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I guess using the words 'Orange' and 'Homme',
to describe an individual is a no no.
Liberal (Minority/Majority) Government 2025 - ???
- Thread starter Altair
- Start date
to describe an individual is a no no.
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The only point that I'll bring up is that Carney is the Brian Mulroney and Paul Martin Jr of old - meaning all 3 of them were CEO's of companies before becoming a successful politician and then a PM. How many times in our history have we had CEO's become our PM in the past?
I believe that a large number of individuals here - across both the Blue side of the aisle and the Red side of the aisle, have agreed on here that Paul Martin as a great FM and a pretty decent PM. I'm hopeful that Carney will become this as well. He's governing from the center (overall), and he's tackling the vast majority of the issues as a CEO would.
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With the additional aspect that while Mulroney and Martin we lawyers prior to executive business and political life, Carney is the first investment/Central banker senior politician (let alone PM).
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Good news for La Pocatiere and Thunder Bay; a $4.7B VIA Rail contract for acquisition and sustainment of 313 cars for regional and long distance cars.
www.pm.gc.ca
www.lapresse.ca
Prime Minister Carney announces the largest investment in VIA Rail’s history to bring passenger rail car manufacturing back to Canada
The Prime Minister, Mark Carney, announced that, for the first time in four decades, VIA Rail passenger cars will be built in Canada. The federal government is investing more than $4.7 billion for VIA Rail to acquire and maintain 313 new passenger rail cars from Alstom Canada.
Trains de long parcours | VIA Rail fera construire ses nouvelles voitures en partie à La Pocatière
Les travailleurs d’Alstom à La Pocatière, dans le Bas-Saint-Laurent, ne manqueront pas de boulot. L’usine jouera un rôle névralgique dans le cadre d’une des plus importantes commandes de matériel roulant chez VIA Rail.
www.lapresse.ca
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Apparently loadsa VIA cars promised to be built - there & in the plant in QC.Any ideas what this is? Thunder Bay is a weird place for a manufacturing announcement.
The Prime Minister will announce an historic investment in Canadian manufacturing.
Thursday, September 3, 2026
Note: All times localThunder Bay, Ontario10:00 a.m. The Prime Minister will announce an historic investment in Canadian manufacturing.Notes for media:Open coverage
Carney announces $4.7B to build, maintain Via Rail cars
The work will go to Alstom plants in Thunder Bay and Quebec.
www.snnewswatch.com
I have no basis for comparison. Is $15m per train car a reasonable price?Apparently loadsa VIA cars promised to be built - there & in the plant in QC.
Carney announces $4.7B to build, maintain Via Rail cars
The work will go to Alstom plants in Thunder Bay and Quebec.
Sure hope they revert to the older dimensions for the seating. The current ones in the corridor train sets are too narrow if your waist and butt are greater than 38 inches and even then you feel the edges pushing against you. And they no longer recline which was a great feature for any trip longer than an hour or so. The old stainless steel coaches from the 70's were far more customer friendly. So with that caveat I am delighted to hear of the new investment. Its a wonderful way to travel at any speedGood news for La Pocatiere and Thunder Bay; a $4.7B VIA Rail contract for acquisition and sustainment of 313 cars for regional and long distance cars.
Prime Minister Carney announces the largest investment in VIA Rail’s history to bring passenger rail car manufacturing back to Canada
The Prime Minister, Mark Carney, announced that, for the first time in four decades, VIA Rail passenger cars will be built in Canada. The federal government is investing more than $4.7 billion for VIA Rail to acquire and maintain 313 new passenger rail cars from Alstom Canada.
Trains de long parcours | VIA Rail fera construire ses nouvelles voitures en partie à La Pocatière
Les travailleurs d’Alstom à La Pocatière, dans le Bas-Saint-Laurent, ne manqueront pas de boulot. L’usine jouera un rôle névralgique dans le cadre d’une des plus importantes commandes de matériel roulant chez VIA Rail.
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That price includes elements of maintenance / sustainment. Comparisons need to factor that in.
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Wonder how many years of work this is. I guess it comes down to how many cars per month they build.
If they build 5 cars a month or 60 a year, that's just over 5yrs through of work. I think that the throughput per month will be lower, so many 3.5 a month would be 7.5yrs of work.
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Thunder Bay has a rail car manufacturing facility. It is now owned by Alstom which bought it and the Quebec pant from Bombardier when they got out of the rail business. I'm not sure but it might have originally been owned by Canadian Car & Foundry. BBD built all the GO bi-level cars plus the new TTC streetcars (poorly - a bunch of work was subbed out to Mexico) and LRT stock. They do some
I don't know for certain either, but the release mentions "design and engineering". It could also include funding for plant modifications like they did with the shipyards.
There's not a whole lot of market for long distance passenger rail cars that includes the need for berths, sleepers, kitchen/galley, baggage, etc. so they probably don't have anything to draw on, and I can guarantee you there is nothing in Canada. I suspect that they will starting with a clean sheet, so design, engineering, testing and certification will gobble up a chunk of change.
