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Discussion of Canadian Passenger Rail Services such as AMT (Montreal), Go Transit (Toronto), VIA Rail, and other Canadian Railways and Transit

Moderator: Ken V

 #1393153  by NH2060
 
Not related to the NB and NS regional/corridor service proposal from late last year. Service would run to/from Downtown and Windsor Jct. as a multiple frequency VIA Rail commuter train:
An unsolicited proposal made by VIA Rail to HRM that will be presented to a standing committee next week has re-ignited discussion about a commuter rail service.

“We’re calling it an unsolicited proposal for lack of a better word but it’s probably a pre-proposal, to be honest,” Bedford Coun. Tim Outhit said in an interview on Friday.

http://www.metronews.ca/news/halifax/20 ... r-hrm.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 #1395779  by jp1822
 
This is good news!!! Parts of Halifax can really get crazy at rush hour so hopefully this will help with rush hour and the city of Halifax in general.

Perfect for former RDC service, but I guess a conventional train set with either former "Heritage" type coaches will have to be used or maybe VIA can spare Renaissance equipment, especially if they have ample tables at the seating areas.....
 #1407108  by jp1822
 
So what happened to this proposal and also the one where VIA was considering a corridor type train in the Moncton area? Not sure what the specific corridor was but it was basically a "day train" in the Maritimes - on the existing CN tracks that the Ocean uses 3x per week. Or was the election won by some politico and ALL is now a dead issue?
 #1407218  by Ken V
 
Both proposals are still on the table. Last I heard, Halifax council and VIA were working out the details of the commuter service and VIA was negotiating track access with CN for the Campbellton/Moncton and Halifax/Moncton daytime service. Neither was negatively affected by recent elections.
 #1407838  by NH2060
 
Part of me wonders if they are in fact secretly planning to plan/launch both Halifax commuter rail and Halifax-Moncton + Moncton-Campbellton round trips together at the same time. Both endeavors will certainly require not only transferring more locomotives and coaches from out west (Montreal, etc.), but also establishing a larger crew/servicing base(s) in Halifax and Moncton. Therefore combining the needs of both simultaneously would be simpler instead of doing one then the other. Also if coaches ever needed to be swapped out for any reason it would definitely help to have a larger pool of equipment to tap into for sub-ins. Something tells me these trains would not be using the Renaissance cars (including any equipment from the Ocean).
 #1419241  by NH2060
 
Prospects are looking good. Halifax-Moncton trains would start later this year.
He told reporters Via and the municipality need to finalize an operating plan that looks at capacity, traffic schedules and pricing, then bring it to CN, the railway owner, for approval. Desjardins-Siciliano said the work is headed in the right direction and he expected the owner would be open to the idea as long as there are no conflicts.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scot ... -1.3960280" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 #1421051  by MikeCDN
 
It's about time they started doing this. The populations of these towns isn't shrinking and driving is becoming too costly these days.

Just my thoughts,

M.
 #1441739  by andrewjw
 
electricron wrote:What rolling stock is available for running these additional trains?
Presumably the Texas RDCs would have been used had VIA won the auction for them.
 #1441750  by electricron
 
andrewjw wrote:
electricron wrote:What rolling stock is available for running these additional trains?
Presumably the Texas RDCs would have been used had VIA won the auction for them.
Are there other RDCs lying around idle VIA could use or refurbish?
 #1441768  by Backshophoss
 
Most of VIA's RDC's have been scrapped,when TSI went "belly up",they were at that facility,stored in poor condition waiting for
a turn in the shop for overhaul/upgrade. The scrapping was done after the "courthouse steps" sale of TSI's remains.
Same shop did the LRC car upgrade/rebuild.
 #1441889  by dowlingm
 
I suspect VIA will keep an eye on things in Vermont, but F40PH locomotives and HEP stock would be my guess in order to keep commonality with Ocean stock, at least until the concept is proven. They have ambitions to do some medium distance runs in NS/NB also.
 #1442171  by NH2060
 
dowlingm wrote:I suspect VIA will keep an eye on things in Vermont, but F40PH locomotives and HEP stock would be my guess in order to keep commonality with Ocean stock, at least until the concept is proven. They have ambitions to do some medium distance runs in NS/NB also.
+1. I would think the F40s + coaches would be more practical for the Halifax-Moncton/Moncton-Campbellton runs.