InfiNorth Posted September 30, 2019 Report Share Posted September 30, 2019 On 8/27/2019 at 10:31 PM, M. Parsons said: 6133 was heading east on the tail end of the Canadian I can't imagine the people in the Park Car who paid big bucks for the view out the back were all too pleased by staring at the smiling face of an RDC all the way across the country. For those of you who are interested in the interior of the Renaissance Service Transition car, I took a few photos while out on my way to Halifax this summer. Here is the interior. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dowlingm Posted September 30, 2019 Report Share Posted September 30, 2019 12 hours ago, InfiNorth said: I can't imagine the people in the Park Car who paid big bucks for the view out the back were all too pleased by staring at the smiling face of an RDC all the way across the country. Would be harder if Canadian had (as it should have in my view) Superliner/Rocky type rolling stock with a view out the rear upper deck of the last car. Less problem seeing over a trailer then 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urban Sky Posted September 30, 2019 Report Share Posted September 30, 2019 14 hours ago, InfiNorth said: For those of you who are interested in the interior of the Renaissance Service car, I took a few photos while out on my way to Halifax this summer. Here is the interior. This looks more like a Baggage Transition car (i.e. the last Renaissance car before the HEP cars) than a Service car (i.e. the cars sandwiching the diner car or - on Corridor consists - separating the Business car from the Economy cars) to me... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InfiNorth Posted September 30, 2019 Report Share Posted September 30, 2019 6 hours ago, Urban Sky said: Baggage Definitely not baggage. There is no baggage-cart level accessible door and no bagage racks or cages within the car, and it was clearly laid out for passenger through-access as there was decor on the walls. This separated the HEP from the REN on the extensively mixed-consist train. I could be wrong though, but it did not appear to be in any way intended for baggage use. So yes, it's a transition, but has nothing to do with baggage other than its history. Edit: I guess I understand my confusions - the name baggage transition comes from their original purpose, I suppose, while service cars are very much not like this at all. I made a mistake, my apologies! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urban Sky Posted October 1, 2019 Report Share Posted October 1, 2019 30 minutes ago, InfiNorth said: Definitely not baggage. There is no baggage-cart level accessible door and no bagage racks or cages within the car, and it was clearly laid out for passenger through-access as there was decor on the walls. This separated the HEP from the REN on the extensively mixed-consist train. I could be wrong though, but it did not appear to be in any way intended for baggage use. So yes, it's a transition, but has nothing to do with baggage other than its history. Edit: I guess I understand my confusions - the name baggage transition comes from their original purpose, I suppose, while service cars are very much not like this at all. I made a mistake, my apologies! No worries (and you actually acknowledged your error before I even saw your post), its name is certainly not intuitive, just like the concept of having a basically empty car somewhere in the consist... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun Posted October 1, 2019 Report Share Posted October 1, 2019 49 minutes ago, Urban Sky said: No worries (and you actually acknowledged your error before I even saw your post), its name is certainly not intuitive, just like the concept of having a basically empty car somewhere in the consist... If they where going to keep the Ren Rolling Stock around for a while, would it be worth it to make the HEP generator smaller and make better use of the empty car by adding seats? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urban Sky Posted October 1, 2019 Report Share Posted October 1, 2019 13 minutes ago, Shaun said: If they where going to keep the Ren Rolling Stock around for a while, would it be worth it to make the HEP generator smaller and make better use of the empty car by adding seats? This sounds like a major rebuild, which presumably provides low value for the taxpayer, given the very limited remaining economic life of that fleet... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom1122 Posted October 9, 2019 Report Share Posted October 9, 2019 I wasn't sure if I should post this here or the Amtrak thread, but I was leaning towards this thread: This morning at Union, I saw VIA train #97 was replaced by a bus. While I was not travelling on that train today, does anyone know the reason for this replacement and how much of the route is bussed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smallspy Posted October 9, 2019 Report Share Posted October 9, 2019 29 minutes ago, Tom1122 said: I wasn't sure if I should post this here or the Amtrak thread, but I was leaning towards this thread: This morning at Union, I saw VIA train #97 was replaced by a bus. While I was not travelling on that train today, does anyone know the reason for this replacement and how much of the route is bussed? Only VIA's #97 is bustituted, so this thread is appropriate. I can't seem to find the notices for it anymore, but there is currently work ongoing on the Whirlpool Bridge which prevents any train traffic. I believe that this will be completed by early November, but again, I'm going by memory here. Amtrak is running trains right to the Niagara Falls NY station, but VIA is bustituting their leg of the trip. Dan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WMATAC40LF Posted October 9, 2019 Report Share Posted October 9, 2019 I never saw any clear notices about the Maple Leaf online, but the Amtrak website suggested the bus bridge would be happening from September 9th to November 1st. Does anyone know more details about the bridge work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oc4526 Posted October 9, 2019 Report Share Posted October 9, 2019 41 minutes ago, WMATAC40LF said: I never saw any clear notices about the Maple Leaf online, but the Amtrak website suggested the bus bridge would be happening from September 9th to November 1st. Does anyone know more details about the bridge