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No to both of those. And there is already a Park Car in a Canadian museum - Sibley Park has been at Exporail since 2004.



I suspect that their omission from the HEP program was more a function of the fact that they simply were used in service with the other steam-heated equipment right up until they started using the rebuilt HEP-equipped stock - and that there had long been a surplus of Park Cars in the fleet. As far as I can tell, all three were used right until the end of the steam-heated equipment on the Canadian.

Dan
Shame, that they could have been used as spares or charter runs.
 
Shame, that they could have been used as spares or charter runs.
According to its website, VIA has 14 Park cars in its current fleet - and that apparently excludes the 4 Prestige Park cars.

With the Ocean permanently operating as a bidirectional service, there are only two services left where these regular Park cars can be deployed sensibly: the Churchill service and the Skeena. Churchill operates with 3 sets (already including one set in maintenance) and Skeena with 2.

Recalling the nature of the Park car (i.e. that only one car per consist can be used for passengers), how could there possibly be a need for a 15th Park car?
 
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According to its website, VIA has 14 Park cars in its current fleet - and that apparently excludes the 4 Prestige Park cars.

With the Ocean permanently operating as a bidirectional service, there are only two services left where these regular Park cars can be deployed sensibly: the Churchill service and the Skeena. Churchill operates with 3 sets (already including one set in maintenance) and Skeena with 2.

Recalling the nature of the Park car (i.e. that only one car per consist can be used for passengers), how could there possibly be a need for a 15th Park car?
The ocean situation is more recent, however previous to this new configuration the lack of park cars prevents them from adding any new service's on any of those routes.
 
The ocean situation is more recent, however previous to this new configuration the lack of park cars prevents them from adding any new service's on any of those routes.
According to the 2021 Trackside Guide, the count of 14 Park cars apparently includes those of the Prestige Park cars. Nevertheless, as someone who has helped preparing business cases for service expansions and held responsibility for the allocation of VIA‘s non-corridor HEP fleet during his 6 years at VIA, I somehow suspect that I would have heard if the availability of Park cars (of all car types!) posed a major constraint…
 
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The CPR purchased 18 Park cars, which, according to Wikipedia, are as follows:

CP No.Via No. (1979)Via No. (HEP)NameParkDecorArtistNotes
1540115501Algonquin ParkAlgonquin Provincial ParkPA. J. Casson
15402155028702Assiniboine ParkAssiniboine Provincial ParkOGeorge Franklin Arbuckle
15403155038703Banff ParkBanff National ParkPCharles Comfort
15404155048704Evangeline Parkprivate park, now Grand-Pré National Historic SiteOHarry Leslie Smith
15405Fundy ParkFundy National ParkOLawren P. HarrisWrecked in 1959
15406155068706Glacier ParkGlacier National ParkPAdam Sherriff Scott
15407155078707Kokanee ParkKokanee Glacier Provincial ParkOA. Y. Jackson
15408155088708Kootenay ParkKootenay National ParkPGeorge Pepper
15409155098709Laurentide ParkLaurentides Wildlife ReserveOAlbert Edward Cloutier
15410155108710Prince Albert ParkPrince Albert National ParkPFrederick James Finley
15411155118711Revelstoke ParkMount Revelstoke National ParkPRobert Pilot
1541215512Riding Mountain ParkRiding Mountain National ParkPWilliam Arthur Winter
1541315513Sibley ParkSibley Provincial ParkOYvonne McKague Housser
15414155148714Strathcona ParkStrathcona Provincial ParkOWalter J. Phillips
15415155158715Tremblant ParkMont-Tremblant National ParkOEdwin Holgate
15416155168716Tweedsmuir ParkTweedsmuir Provincial ParkOE. J. Hughes
15417155178717Waterton ParkWaterton Lakes National ParkPLlewellyn Petley-Jones
15418155188718Yoho ParkYoho National Park

As @Urban Sky said, 14 still remain in service. Of the remaining 4, one (Fundy Park) was wrecked in a collision in 1959, and three (Algonquin Park, Sibley Park, and Riding Mountain Park) have been preserved.
 
At 3:22 in this video of the new Siemens trains in service, there's an automated annoucement saying "Pour votre sécurité nous vous demandons de rester assis jusqu'à ce que le train s'immobilise". That frankly seems ridiculous to me.

I guess it wasn't bad enough that VIA has been bringing the boarding hassles of air travel to trains, now they also want to bring the leg cramps of bus travel. I've never heard of a train where people are discouraged from getting out of their seats.

 
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At 3:22 in this video of the new Siemens trains in service, there's an automated annoucement saying "Pour votre sécurité nous vous demandons de rester assis jusqu'à ce que le train s'immobilise". That frankly seems ridiculous to me.

I guess it wasn't bad enough that VIA has been bringing the boarding hassles of air travel to trains, now they also want to bring the leg cramps of bus travel. I've never heard of a train where people aren't allowed to wander around.

Is it only when the train is arriving at a station? I can kind of see that. But I hope the new trains come to a stop more smoothly than the old trains.
 
