Upscale car upgrades for the Canadian

VIA Rail has awarded a contract to Avalon Rail Inc. of Milwaukee WI for eight upgraded Chateau sleeping cars and four Park dome/observation cars for use on the flagship Canadian.

VIA Rail wrote:The eight Chateau sleeping cars will be reconfigured with an all-new arrangement of six upscale cabins designed to accommodate up to three passengers each.

Each sleeping cabin will be completely self-contained and will include an en-suite washroom plus a separate shower. The new cabins will also feature wood paneling, sofa seating, a widescreen television and controls to enable passengers to raise or lower the beds whenever they desire. This elegant new design has been selected to enable VIA's Canadian to attract the growing clientele for more upscale travel experiences.

This program will also substantially increase the train's accessibility for travellers with special needs. The four existing Park car bedrooms will be replaced by two large upscale cabins. One will be identical to those in the rebuilt Chateau sleeping cars. The other will be an extra-large, fully-accessible cabin. It will provide separate, fully-accessible washroom and shower facilities. Each Park car will also feature an onboard wheelchair lift.

I'm certain that once these cars come online in a couple of years, these ultra accomodations will carry an ultra price tag.

More information is in the VIA press release.

Via's Budd (ex-CP) stainless steel car roster:
43 Coach cars
69 Sleeper cars (29 Chateau & 40 Manor)
14 Park cars (Sleeper-Lounge-Observation)
13 Dining cars
16 Skyline Dome cars
19 Baggage cars
Total: 174 active Budd cars
1 Observation club car (Inactive and stored in Montreal from BC Rail)

Therefore, 8 of 29 Chateau, and 4 out of 14 Park cars, will get these refurbishment's. That's 27.5% of the Chateau, and 28.5% of the Parks. Assuming the Canadian uses 4 train sets, that's one dedicated Park car and two Chateau cars being refurbished per train.

Since VIA is upgrading 25% of the Budd Chateau sleeper cars with larger suites, why aren't they also upgrading Renaissance sleepers too, at least building some of the Renaissance shells in Thunder Bay to this layout?

electricron wrote:Since VIA is upgrading 25% of the Budd Chateau sleeper cars with larger suites, why aren't they also upgrading Renaissance sleepers too, at least building some of the Renaissance shells in Thunder Bay to this layout?

First of all, the "Renaissance" cars are built to the narrow British loading gauge, so they hardly have the space for "luxury" accomodation.

Second, its clear that the unfinished cars were probably cannibalized for spare parts.

Third, these cars grew rather old during their protracted period of construction and storage.

I was just reading October's Canadian Railway Observations (http://www.canadianrailwayobservations. ... t11via.htm) and it mentions the new Deluxe Sleeper Class on The Canadian, created by refurbishing Château cars. The service will run in summer only and be available in 2012 - VIA has details and photos here: http://www.viarail.ca/en/trains/rockies ... rains-cars.

This is the first I'm hearing of it, and it's very intriguing, especially after seeing the photos on VIA's site, and includes nicer finishes, a larger double-sized bed, upgraded bathrooms with shower, and television with on-board entertainment channels.

If these are created using Château cars, though, they must completely gut the car and start over, and it's sad to see all of those antique finishes gone. Does anyone know how many cars they're planning on refurbishing for this, and at which shops the work is taking place? Also, if this service is only going to be introduced next summer, does this mean those photos are only a mock-up? I wonder how they're managing with the old "upstairs-downstairs" windows on the Château cars?

I gotta say, though - this is pretty innovative for VIA.

I've combined this post with an older topic from 2009. Some of the questions are addressed in the earlier posts.

Thanks, Ken - somehow totally missed this.