Canadian Railroads > "VIA Rail warns of delays on Quebec City-Ottawa-Toronto corridor"

https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/via-rail-warns-of-delays-on-quebec-city-ottawa-toronto-corridor-due-to-speed-restrictions-1.7075380

(I fixed the link)

"We advised VIA very early on in the process (October 2021) that operating at a 24-axle count could create issues. This has proven to be the case."When it was confirmed that operating at 24-axles created shunting issues (March 2024), we immediately notified VIA and took necessary measures to protect the public by reverting to CN’s 32-axle minimum requirement or imposing restrictions on the designated routes that VIA was operating this fleet on."



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/24 17:08 by joemvcnj.

Your link is bad, get's an 404 error message.

When the "leave TO - continue page" comes up, if possible highlight everything in the url except the quote mark after 380, select copy, open in new tab.
Also on the 404 page, scroll down and the link is on that page.

Go a little bit farther in the article and you'll find what appears to be the smoking gun:
"CN Rail says it discovered on Oct. 11 the VIA Rail Venture train sets were operating in expanded service with crossings "which may experience shunt loss and then be unprotected.""

So even after mentioning issues going back as far as 2021 or more recently March 2024 in the article, it's those crossings in the expanded service area (Toronto-Windsor, Toronto-Sarnia) that caused the changes to Venture-equipped trains to be implemented.

Thanks to CTV Ottawa for finally shedding some sunlight (the best disinfectant!) on this story. Other reports in online discussion groups now mentioning Port Hope/Cobourg-Toronto "commuters" on VIA No 641 (not really a commuter train) are starting to get irate at what VIA warns passengers to be 30-60 minute delays on Venture-equipped trains. Some day train passengers may rebook on Legacy (LRC/HEP) equipped trains, but that's not an option for 641's passengers who want to get into the office!

Eric Gagnon
Kingston, ON

Didn't they use to run RDC's on this route?