Is it only when the train is arriving at a station? I can kind of see that. But I hope the new trains come to a stop more smoothly than the old trains.
I think it was when the train was arriving at Dorval, but still. If the very sedate deceleration of a VIA train is a problem for standees, then the very concept of a subway train is a non-starter.
 
At 3:22 in this video of the new Siemens trains in service, there's an automated annoucement saying "Pour votre sécurité nous vous demandons de rester assis jusqu'à ce que le train s'immobilise". That frankly seems ridiculous to me.

I guess it wasn't bad enough that VIA has been bringing the boarding hassles of air travel to trains, now they also want to bring the leg cramps of bus travel. I've never heard of a train where people are discouraged from getting out of their seats.


That announcement isn’t anything new. I have heard it many times on VIA trains over the years. I suspect it’s so that no one can sue VIA if the train lurches when coming to a stop and someone falls and hurts them self. Few people ever listened to the announcement though and it was never enforced..
 
That announcement isn’t anything new. I have heard it many times on VIA trains over the years. I suspect it’s so that no one can sue VIA if the train lurches when coming to a stop and someone falls and hurts them self. Few people ever listened to the announcement though and it was never enforced..
What is it about Via that makes them play this announcement while no other railway does as far as I'm aware? Has GO ever been sued for anything like this? How could you even sue Via for performing a routine stop? Or even an emergency stop?
 
What is it about Via that makes them play this announcement while no other railway does as far as I'm aware? Has GO ever been sued for anything like this? How could you even sue Via for performing a routine stop? Or even an emergency stop?
Maybe there actually was a legal dispute and this was on the advice of lawyers. If I recall correctly, an injury and legal action forced Mississauga Transit to permanently make a few seats on all their buses permanently unusable. However, no other agency in the GTA has gone that far.
 
The stay-in-your seat announcement thing goes as far back as the LRC banking system, which could behave a bit extremely while going over the ladder tracks at major stations ie Toronto and Montreal. It was mostly aimed at departures and arrivals.

The LRC also was a change in practice in that the narrow aisles and trolley service demanded that people not move car to car. I hope that is less stringently applied in the new fleet with the wider aisles. Even if there is no snack counter, this train is built for more convenient movement through the train.

- Paul
 
The stay-in-your seat announcement thing goes as far back as the LRC banking system, which could behave a bit extremely while going over the ladder tracks at major stations ie Toronto and Montreal. It was mostly aimed at departures and arrivals.

The LRC also was a change in practice in that the narrow aisles and trolley service demanded that people not move car to car. I hope that is less stringently applied in the new fleet with the wider aisles. Even if there is no snack counter, this train is built for more convenient movement through the train.

- Paul

It's actually older than that - it dates back to the TurboTrains. In that case, it was due to the passive banking system, which would even activate over crossovers and ladders at low speed. They simply continued it with the LRCs and on to today.

But yes, it's a pretty standard message.

Dan
 
I don't recall hearing the message before, but I'll take your word for it that it's pre-existing. It sounds like the bigger issue is switches rather than station stops.

It sounds like the message is superfluous for the non-tilting Siemens trains, but if they insist on keeping the message, it should ideally be related to when the train is about to switch tracks, rather than when it's approaching a station. I realize that that's probably not practical to automate with our current line-of-sight signalling system, but once we install some form of ATP, the train would know the current signal indication and it would be possible to play a relevant message when the train receives a diverging indication. That way you wouldn't need to play the message at stations like Dorval where the train just pulls straight in, and you would play the message when the train switches tracks away from a station.

Allowing passengers to get up before the train stops can make a big difference to dwell times. One example comes to mind:

I was on a train heading eastbound toward Toronto, approaching Brampton 20+ minutes late. At this stop, only one group of passengers was alighting and nobody was boarding. A few minutes after the usual 10-minutes to arrival announcement, an attendant informed them personally that the train would be arriving in Brampton in a couple minutes. They didn't say that they should get up, but I'm guessing that was the implication. In any case, the group remained seated until the train came to a complete stop. Then they got up, walked all the way down to the end of the car to collect their bags, and eventually made their way to the door. In total we must have been stopped for over two minutes waiting for these 4 people to exit. If they'd gotten up and collected their bags before the train stopped, we could have been moving again within about 30 seconds.
 
At 3:22 in this video of the new Siemens trains in service, there's an automated annoucement saying "Pour votre sécurité nous vous demandons de rester assis jusqu'à ce que le train s'immobilise". That frankly seems ridiculous to me.

I guess it wasn't bad enough that VIA has been bringing the boarding hassles of air travel to trains, now they also want to bring the leg cramps of bus travel. I've never heard of a train where people are discouraged from getting out of their seats.


In the comments, the video’s OP said that even though trains 33 and 26 run between Quebec City and Ottawa (or vice-versa), VIA only ran the Venture train between Montreal and Ottawa, so passengers continuing on past Montreal had to change trains.

He also said that the train didn’t wye in Ottawa so the seats were mixed up on train 26. This makes me wonder if VIA plans to eventually discontinue their wye in Ottawa, as it will no longer be needed.
 

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