VIA Seeking $1.3B In Funding For New Corridor Equipment

NH2060 wrote:I would think that if they were to utilize the Ren fleet for the Ocean and any new Maritimes "corridor" services that a new maintenance facility would need to be built somewhere in or near Halifax since equipment would now have to be based out of Halifax instead of Montreal.

I believe they could keep the maintenance facilities in Montreal. They could swap out Ren fleet coaches with the Ocean to get regional service Ren coaches to Montreal for heavy maintenance.

There's a little detail about the Ren fleet,they are somewhat semi-fixed consist wise.
Most of the cars retained the BR standard screw link and buffers setup with "service cars" that can couple to regular
cars/locos and the rest of the active Ren Fleet.
It's not easy to change consists as demands might require.

Not as easy I'll grant you, but it's not impossible.

Does VIA operate under a similar mandate of inter-car access as does Amtrak per the Americans with Disabilities Act? If not, it seems that Bombardier's BiLevel Coach (or MultiLevel Coach if Gare Centrale de Montreal has height restrictions) would be the ideal choice.

Gare Central has height restrictions going through the tunnel (at least), but they have high platforms.

mtuandrew wrote:Does VIA operate under a similar mandate of inter-car access as does Amtrak per the Americans with Disabilities Act? If not, it seems that Bombardier's BiLevel Coach (or MultiLevel Coach if Gare Centrale de Montreal has height restrictions) would be the ideal choice.

Accessibility governance is a bit different up here.
https://www.otc-cta.gc.ca/eng/publicati ... ail-canada" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

bdawe wrote:Gare Central has height restrictions going through the tunnel (at least), but they have high platforms.

The structure gauge of the Mount Royal Tunnel limits the height of the rail cars to 14 feet 6 inches (4.42 m). Here's the heights of various railroad equipment:
P42DC locomotive 14 ft 4 in (4.37 m) <ok>
F40PH locomotive 15 ft 7 in (4.75 m) <xok>
F59PH locomotive 14 ft 9 in (4.8 m) <xok>
F59PHI locomotive 15 ft 7 in (4.75 m) <xok>
Bombardier ALP-45DP 14 ft 5 in (4.4 m) <ok>
Bombardier ALP-46A 14 ft 8 in (4.49 m) <xok>
Bombardier BiLevel coach 15 ft 11 in (4.85 m) <xok>
Bombardier MultiLevel coach 14 ft 6 in (4.42 m) <ok>
What AMT has in their equipment roster:
11 F59PHI locomotives
10 F59PH locomotives
20 ALP-45DP locomotives
58 MR90 EMUs
160 Bombardier MultiLevels
22 Bombardier BiLevels
24 Bombardier single levels Comets II

VIA doesn't use the Mont Royal tunnel. Bilevels can't operate into Centrale because it is high platform only. MLVs would be possible, but I doubt they want to any more than Amtrak does on the NEC.