mtuandrew wrote:VIA officials can get a good look at the Union-Pearson Express Nippon Sharyos. If I were them, I'd be putting forward an RFP tailored to NS equipment - so many of VIA's corridor trains are relatively small, and a four-car DMU set might fit the bill well.
Unknown how they'll handle heavy snow though, or if they have the range required for the Sudbury-White River turn.
The Nippon Sharyos are maintained at VIA's Toronto Maintenance Centre, across the mainline from Metrolinx' Willowbrook Yard. Presumably reasons like space and bays available for high floor rolling stock factored in, but I don't think VIA staff do the work. They probably have had plenty of opportunity to take a look though, and to talk to the Metrolinx folks about how easy/hard they are to maintain. The reality is though that there are a few more unrefurbished RDCs in VIA ownership, and more at TRE if they wanted to go get them. Since that would mean refurb work at a Canadian shop it may play into the decision making, especially with the awful C$/US$ rate right now and for the foreseeable. That said, another way this might work out is if the UPX cars could be refitted with traps, and Metrolinx abandon the idea of repowering them into EMUs in favour of new EMUs and flogging the UPX stock to VIA.