MONTREAL — VIA Rail Canada has introduced a special one-off paint scheme, which it is calling “Lumi,” for one of its new Siemens-built trainsets for use in the Québec City-Windsor corridor.
Lumi, short for luminoscity, features the monochrome yellow that has long been a signature color for VIA. The company says the Lumi trainset “acts as a reminder of the beginning of a new era for passenger rail,” and is meant to be reminscient of the all-yellow TurboTrains that operated between Montreal and Toronto until 1982.
“When people arrive at stations and see Lumi, we want them to feel proud and excited about the modernization of our trains,” Brigette Dagnault, VIA’s chief communications and marketing officer, said in a press release. “We’re looking at different alternatives, but we would like the experience on board Lumi to stand out a bit, perhaps with a few surprises for our passengers. We are continuously focusing on offering an exceptional experience from reservation to destination, one that will become a core memory of our customers’ travels. Lumi is part of that vision.”
The train is slated to begin regular service in August but will begin testing between Ottawa and Montreal “in the next couple of days,” the company says. It is one of the 32 trainsets featuring Siemens Charger locomotives and Venture passenger cars ordered under a C$999 million contract signed in 2018 [see “VIA Rail Canada, Siemens announce deal …,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 13, 2018]. The first of those trains, which otherwise wear a gray, charcoal, black, and yellow scheme, was delivered in 2021 [see “VIA unveils first new corridor trainset,” News Wire, Dec. 1, 2021] and entered service in 2022 [see “VIA Rail Canada Venture Trainset” video tour].
Sharp looking livery. I like the large Maple Leaf on the side of the locomotive.