MONTRÉAL – VIA Rail Canada is awarding two contracts for the modernization of its maintenance centers in Toronto and Montréal. VIA awarded the contract for construction at the Toronto Maintenance Center to Buttcon Limited, based in Concord, Ontario. Pomerleau Inc., based in Montréal has been awarded the contract for work at the Montréal Maintenance Center.
VIA said the upgrades will allow the centers to become the home base for the maintenance of VIA’s new Siemens-built Venture trainsets to be used in Quebec City – Windsor corridor while maintaining and servicing its existing fleet. A total of 32 trainsets, with a total cost of more than C$989 million, are expected to be delivered by 2024. Funding for the maintenance center projects was provided in the 2018 Canadian federal budget, and construction will begin in the spring of 2023 with a targeted completion date of 2026.
“We are proud to work with two exceptional Canadian partners on these two projects,” Martin R. Landry, VIA Rail President and CEO said in a news release. “The modernization of our maintenance centers is an important step in the fleet replacement program and in VIA Rail’s overall modernization process. These centers will allow us to maintain the new Corridor fleet that embodies the vision we have for the VIA Rail of tomorrow.”
The first train in the new corridor fleet saw its first passengers this month with a full commercial launch planned for 2023.
Siemens has earned its reputation as a manufacturer of choice for passenger railways. Brightline was the first carrier in North America to order intercity passenger cars and diesel locomotives from Siemens. Brightline’s train operations have been flawless with the new Siemens equipment.
Amtrak has not faired as well with Siemens equipment because of poor staffing in maintenance and mismanagement. The new coaches for state-sponsered regional trains sit dormant in the coach yard at Chicago Union Station unused.
Siemens is partnering with Alstom as separate entities to develope the next generation of high speed passenger trains in France and Germany for the 2030s.
To date, Brightline is running essentially short distance commuter trains in a relatively benign operating climate. One would *hope* for flawless operation…
VIA and Amtrak operations will be far more demanding and congested. I’m not sure Brightline says much about real world operations.
So, VIA is using our public money to refurbish the maintenance center that will soon after be offloaded to Siemens along with the HFR corridor project. Wow.
I mean, does anyone really think Siemens will NOT be the chosen bidder for the project? VIA has been steadily losing management staff to Siemens for the past years, starting with former CEO Yves Desjardins-Siciliano himself.
In civilized countries, this would be called a conflict of interest at best, or corruption at worst, but here it seems to be perfectly acceptable when it comes to Canada’s public passenger rail operator.
(Sorry, but as a Canadian, it’s hard not to be cynical)