Isn’t it a lack of rails that’s the problem, not a lack of rail cars? Passenger trains have to give way to cargo trains, and dedicated tracks are the solution.
For anyone interested, this video give a good overview of some of the issues.
Isn’t it a lack of rails that’s the problem, not a lack of rail cars?
Thats one issue. This announcement addresses a different issue.
The current VIA long-haul fleet is 70 year old equipment. It’s getting increasingly expensive to maintain, and if it isn’t replaced it will become almost impossible to keep them safely operating.
Everything VIA is run down. But yeah the rail is the biggest issue and probably more expensive.
It’s just as much who owns the rails. In Vancouver we have a commuter rail service that runs on lines owned by the freight companies. So sometimes people have to watch as they wait in a siding while stuff goes by first.
I think freight priority over passenger is the perfect analogy for where we find ourselves today; the systems are wholly subservient to capital
Ideally this is just one of several rail related initiatives and we have more announcements coming.
Hopefully we’ll start prioritizing Passenger Cars over freight like the rest of the world
We will be building a new high speed rail from Quebec to Toronto so passenger rail will finally be separate from freight rail. Finally drag our asses out of the 1800’s.
The amount of money planned for that could probably cover twinning a much larger amount of existing track, with less environmental impact.
Why just twin the line and still have something designed in the 1800’s. Canadians are so damn cheap to do anything properly.
Just a reminder that Canadian ownership of Bombardier’s rail assets were lost because of the previous Trump administration sabotaging the C-Series on behalf of Boeing. We lost ownership of most of the C-Series program to the europeans likewise.
Then the same government still bought into the F-35 project as an appeasement, only to withdraw 10 years later.
I really hope the lesson was learned.
Restore the glory days of Via Rail. We need to save resources when the American embargo hits.
Via did add new rail cars on Montreal Toronto route about 2-3 years ago. Lighting is ridiculously bright and can’t be turned down. No obvious improvements.
Oh what I’d do to have a nice and efficient train from Montreal to Vancouver. I’d take it instead of the plane for sure!
Unfortunately the fastest passenger train currently available on the planet would still take roughly 6 hours to get from Montreal to Vancouver in basically a straight line so probably double or even triple that for a more realistic number with all the corners and ups and downs. We probably won’t be making the fastest train on earth so it would likely still be a 20+ ride from Montreal to Vancouver in the best case scenario.
I don’t mind if it takes the same amount of time as it does now. I just want it updated and I want a line where I don’t have to change trains in Toronto.
Try 2 days and 19 hrs. That’s assuming the train could maintain 600km/h going through the Rockies, which is highly unlikely.
I hope the service improves along with the new hardware. I took a VIA rail train from Manitoba to Saskatchewan for what I wanted to be a day or two. I had to be in Saskatchewan for over 6 days just to get a VIA rail train back to Manitoba. When I was a lad in the 70’s they used to run daily. It should be a service, just like the post office. Not yet another profit center. We have to stop thinking like american businessmen. Besides all that though…Go Canada!
Where are these cars going to be used? Ontario and Quebec only?
Half of the country lives in a straight line between windsor and quebec city, so it would be a great start to improve rail there first (even if it feels unfair to the rest of the country)…
Even just toronto to montreal would be a great place to start in terms of bringing canada in line with other developed nations
Yeah, yeah. Ontario first and everywhere else, never.
Hopefully this spurs more rail in the rest of the country.
I was just watching city talk yesterday about Switzerland’s rail network and how interconnect it is.
What shocked me the most was this overlay of Switzerland over Quebec and how inexistent rail is Canada.
Worth a watch for anyone interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zpSSkkpTrY
Map of the rail network not including buses or light rail, meanwhile we in Canada are debating if high-speed rail should exist between Quebec and Montreal.
