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micheal_can said:
Complete guess as I have no idea. Heck it could be 20 years. The real problem is not my guess, but how long the legacy fleet can last before they need to be removed from revenue service. The longer Via waits to order more,the more there is a risk of a loss of frequency.
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The funny thing is that the Legacy fleet was supposed to largely disappear once Ventures entered service. Anyone's guess whether such reference to Legacy fleet means LRC, HEP or both. But until VIA gets more than 13 Venture slots in its 26 Corridor rotation slots, the Legacy fleet stays in service. Technically, they should be hitting the sale pages now. Interestingly, in VIA's annual public meeting, there was this. Looks like the VIA Historical Association will be busy!
Screenshot 2025-08-21 at 21.24.01.png
 
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Trackside_Treasure said:
The funny thing is that the Legacy fleet was supposed to largely disappear once Ventures entered service. Anyone's guess whether such reference to Legacy fleet means LRC, HEP or both. But until VIA gets more than 13 slots in its 26 Corridor rotation slots, the Legacy fleet stays in service. Technically, they should be hitting the sale pages now. Interestingly, in VIA's annual public meeting, there was this. Looks like the VIA Historical Association will be busy!View attachment 675622
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I am more concerned of the coaches that are not going to remain safe to use. We know they cannot be refurbished to last longer. The issue is that so long as this drags on, those cars only get worse. The last thing anyone would want to see would be the lose of frequency due to lack of equipment. Hopefully Via management are looking at all options and have cost ant timelines ready for when they can act on them.
 
micheal_can said:
I am more concerned of the coaches that are not going to remain safe to use. We know they cannot be refurbished to last longer. The issue is that so long as this drags on, those cars only get worse. The last thing anyone would want to see would be the lose of frequency due to lack of equipment. Hopefully Via management are looking at all options and have cost ant timelines ready for when they can act on them.
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The HEP coaches are being refurbished and there are F40's being refurbished. But there is not enough of them. Could we keep some of the good LRC's for a little while longer?

Also currently the Ventures are not fully utilized, if they are reliable enough to be put into full service it would help even though they are slower.
 
Bordercollie said:
The HEP coaches are being refurbished and there are F40's being refurbished. But there is not enough of them. Could we keep some of the good LRC's for a little while longer?
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We could.... but.... the LRC fleet has displayed a proven and documented process of deterioration with the carbodies individually reaching end of life. So retaining some would only work if VIA had the resources to execute the time consuming process of continual teardown and inspection of any retained LRC coaches to assure that they are still in good shape. This is likely not affordable. If anything, some LRC's have likely overstayed their safe operating life cycle, and the rest are truly pushing the envelope.

Bordercollie said:
Also currently the Ventures are not fully utilized, if they are reliable enough to be put into full service it would help even though they are slower.
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This is gradually improving. Completing the new shop facilities will likely improve things. But - having more reliable Venture trains in service that have to slow to 45 mph at every level crossing is not a good solution.

- Paul
 
crs1026 said:
We could.... but.... the LRC fleet has displayed a proven and documented process of deterioration with the carbodies individually reaching end of life. So retaining some would only work if VIA had the resources to execute the time consuming process of continual teardown and inspection of any retained LRC coaches to assure that they are still in good shape. This is likely not affordable. If anything, some LRC's have likely overstayed their safe operating life cycle, and the rest are truly pushing the envelope.


This is gradually improving. Completing the new shop facilities will likely improve things. But - having more reliable Venture trains in service that have to slow to 45 mph at every level crossing is not a good solution.

- Paul
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I've said this before but they could lease GO trainsets, it's not as comfortable but it's been done before.

As Amtrak retires it's Amfleets could they be leased? At least they dont have structural issues.

Doesn't seem to be any other options.
 
Bordercollie said:
I've said this before but they could lease GO trainsets, it's not as comfortable but it's been done before.

As Amtrak retires it's Amfleets could they be leased? At least they dont have structural issues.

Doesn't seem to be any other options.
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The only proper and logical option at this point is for Transport Canada to rule in VIA's favour in the absence of any conclusive safety risk proven by CN, and to have CN's crossing supplements and the associated crossing speed reductions removed.
 
CapitalSeven said:
I'm baffled by the federal government's failure on this issue. They could step up and regulate CN into the 21st century. I'm going to annoy my MP's office on this.
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There are lots of things the government could do to fix the problem. It's as though no one wants to do anything and they think the problem will just go away.
 
CapitalSeven said:
I'm baffled by the federal government's failure on this issue. They could step up and regulate CN into the 21st century. I'm going to annoy my MP's office on this.
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Corporations run the government, not the people. CN is one of the biggest companies in the world. Canadian government bows to them and their lobbyists.

To make matters worse, CN was once a crown corporation and has many nice nepo connections to the government still.
 
Bordercollie said:
I've said this before but they could lease GO trainsets, it's not as comfortable but it's been done before.

As Amtrak retires it's Amfleets could they be leased? At least they dont have structural issues.

Doesn't seem to be any other options.
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First of all, none we know of. They are pretty old now.

Second, and to the point of “that we know of”, the entire Horizon fleet was pulled off the road lately which means Amtrak is spreading its Amfleet stock more thinly already. They have nothing spare for VIA.

Thirdly, my recollection is that, in lieu of a strategy to replace all existing non-accessible rolling stock with accessible stock now, VIA has committed to merely that no new vehicle types will be accepted into VIA service unless accessible. While Amfleet likely does meet some ADA requirements, my guess is that it does not meet the standard Venture met when accepted into Canadian service.
 
Trackside_Treasure said:
The only proper and logical option at this point is for Transport Canada to rule in VIA's favour in the absence of any conclusive safety risk proven by CN, and to have CN's crossing supplements and the associated crossing speed reductions removed.
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why would any minister want Transport to create political liability on itself for future accidents when the option of sitting on their hands is right there?
 
Bordercollie said:
I've said this before but they could lease GO trainsets, it's not as comfortable but it's been done before.
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With what extra fleet? GO is not sitting on that much excess equipment, and certainly almost no extra locos.

Bordercollie said:
As Amtrak retires it's Amfleets could they be leased? At least they dont have structural issues.
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They do have structural issues. That's why there's a bit of a rush on replacing them.

Bordercollie said:
Doesn't seem to be any other options.
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You're finally right.

Dan
 
VIA tested another variation on the varied-length consist today, consisting of the cornucopic casserole of leftovers from Sets 7 and 25 not used in the augmenting of Sets 12 and 24. This 'melangay' cab-car-centred consist comprised 2207-2606-2806-2306-2324-2824-2624-2224, operating as VIA No 631 Montreal-Ottawa. Some VIA fans use the term "XS" to refer to this Crossing Supplement-skirting assemblage.
 
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