then the announced changes might make some version of sense. With long distance bus service all but gone it could be a huge opportunity for Via in the west.!!

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VIA doesn't have tuning rights on CP. 

If anything destinations such as Whistler, Banff and Lake Louise area more popular destinations and had train service in the past.  The RMR only serves those places in the high Season and driving in the winter is very sketchy.

On another note I hope this early announcement to build the new corridor is real. It would be a shame to make this kind of announcement and it turns out it's not approved. 

https://www-theglobeandmail-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.theglobeandmail.com/amp/politics/article-via-confident-ottawa-will-support-new-passenger-rail-lines-following/?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From %1%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theglobeandmail.com%2Fpolitics%2Farticle-via-confident-ottawa-will-support-new-passenger-rail-lines-following%2F

Also a change in government in 2019 could result in everything being cancelled. It's happened before. 

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4 hours ago, roeco said:

IF anything Via Rail should be adding a train 2x week at min between Winnipeg and Calgary and 2 x week between Calgary and Kamloops/Vancouver, and add an extra leg Cal to Kamloops in summer. Then they could connect it onto the Canadian at Kamloops for continued travel to Vancouver. Then the announced changes might make some version of sense. With long distance bus service all but gone it could be a huge opportunity for Via in the west.!!

Ever thought about such pesky details like fleet availability and funding? If Greyhound couldn't operate a standard-sized intercity bus profitably, how do you want to break even with a train and much higher operating costs?

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4 hours ago, Urban Sky said:

Ever thought about such pesky details like fleet availability and funding? If Greyhound couldn't operate a standard-sized intercity bus profitably, how do you want to break even with a train and much higher operating costs?

I think that we first need to do something about these late trains. The government has the power to legislate that VIA trains can't be treated like second class citizens. 

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On ‎12‎/‎16‎/‎2018 at 1:52 PM, Urban Sky said:

Ever thought about such pesky details like fleet availability and funding? If Greyhound couldn't operate a standard-sized intercity bus profitably, how do you want to break even with a train and much higher operating costs?

Well Greyhound had several issues as to why it didn't operate at a profit or at least break even...much of it was very self inflicted and the inability to adapt, Also huge cost for depots and several other assets we're not exactly good for them! The GCX was another story....!

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That's situation with a lot of a lot of today's companies lead by people with business degrees who have great expertise in finance and management but no foundational experience or education on the good or services the company offers.  Via may be terrible at keeping a schedule but at least they know their business lives and dies by customer experience and in my experience they do a pretty good job.  

Good customer experience also depends on knowing what you can deliver and setting reasonable expectations.  While it's unfortunate they're dropping 1 trip per week, all things considered it's probably the right move for the short term.  I expect once CN completes more capital improvements through the prairies over the next couple/few years we'll see improvements to Via service between Toronto and Edmonton.  Making an inference from Via's summer schedule reduction on the Canadian my bet is CN will be announcing a substantially bigger siding expansion/double tracking plan for 2019 probably resulting in a summer of chronically delayed Via #1/#2 trains.

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On 12/16/2018 at 5:56 PM, Shaun said:

I think that we first need to do something about these late trains. The government has the power to legislate that VIA trains can't be treated like second class citizens. 

Agree 110%, imagine if the corridor was subjected the delays we have on the 1 & 2...

The reality is that VIA is 2 separate entities, the corridor and the rest.  It's a shame how the rest has declined to a tourist operation ?

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12 hours ago, Chris_the_traveller said:

What equipment will service the Ocean? I hope that they will be replacing the Renaissance sleepers to improve reliability.

One Ren set is currently out of service due to a derailment, and is being covered by a Budd set. 

There isn't a plan right now for Rolling stock outside the corridor. 

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Looks like the Issue that the Union has is that they went with a foreign manufacturer for new rolling stock. 

https://wawa-news.com/index.php/2018/12/19/rail-union-fumbles-golden-opportunity-to-help-fight-via-rails-ongoing-deterioration/

I think that the point that VIA made indicating that it is a proven in production product, where as Bombardier doesn't have an off the shelf product in production which would lead to possible longer lead times for the equipment to become available. 

