Canadian Railroads > VIA: New Siemens Fleet and a new paint scheme

VIA has announced a new fleet from Siemens for their Central Canadian Corridor,
between Windsor and Quebec City,
including Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal.

The $989 million contract is to build 32 bi-directional trainsets, with a total of 9100 seats.
VIA states that the criteria used to judge proposals included "on-time delivery, quality of product and price."

https://www.viarail.ca/en/about-via-rail/media-room/latest-news/50168/12-december-2018-via-rail-selects-siemens-canada-to

https://twitter.com/VIA_Rail/status/1072907358622375936

https://www.instagram.com/p/BrS7vmDHRPX/

Siemens states the trains will be powered by their "popular Charger locomotives" which are Tier 4 compliant.
The trainsets will be manufactured in Sacramento, California.
Siemens will also have a 15 year technical and spare parts agreement for $23.7 million per year.
Siemens hopes for 20 percent Canadian content of goods and services.
Delivery and testing is planned for 2021, expecting service to begin in 2022.

https://www.siemens.com/ca/en/home/company/press/via.html

Siemens remembers that Canada was the first country in North America
to purchase their light rail equipment,
in Calgary and Edmonton in the 1970's.
Siemens now claims one third of North American light rail.

 



Edited 8 time(s). Last edit at 12/12/18 10:43 by Marcus.

Will The GE P42's cascade beyond the corridor to retire some F40's ?

Marcus Wrote:
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> VIA states that the criteria used to judge
> proposals included "on-time delivery, quality of
> product and price."

This is the key to the purchase ... on time delivery .....

That is what screwed the company that exists to swallow our tax dollars (Bombardier)... They have proved they are incapable of on-time, or anywhere near, ontime delivery!

 

Will MacKenzie
Dundas, ON



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/12/18 20:57 by thehighwayman.

Does Bombarder have anything to do with the Montreal REM project ?

joemvcnj Wrote:
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> Does Bombarder have anything to do with the
> Montreal REM project ?

No.... they lost that contract too. A SNC-Lavalin/Alstom consortium will build the rolling stock

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A9seau_express_m%C3%A9tropolitain.

Michael

Excellent. And nice looking paint scheme as well. If only we could have such equipment on our Michigan Amtrak trains they would be so much more pleasant to ride. I wonder if Richard Anderson has seen VIA is actually refurbishing four diners for their transcon, complete with real working new modern kitchens to actually cook food. How silly of VIA when they could have probably gotten a good deal on some never used (except for axle counts) diners Amtrak recently purchased new. 

Sharp looking paint scheme. Nice!

Posted from Android

ghCBNS Wrote:
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> Sharp looking paint scheme. Nice!
>
> Posted from Android

The black and gray is reminiscent of the CN Visual Redesgn passenger scheme.

These look *epic* - best new trains in the US in years.

It also makes the Amtrak contract much more likely to go to Siemens now, as the Charger has emerged as the clear leader in the US passenger locomotive market.

Yes, the Via order will take up production line space but I’ve heard tell that this contract was specifically designed to allow for Amtrak to get their own build slots.

Posted from iPhone

andersonb109 Wrote:
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> Excellent. And nice looking paint scheme as well.
> If only we could have such equipment on our
> Michigan Amtrak trains they would be so much more
> pleasant to ride. I wonder if Richard Anderson has
> seen VIA is actually refurbishing four diners for
> their transcon, complete with real working new
> modern kitchens to actually cook food. How silly
> of VIA when they could have probably gotten a good
> deal on some never used (except for axle counts)
> diners Amtrak recently purchased new. 

As someone who constantly complains about unmatched passenger train consists I am surprised that you would be in favour of these ex-Amtrak diners messing with The Canadian's lines.

No word on how many cars per train. Minimum of six, I'd guess?

I suppose they will run 2 sets, however long they will be, in tandem for the Toronto - Ottawa/Montreal J trains. 
The REN cars wil be retired. Wonder what they wil run on the Ocean, Chaleue if it ever returns, and what they will do with the LRC and HEP-II cars ? I'd expect the White River RDC to resemble a Quebec remote trains: F40, baggage, coach. 

The Chaleur is not returning.
joemvcnj Wrote:
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> I suppose they will run 2 sets, however long they
> will be, in tandem for the Toronto -
> Ottawa/Montreal J trains. 
> The REN cars wil be retired. Wonder what they wil
> run on the Ocean, Chaleue if it ever returns, and
> what they will do with the LRC and HEP-II cars ?
> I'd expect the White River RDC to resemble a
> Quebec remote trains: F40, baggage, coach. 

reindeerflame Wrote:
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> The Chaleur is not returning.

And you know this because?  

reindeerflame Wrote:
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> The Chaleur is not returning.

You said that about the Churchil train, and that the SW Chief would be either a bus or running through Amarillo. (Those Senators are not going away in 2019).

I like the new paint scheme, but in general it wasn't that long ago that VIA just changed its scheme - LRC's, F40s etc. to match the Renaissance cars (blue/green etc.). It seems to clearly be going back to a yellow/gray which was similiar to the scheme it had not that long ago. 

Has VIA ever said it is "officially" retiring the Renaissance sleepers, diners, service cars, etc. that are on the Ocean? I know that VIA's been having a maintenance issue with the Renaissance equipment, but it really can't afford to lose the Renaissance long distance equipment. At one time VIA had enough sleepers, diners (table cars), service cars etc. to run the overnight Enterprise between Toronto and Montreal, the Ocean and was even planning to expand to outfitting the Chaluer with Renaissance equipment. With the cutback of the Ocean from six to three days a week, this "retired" one of the Renaissance long distance trainsets (only two now required instead of three). So if the Chaleur ever did return, VIA could just assign out this extra trainset to it. Just saying that - it could and as "originally planned."

Retring the Renaissance long distance equipment for Maritime long distance/overnight trains will surely come at an expense to the Canadian, even with the Canadian just operating two days a week. Is there a specific date that VIA has announced that they want all Renaissance coaches and the like retired by? Perhaps just keeping three long distance trainsets of Renaissance equipment will be better than maintaining the Renaissance coaches and such for corridor trains? Too bad this Renaissance equipment didn't hold up - when purchased it increased VIA's total fleet by 1/3 (one third). Did they ever dispose of the remaining Renaissance "shells" that were stored in Thunder Bay? VIA did retain the "interior kits" for the equipment, which may prove helpful. But I believe it's the Canadian weather and track conditions that is causing most of the maintenance issues.