[CA] Alsthom will deliver 313 rail cars to Via Rail

Must admit this highlights just how small an operation Via actually is for such a huge country if 313 vehicles is the entire fleet.

As a comparison, just the 11 car Pendolinos (35 of them though I forget if Greyrigg was a 9 or an 11) give you 385 vehicles.

That doesn't make a full fleet replacement sound that big a thing! Indeed Greater Anglia, who also did a full fleet replacement, have if I've worked it out right 1055 vehicles, and that's just one TOC on an island country that is tiny compared to Canada!

Bletchleyite said:

That doesn't make a full fleet replacement sound that big a thing!

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This doesn't include the corridor routes of course, which have a more intensive service (i.e. several trains a day rather than a few times a week if that).

But yes there isn't much left of the long distance network.

It is very nice to see that there will still be dome cars and berth cars (which I presume are the traditional "sections")

Bletchleyite said:

Indeed Greater Anglia, who also did a full fleet replacement, have if I've worked it out right 1055 vehicles, and that's just one TOC on an island country that is tiny compared to Canada!

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The comparison would come out differently if you compare populations rather than area though.

And also if you were to look at how many vehicles would be required for GO Transit to do a full fleet replacement.

There were massive cuts to the Via Rail network in the 1980s and 1990s, carried out by both Liberal and Progressive Conservative governments.

Must admit this highlights just how small an operation Via actually is for such a huge country if 313 vehicles is the entire fleet.

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VIA Rail in numbers (taken from the 2025 Annual Report):

• Traffic
  • ca. 404 departures a week
  • 4,39 million passengers (95% corridor, 3% Long Distance, 2% Regional/Remote)
    

    Route	Passengers
    Montréal-Ottawa-Toronto	2,30 million
    Québec City-Montréal-Ottawa	1,03 million
    Total Corridor East	3,33 million
    Toronto-London-Sarnia-Windsor	793,7K
    Toronto-Niagara	45,9K
    Total Southwestern Ontario (SWO)	839,6K
    Total Corridor	4,18 million
    Montréal-Halifax	73,3K
    Toronto-Vancouver	76,3K
    Total Long Distance	149,6K
    Montréal-Jonquière	8,0K
    Montréal-Senneterre	11,2K
    Sudbury-White River	6,9K
    Winnipeg-Churchill	25,9K
    Jasper-Prince Rupert	14,8K
    Total Regional/Remote	67,1K
    Grand Total	4,395 million

• Fleet
  • 70 locos
  • 294 train cars
  • 32 Venture sets
• Finances
  

  Revenue (79% Corridor, 20% Long Distance, 1% Regional/Remote)	518,5 million CAD
  Expenses	894,2 million CAD
  Operating loss	375,7 million CAD

k-c-p said:

VIA Rail in numbers (taken from the 2025 Annual Report):

• Traffic
  • ca. 404 departures a week
  • 4,39 million passengers (95% corridor, 3% Long Distance, 2% Regional/Remote)
    

    Route	Passengers
    Montréal-Ottawa-Toronto	2,30 million
    Québec City-Montréal-Ottawa	1,03 million
    Total Corridor East	3,33 million
    Toronto-London-Sarnia-Windsor	793,7K
    Toronto-Niagara	45,9K
    Total Southwestern Ontario (SWO)	839,6K
    Total Corridor	4,18 million
    Montréal-Halifax	73,3K
    Toronto-Vancouver	76,3K
    Total Long Distance	149,6K
    Montréal-Jonquière	8,0K
    Montréal-Senneterre	11,2K
    Sudbury-White River	6,9K
    Winnipeg-Churchill	25,9K
    Jasper-Prince Rupert	14,8K
    Total Regional/Remote	67,1K
    Grand Total	4,395 million

• Fleet
  • 70 locos
  • 294 train cars
  • 32 Venture sets
• Finances
  

  Revenue (79% Corridor, 20% Long Distance, 1% Regional/Remote)	518,5 million CAD
  Expenses	894,2 million CAD
  Operating loss	375,7 million CAD

Click to expand...

I understand that this order is to replace all of the 294 train cars listed, so it will allow for a modest increase in capacity (as well as significant standardization and modernization).