We need to look at who can actually deliver the product on time rather than just local content. 

As for outsourcing staff to a US Company for the Canadian, donno what that is all about. Does anyone else have the full story on this?

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3 hours ago, Shaun said:

One Ren set is currently out of service due to a derailment, and is being covered by a Budd set.

This is not so. That damaged Ren set was put back into service earlier this week. Both sets are currently being run with Rens again.


Dan

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13 minutes ago, Shaun said:

https://www.railwaygazette.com/news/traction-rolling-stock/single-view/view/amtrak-orders-long-distance-chargers.html

Here is another order VIA can piggy back on if they need more motive power. 

I'm a little confused if this order of 75 is an option on the existing 2014 state consortium order or not, but it will be interesting to see if they get the VIA rail styled nose or if that remains exclusive to VIA (for now). It looks significantly more refined than the snub nosed look of the existing chargers.

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3 hours ago, Flalex72 said:

I'm a little confused if this order of 75 is an option on the existing 2014 state consortium order or not, but it will be interesting to see if they get the VIA rail styled nose or if that remains exclusive to VIA (for now). It looks significantly more refined than the snub nosed look of the existing chargers.

Brightline's fleet of Chargers also has the streamlined nose.

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5 hours ago, Flalex72 said:

I'm a little confused if this order of 75 is an option on the existing 2014 state consortium order or not, but it will be interesting to see if they get the VIA rail styled nose or if that remains exclusive to VIA (for now). It looks significantly more refined than the snub nosed look of the existing chargers.

This is an all-new order for Chargers which will feature some internal detail differences from the State Corridors order. According to the renders from Siemens, they will continue to feature the "standard" appearance that the units purchased for the State Corridors have.

 

Dan

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On 12/22/2018 at 8:35 PM, Viafreak said:

Brightline's fleet of Chargers also has the streamlined nose.

Yeah, but with a fairing design that has some not insignificant operational issues. I don't think we'll see any public railroads ordering those in the future.

On 12/22/2018 at 10:33 PM, smallspy said:

This is an all-new order for Chargers which will feature some internal detail differences from the State Corridors order. According to the renders from Siemens, they will continue to feature the "standard" appearance that the units purchased for the State Corridors have.

 

Dan

I found one of the press renderings in the Amtrak scheme.  While they did a nice job with the paint, I'll say that I'm glad VIA went with a slightly more refined design.

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Based on stuff I have read on US railroad boards, it looks like to run GE power means being tied to GE availability of control circuit boards whereas EMD645 bits are more widely available. Because of the HEP power on the F40s and future serviceabillity, I suspect VIA are hoping to dispose of the P42s while Amtrak still run most of theirs (and CTDOT their P40s) and therefore they have some scrap value 

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15 hours ago, dowlingm said:

Based on stuff I have read on US railroad boards, it looks like to run GE power means being tied to GE availability of control circuit boards whereas EMD645 bits are more widely available. Because of the HEP power on the F40s and future serviceabillity, I suspect VIA are hoping to dispose of the P42s while Amtrak still run most of theirs (and CTDOT their P40s) and therefore they have some scrap value 

Unfortunately, that theory falls down when you consider that VIA's F40s were completely and totally rebuilt and rewired, and have very little of the original control circuitry left in them. Also, there are quite a few aftermarket shops specializing in replacement (and even upgrade) boards for railway equipment, and they don't seem to discriminate between EMD or GE (or even ALCo).

 

The fact of the matter is that the P42s have lived a pretty hard life, and have seen considerably higher usage and mileage in the the Corridor than the F40s. (Until about 6 or 7 years ago, about half of the runs in the Corridor were "key" trains, that required a P42 for the additional acceleration and top speed that they had.) They have never seen a major rebuild like the F40s saw, and with new power on the horizon it isn't imperative that they get that level of work to continue their lives. They just need to make it far enough.

 

I guess you can look at it this way - the P42 was a victim of timing as much as anything else.

 

Dan

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