It was 78 sometime within the last month, I was tracking it on tsimobile.viarail.ca. The train was a bit late and a go train was supposed to leave Aldershot at the same time, but my train got the green light first so the driver just gunned it out of the station.

Well, not all drivers follow the speed limit. I've been on an LRC consist pulled by a P42 travelling 170 km/h on Lakeshore West (it was bumpy to say the least)

I'm guessing that there will be a procurement soon for long distance cars to replace the renaissance sleepers, or is VIA just going to be shuffling the HEP cars around?

There are options for an additional 16 new trainsets, I think the original plan was to keep the HEPIIs for a couple more years (which is why they are being renovated). https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/bombardier-hit-with-astonishing-via-rail-blow-amid-nj-transit-win-1.1182266

Don't really have a direct source, the video they posted on youtube shows 4 cars, and the Instagram post showed a loco and 3 cars so I used the more reasonable one. I did a bit more math below. A current 4 car LRC consist contains a club car and 3 coach cars. 44 seats + 68 seats + 68 seats + 68...

Assuming they're based off the bright line ones, they are 20 cm longer which isn't a whole lot. https://assets.new.siemens.com/siemens/assets/public.1500895725.65e137d93be4ff8bb4120242196bccb5db88cc55.image-viaggio-comfort-english.pdf

Slightly off topic, but I'm starting to think that the new fleet is going to have worse legroom than the current fleet. Here's the math: 9100 passengers/32 trainsets/4 cars = 71.9 passengers per car That equals to at least another row of seats when compared to the LRCs which have 68 seats per...

Actually, not according to this https://www.exporail.org/can_rail/Canadian%20Rail_no503_2004.pdf and this, https://history.amtrak.com/blogs/blog/the-lrcs According to those weights, the LRC is 23,000 pounds lighter and that's before its tilting mechanism was removed which saved an additional 2...

There's the one you work for, VIA Rail. Here's an excerpt from page 48 of the 2017-2021 corporate plan indicating push-pull ops from Toronto-Ottawa. And here is a link to a video from 3 weeks back showing push-pull ops on train 73 which came from Ottawa earlier in the day as train 41 from Ottawa.

It is in the fall when the heavier HEP2 stock is being pulled. I saw 2 double-headed P42s between while traveling from Toronto to London and I asked the service manager about it. Most trains on Toronto-Ottawa I've seen are push-pull now along with some trains on in SWO that come from Ottawa...

Given that there are wheel slip issues in the fall when leaves fall on the tracks, and VIA currently has engines on either end of the consist currently to counteract this, I'm pretty sure that they're going with locos at both ends.

Quite a bit of the OTP drop can be attributed to GO maintenance on the Lakeshore West corridor delaying trains coming out of the TMC.

https://www.viarail.ca/sites/all/files/media/pdfs/About_VIA/our-company/quartely-reports/2018/Q3_2018_EN.PDF Q3 report is out with ridership increasing 6.2% compared to last year and revenues increasing by 5.1%.

I think they might start adding some more trains soon. They changed the way they cycled the trains 2 weeks back and they're starting to do push-pull trains into Southwestern Ontario from Ottawa (previously trains in Southwestern Ontario came from both Montreal and Ottawa).

Considering that I saw the same the McDonald's coffee cup in a vestibule of a train for 3 weeks straight, and they left a fridge on a train unrepaired for 2 months with a maintenance tag on it. I agree with what you said.

Streamlined version is lit though.

I'm might be traveling on 88 on Thursday if 78 gets delayed 3 hours like last week. I'll post anything I find out onboard.

I've been on 88 a couple of times and I can say that the way VIA operates Friday train also plays a part in the delay. Usually, this train is an F40 pulling a HEP1 car and a HEP2 Club Car. However, on Fridays train 83 comprised of HEP1 and HEP2 cars is attached to the back of the train making a...

I really hope they move on to replacing the reservation system soon after they deal with the fleet replacement. Every ticket counter agent I've spoken to hates it because it's so slow, and whenever I bring up the new reservation system they say something along the lines of "in my day people...

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday