VIA New Corridor Trains - 2021 - 2024 Updates

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I'm more curious about what's going to happen to the HEP II cars when these cars are all in service. I know several groups and individuals who would want to get their hands on select cars. I'm in the market for them.
 
Simply Railway has a new video — Toronto to Montreal—I don’t know how to link it, but google “Please Via Rail, you’re not an airline” and it should come up. If any of you more tech-savvy than me (that’s all of you😁) can find it and link it, that would be great!

He liked most of the trip, but as you can tell from the title, he was annoyed about a couple of things early.

Spoiler alert: The always unflappable and calm Simply Railway actually uses a mild curse word! Look for it early in the video. He’s human and can actually get annoyed like the rest of us!
 
Mystic River Dragon said:
Simply Railway has a new video — Toronto to Montreal—I don’t know how to link it, but google “Please Via Rail, you’re not an airline” and it should come up. If any of you more tech-savvy than me (that’s all of you😁) can find it and link it, that would be great!

He liked most of the trip, but as you can tell from the title, he was annoyed about a couple of things early.

Spoiler alert: The always unflappable and calm Simply Railway actually uses a mild curse word! Look for it early in the video. He’s human and can actually get annoyed like the rest of us!
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Of course he is riding in a train of the older LRC cars which he actually liked for their comfortable seats. His main problem was with the tedious airline style boarding process.
 
Anthony V said:
Here is a video filmed by one of my friends in Dekalb, Illinois showing another new Via Rail corridor trainset being delivered.



How many trainsets have since been delivered?
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I want to say this is the third train set being delivered. Hopefully someone has a more confident answer.
 
Marbleski said:
For those interested here is a two minute video of my Feb 28 Ottawa to Montreal return trip on the new Siemens Train numbered 2301.

I have more video clips which I hope to put together into a longer video when I get home and have computer access.

Hopefully the YouTube link I pasted below works.

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Nice, thanks for Sharing!

Reminds me of Acela and Talgos when they were New.

Were the Seats Comfortable?, There have been posts here saying the ones out of Chicago have Uncomfortable Seats.
 
Bob Dylan said:
Nice, thanks for Sharing!

Reminds me of Acela and Talgos when they were New.

Were the Seats Comfortable?, There have been posts here saying the ones out of Chicago have Uncomfortable Seats.
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Thanks Bob. Seats are Ok but a bit stiff. Not broken in yet lol.

The engine was numbered 2301. Is this the first or second train set.
 
BACKGROUND

I was visiting my son in Ottawa recently and while there I wanted to take a sameday train ride to Montreal. I did a similar trip during my last visit in November and it was a treat.

I inherited my Dad’s Railroad genes but never worked on the trains like he did. Our narrow gauge CN railroad shutdown in October 1988. Since then the Island part of our province has been trainless. So…whenever I travel off the island and see a train … well … let me say the fond childhood train memories return. To ride one is like hitting the lottery for me.

I found out VIA were doing revenue test runs between Ottawa and Montreal, mostly on Tuesday’s. I had two Tuesday’s during my stay and by golly I had skiing tickets for the first Tuesday and plans to see an NHL game on the second Tuesday.

Lucky for me Ottawa had a NHL game cancelled earlier in the season and the makeup game was on a Monday. We scrambled and changed our boys NHL Game Night out and made it “The Monday Night Hockey Game”. Bingo.

Skiing check , NHL Game check, Train ride to Montreal check.

It gets better, about 10 days prior to the potential “Tuesday Test Run” I scored the last of the lowest ticket buckets. The next 10 days I was like a 6 year old waiting for Santa … you remember the feeling … dreaming, praying, wishing and so on lol.

The big day of Feb 28th arrived. I took the City Transit O Train to the Ottawa Train Station. Being a small town boy I love any opportunity that comes my way to ride public transit, especially subways and above ground trains. I got to ride a train to take my train lol.

I arrived at the Via Rail station and the line up to board was out to the outside doors. I thought my train departed 2:40 pm but it was 2:20 pm. The small town boy in the big City also miscalculated travel times using public transit. In my neck of the woods we drive everywhere in a matter of minutes. Since the train was boarding I jumped in at the end of the line and before I knew it was I walking underground and up the walkway on the opposite side of the boarding platform toward train 26. When I surfaced to ground level there it was … the new train.

My return trip was about 2.5 hours later and to my very very big surprise I went underground to board and there it was again. They were sending the new train for another test run.

Hopefully this link to my video works. It’s a bit long at 17 minutes … but the bonus return trip provided more time to check out and video the train. If this is too long to watch check out my shorter two minute video. Both videos show the bonus clips of riding in the snowstorm.

My REVIEW of VIA Rail's NEW Siemens VENTURE TRAIN between OTTaWA and MoNTREAL
My REVIEW of VIA Rail's NEW Siemens VENTURE TRAIN between OTTaWA and MoNTREAL
https://youtu.be/pPDa7kI1gpQ
 
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Wow, the information displays on the VIA Rail cars actually work (or at least did in this video). In my limited experience with the Amtrak Midwest Ventures (and in most video reviews I've seen), those displays were not working.
 
Eric S said:
Wow, the information displays on the VIA Rail cars actually work (or at least did in this video). In my limited experience with the Amtrak Midwest Ventures (and in most video reviews I've seen), those displays were not working.
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The displays work fine on Brightline too. I think they will start working on Midwest trains once they get full Venture consists too.
 
Eric S said:
Wow, the information displays on the VIA Rail cars actually work (or at least did in this video). In my limited experience with the Amtrak Midwest Ventures (and in most video reviews I've seen), those displays were not working.
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Hopefully they will put up the train speed, distance to next station stop and time to next stop.
 

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