OTTAWA, Ontario — VIA Rail Canada has provided the first detailed look at its new equipment for corridor service, unveiling the first full trainset at the Ottawa station.
A total of 32 Siemens-built trainsets will serve the Quebec City-Windsor, Ont., corridor. Testing of the first trainset will begin this month, with the first of the new equipment expected to enter service in the fourth quarter of 2022.
“This new fleet marks a new era for passenger rail service in the Corridor, where we served over 4.7 million passengers in 2019 and which represented 96% of our ridership pre-pandemic,” VIA Rail CEO Cynthia Garneau said in a press release. “In addition to being one of the most environmentally friendly fleets in North America, this modern new fleet will offer our passengers an unparalleled, barrier-free, and fully accessible travel experience.”
Features of the new cars include:
— Wider aisles, automatic touchless interior doors, adjustable tray tables, ergonomic seats, and high-speed WiFi;
— Full accessibility, with six onboard wheelchair lifts, five Mobility Aid Spaces for wheelchair users per trainset, large accessible washrooms, braille, and embossed signage.
— Bidirectional operation powered by Siemens Charger locomotives, capable of 125-mph operation meeting U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Tier 4 emissions standards.
In their standard configuration, with a locomotive, four coaches, and a cab car, the trainsets will include 194 economy-class seats and 87 business-class seats.
Will the seats turn? I don’t like riding backwards…
C&O/Pere Marquette certainly had a good passenger paint scheme.
Established by the Canadian government in 1977 and headquartered in Montreal, Via Rail Canada (Amtrak’s sturdy but smaller counterpart in North America) breathed genuinely a continous flow of reborn life into the country’s railways by becoming its first national passenger rail company. Throughout its history, VIA has succeeded in building an outstanding company known around the world for its remarkable efficiency and management.
Referred to in Via Rail’s published timetables as simply “the Corridor”, the Quebec City – Montreal – Toronto – Windsor Corridor is the busiest portion of the VIA system, accounting for the majority of Canada’s intercity passenger trains and ridership. And beginning to enter traffic on the Corridor toward the end of 2022, the brand new push-pull trains which are being built in Siemens’ Sacramento-California facility will replace the existing life-expired fleet (All of Via Rail’s recent fleet will be delivered by 2024).
Representing an investment of $C 989m ($US 781.5m), a contract awarded in 2018, these 32 sleek, modern, comfortable, powerful and eco-friendly diesel train sets will provide VIA passengers with a smoother ride for the next 30+ years. Well done dear Via Rail Canada!
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
The design of the Siemens Charger locomotives and passenger cars can be adopted to long distance passenger trains on both Amtrak and Via Rail Canada. Sleeping cars, diners and lounge cars can be incorporated into the design along with coaches for overnight travel having leg rests and rest rooms with grooming area.
These long distance cars would replace both Amfleet II cars and Superliners for universal use from the Northeast Corridor to the Gulf and Pacific coasts as well as the South. These cars are adaptive to high and low station platforms. They are not subjected to height restrictions and enable the operation of whole trains and through cars between the East and the Pacific.
The trains equipped with these new Siemens cars would look aesthetically pleasing having a uniform roof profile with the locomotives and baggage cars as well as matching cars like the streamliners of old.
Penelope – What a concept! A train that actually looks decent! Forty-five years since we’ve last seen the loco and all the cars matching in profile, on most routes.
While I understand there are more pressing issues than how good a train looks, it don’t hurt.
I’m positive Loewy and Dreyfuss would agree wholeheartedly, Charles.
I am unsure on how wise and safe it is to operate at 100mph or above with a cab car leading.
Amtrak is using Pull & Push Trains since the early 90’s. Don’t they?
Essentially a diesel Railjet, incredible compared to the the present 1970s stock pulled by a arthritic F40PHs
Meanwhile strings of Siemens-built Venture cars still sit unused for over a year in the Chicago coach yard. What is that all about?
Look great. But what about food service?
Probably the same we have now – cart with small things in economy, hot meals in VIA 1.