Or maybe they will. VIA and Amtrak both have short day time runs, and long overnight trips. No reason to think that they will not do an add-on order. I have not read anything about VIA going anywhere else.
https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/via-shows-its-montreal-maintenance-centre
That was my reaction after watching the same item earlier today. This is nothing new to anyone who follows VIA and little more than them lobbying for more government money. In the current economic climate the public support will be somewhere between slim and none. The current government can't afford it and the next one won't afford it. Ride the Canadian while you can.
I believe so. There have been vague threats in the past but this is the first hard timeline I recall.
The deadline doesn’t seem to come from VIA, but from Transport Canada (Canada’s FRA) itself as the responsible regulator:
That would have been a massive waste of taxpayer money, as VIA soonafter had more than enough longhaul equipment after beeing forced by the feds to cut half its network in January 1990. In fact, the fleet it did procure in the 1980s (the LRCs) are now literally falling apart and the last car will be withdrawn years before even the first new longhaul trainset could be delivered if it was ordered today…
Yes if they don't insist on doing their own thing it should be possible to get more than enough cars by then. The new Stadler cars took 4 years from order to delivery.
Transport Canada does have the statutory authority to do so should it choose to. As for whether it will or not is a separate issue. Just because it has made some statement about future possibilities does not mean it will necessarily follow through either.
I'll note for some of the latest rebuilds the cars are stripped down to the frame and heavily modified
"Railcars of Theseus"?
Not 100% but the Siemens cars in Europe are a open design car, I would think the US car is the same.
Which gets back to "Why is it going to take 8-10 years to order cars?" A lag time of, say, five years makes sense, but beyond that it starts edging into the absurd.
Because at this point there are so many orders for Siemens if you want their stuff its going to be a wait. And if you rush and order the cars before design is done you get the mistake Amtrak made with airo cafe cars which pushed the project back 6 months and cost nearly 50M.
Exactly! As I wrote elsewhere:
The ONR order is supposed to delete the Business car in favor of a cafe, which may or may not have table seating as opposed to VIA's cart service in coach. There was some discussion about vending machines but that was considered unlikely given the Northlander's lengthy route and varied meal periods covered.
Does Canada have local-content laws like we have in the States? If not, perhaps VIA could just order stuff from a foreign manufacture who might be able to deliver in a more timely manner.
