VIA Rail selects Siemens for flagship fleet renewal

electricron wrote: ↑Mon Nov 23, 2020 10:08 am I'm still waiting on reading Siemens railcars being bought to replace the ancient HEP Budd built cars on the Canadian and Ocean. That would be earth shaking news.

There are coaches of an older vintage: the 1946-era coaches purchased in the 1990s from various US sources. Seventeen of those were to be rebuilt by Bombardier. This rebuild programme has been cancelled due to serious structural issues found. The HEP-2 corridor coaches and VIA 1 cars are getting an interior refurbishment but not a rebuild. The rebuild of the 1954 Budd coaches by CAD is apparently going ahead. Some are already completed. I saw two at the Toronto Maintenance Centre a few weeks ago.

This is VIA's information about the rebuilds. It has not been amended to show the cancellation of the rebuild for what was to be called HEP-3 coaches.

https://corpo.viarail.ca/en/projects-in ... ge-program

Gorgeous livery! Any chance they'll test on the NEC before entering service?

Given the lack of proper legislation in Canada for VIA I have no sympathy for the train sets being built at Sacramento. As wall it is important for Amtrak to have a stable builder for future Amtrak equipment orders. Maybe this will enable Siemens to do another phased expansion of Sacramento ?..

west point wrote: ↑Sat Dec 12, 2020 6:39 pm Given the lack of proper legislation in Canada for VIA I have no sympathy for the train sets
being built at Sacramento. Maybe this will enable Siemens to do another phased expansion
of Sacramento?..

If only they can expand with a NY assembly plant, allow them in a better position for MTA contracts and to serve
East Coast agencies.

100% "made in NY" (stainless steel fabrication and assembly in state) would be a major boost for winning MTA.

R36 Combine Coach wrote: ↑Sun Dec 13, 2020 4:02 am

west point wrote: ↑Sat Dec 12, 2020 6:39 pm Given the lack of proper legislation in Canada for VIA I have no sympathy for the train sets
being built at Sacramento. Maybe this will enable Siemens to do another phased expansion
of Sacramento?..

If only they can expand with a NY assembly plant, allow them in a better position for MTA contracts and to serve
East Coast agencies.

100% "made in NY" (stainless steel fabrication and assembly in state) would be a major boost for winning MTA.

One has to wonder just how much longer CAF will stay in the north american market. They have been somewhat less than successful on both the intercity and transit side of the industry. So Siemens, there's your eastern plant.

CAF has been having mixed reviews on their Sleepers built for UK service

At least they got their order filled more or less on time.

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Alphaboi wrote: ↑Tue Dec 15, 2020 1:11 am At least they got their order filled more or less on time.

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Not only were they late on delivery the "Mark 5" cars had lots of problems to be ironed out. I read the newsgroup uk.railway (available on Google Groups) and there's lots of threads over there concerning the Mark 5 equipment.

Like I said, I really don't see CAF staying in the north american market much longer with Siemens getting contract after contract with the dual mode units for Metro North being the latest.

Alphaboi wrote: ↑Mon Nov 23, 2020 2:52 pm It would be interesting to see what Siemens would come up with in the way of a sleeping car.

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Forbes article on new Siemens built sleeper train and cars. https://www.forbes.com/sites/geoffreymo ... 65abc46f92

That would be an European design, but it would not be difficult for them to redesign it to North American values.

Probably a moot question but is there any progress that anyone knows of on the construction/any updated livery renderings of the new trains? It’s been well over 2 years since the contract was awarded so I’d think there would be an update of some sort by now.

Yes......I've seen several Facebook posts of assembled locomotives. Sorry no links but appear ready for testing.

Originally posted by Matt Johnson in the Amtrak ALC-42 thread, there's a brief look at one of the VIA units at the end of this video.

It appears that the axels are farther apart than normal US passenger and freight locos ?

bostontrainguy wrote: ↑Fri Apr 30, 2021 8:36 pm Reports on another site that three new Siemens passenger cars being delivered have derailed
in Avon, Indiana last night.

Midwest Corridor fleet or VIA?