work? My guess is they are replaceing the rails on the bridge deck and or other related maintenance to the bridge (Nexas/Customs plaza) Effective September 9 - November 1, 2019 Beginning Monday, September 9, a major infrastructure project will begin on the Whirlpool Bridge, connecting the United States to Canada at Niagara Falls 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FelixINX Posted October 25, 2019 Report Share Posted October 25, 2019 Is VIA Rail finally in 2019? https://m.viarail.ca/en/travel-info/onboard-train/methods-payment Seems to me that they will now have real payment terminal onboard with tap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun Posted October 25, 2019 Report Share Posted October 25, 2019 They did accept credit cards, but the attendant needs to manually authorize it. I guess now they will have machines that make it easier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FelixINX Posted October 25, 2019 Report Share Posted October 25, 2019 7 hours ago, Shaun said: They did accept credit cards, but the attendant needs to manually authorize it. I guess now they will have machines that make it easier. Well, paper and pen for a transaction is not really 2019 for me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viafreak Posted October 26, 2019 Report Share Posted October 26, 2019 The new payment options are only for eastern Canadian trains. The Canadian, Skeena and Hudson Bay trains are still using the old options of payment. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun Posted October 27, 2019 Report Share Posted October 27, 2019 Thats because cell signal in those places is not consistent. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Board Admin A. Wong Posted October 27, 2019 Board Admin Report Share Posted October 27, 2019 1 hour ago, Shaun said: Thats because cell signal in those places is not consistent. That is a good reason, but the payment machines should be able to store the transaction information until cell service is reached again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viafreak Posted October 27, 2019 Report Share Posted October 27, 2019 2 hours ago, A. Wong said: That is a good reason, but the payment machines should be able to store the transaction information until cell service is reached again. There are very few places that have cell coverage along the Canadian route between Sudbury, Ontario and Elma, Manitoba. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun Posted October 27, 2019 Report Share Posted October 27, 2019 5 hours ago, A. Wong said: That is a good reason, but the payment machines should be able to store the transaction information until cell service is reached again. What if the passenger disembarks before the transaction can be verified? Then how do you collect payment. With gift cards, you could do that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Board Admin A. Wong Posted October 28, 2019 Board Admin Report Share Posted October 28, 2019 1 hour ago, Shaun said: What if the passenger disembarks before the transaction can be verified? Then how do you collect payment. With gift cards, you could do that. There are many places that do not process transactions right away - they take the payment information and process the charge later. There is risk of fraud, yes, but you could track down passenger information if it was not a walk-up situation (eg. snack shop), or set limits on dollar amounts that you would accept. It might not be worth the effort to track people down for a bag of chips though, when the risk of fraud is probably pretty low anyway. Another example of this would be airplanes without wifi connectivity that take cashless payments. This article explains a bit more about accepting credit card information without a real-time verification: https://www.shopkeep.com/blog/no-easy-answers-accepting-credit-cards-offline Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun Posted October 28, 2019 Report Share Posted October 28, 2019 I'm sure if they really wanted to, they could verify it via satelite comm. This will work everywhere but tunnels. The easier way to do it is to setup a gift card system. Have the amounts loaded on departure and a "server" on the train will keep track of the amounts uses. They can be updated once the train reaches the next station with WiFi. And you could link it to the points system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smallspy Posted October 28, 2019 Report Share Posted October 28, 2019 The machines that VIA will be using are also used by the airline industry. They are designed to store transactions until they are placed into a base station at a terminal, which then uploads and completes the transactions. This is why they are not able to process Interac transactions, and why they will eventually be used on the Canadian, even with its lack of cell signal in many places. Dan 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anyfong Posted October 28, 2019 Report Share Posted October 28, 2019 I'm on an HEP-2 car right now from Kingston to Toronto, and I have been trying to search at how the interiors originally looked like before its rebuild by VIA Rail in the 1990's, and there seems to be very few results about that. Anyone have pictures of their original interiors when they were first built? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smallspy Posted October 28, 2019 Report Share Posted October 28, 2019 2 hours ago, anyfong said: I'm on an HEP-2 car right now from Kingston to Toronto, and I have been trying to search at how the interiors originally looked like before its rebuild by VIA Rail in the 1990's, and there seems to be very few results about that. Anyone have pictures of their original interiors when they were first built? Are you referring to when the cars were in service with Amtrak, or even earlier, when they were built? There are some photos, but certainly not many - most seem to be in books and magazines. Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anyfong Posted October 28, 2019 Report Share Posted October 28, 2019 2 hours ago, smallspy said: Are you referring to when the cars were in service with Amtrak, or even earlier, when they were built? There are some photos, but certainly not many - most seem to be in books and magazines. Dan Yeah that's what I mean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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