By not going to competition is the new way.
A bit more than global standards. But 1) long distance rail equipment very much depends on fit out 2) that's the cost to build at home.
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As someone who recently spent 27 hours on a 23 hour trip in a Renaissance sleeper car, I say bravo. They're the VIA rail equivalent of the Chicoutimi class submarines.
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One source I found showed its entire long distance fleet to be around 320. That's for every run except their Windsor to Quebec City 'corridor' service. I don't know how much of that is active, in storage, etc. so no clue how many they will need assuming a reasonable number of spares. The fleet they have now is pretty old.
Got curious and fired a query into Claude (Sonnet 5, high) about the origins of VIA’s current fleet.
Prompt: “Where was Via Rail’s current in service train fleet built, and when?”
So, taken at face value, this will probably in the mid term substitute ongoing WC-Windsor corridor fleet renewal that would have been built in California, and will also mean domestic replacement of long distances fleets that are super long in the tooth and likely would have gone to someone in the U.S. probably at least a few billion bucks (maybe over $10B) not going south.
Prompt: “Where was Via Rail’s current in service train fleet built, and when?”
AI ASSISTED
VIA’s “current fleet” isn’t one fleet — it’s five distinct sub-fleets spanning 1954 to present, and they’re not all North American-built.
• Siemens Venture (Quebec City–Windsor Corridor) — built at Siemens’ plant in Sacramento, California; deliveries began 2022 and are still rolling out (only partially replacing the legacy Corridor fleet as of 2026).
• LRC coaches (Corridor) — built by Bombardier/MLW in Montreal, Quebec, 1980–1984. The LRC locomotives were retired around 2001, but Bombardier LRC coaches remain in service today, now hauled by other locomotives.
• HEP-1 stainless-steel cars (the Canadian, Ocean, Winnipeg–Churchill and other remote/long-distance services, plus some Corridor use) — originally built by the Budd Company in Philadelphia, USA, in 1954–55 for Canadian Pacific; transferred to VIA in 1978 and re-equipped with Head-End Power in the late 1980s.
• HEP-2 cars (Corridor only) — also Budd-built stainless steel, but originally built for various U.S. railroads mostly in the 1950s; VIA bought them secondhand from Amtrak and others in the 1990s and rebuilt them with HEP and multiple-unit cabling.
• Renaissance cars (Montreal–Halifax Ocean) — the outlier: built by Metro-Cammell in Washwood Heath, Birmingham, England, in the mid-1990s, originally for the never-launched UK–Europe “Nightstar” overnight service. VIA bought them secondhand in 2000 and put them into service in 2002 — the one fleet not built in North America at all.
• F40PH-2 locomotives (workhorse across most non-Corridor routes) — built by General Motors Diesel Division (GMD/EMD) in London, Ontario, 1986–1989.
So depending which route you’re asking about, the honest answer ranges from “Sacramento, last few years” to “Birmingham, England, 30 years ago” to “Philadelphia, 70 years ago.”
VIA’s “current fleet” isn’t one fleet — it’s five distinct sub-fleets spanning 1954 to present, and they’re not all North American-built.
• Siemens Venture (Quebec City–Windsor Corridor) — built at Siemens’ plant in Sacramento, California; deliveries began 2022 and are still rolling out (only partially replacing the legacy Corridor fleet as of 2026).
• LRC coaches (Corridor) — built by Bombardier/MLW in Montreal, Quebec, 1980–1984. The LRC locomotives were retired around 2001, but Bombardier LRC coaches remain in service today, now hauled by other locomotives.
• HEP-1 stainless-steel cars (the Canadian, Ocean, Winnipeg–Churchill and other remote/long-distance services, plus some Corridor use) — originally built by the Budd Company in Philadelphia, USA, in 1954–55 for Canadian Pacific; transferred to VIA in 1978 and re-equipped with Head-End Power in the late 1980s.
• HEP-2 cars (Corridor only) — also Budd-built stainless steel, but originally built for various U.S. railroads mostly in the 1950s; VIA bought them secondhand from Amtrak and others in the 1990s and rebuilt them with HEP and multiple-unit cabling.
• Renaissance cars (Montreal–Halifax Ocean) — the outlier: built by Metro-Cammell in Washwood Heath, Birmingham, England, in the mid-1990s, originally for the never-launched UK–Europe “Nightstar” overnight service. VIA bought them secondhand in 2000 and put them into service in 2002 — the one fleet not built in North America at all.
• F40PH-2 locomotives (workhorse across most non-Corridor routes) — built by General Motors Diesel Division (GMD/EMD) in London, Ontario, 1986–1989.
So depending which route you’re asking about, the honest answer ranges from “Sacramento, last few years” to “Birmingham, England, 30 years ago” to “Philadelphia, 70 years ago.”
So, taken at face value, this will probably in the mid term substitute ongoing WC-Windsor corridor fleet renewal that would have been built in California, and will also mean domestic replacement of long distances fleets that are super long in the tooth and likely would have gone to someone in the U.S. probably at least a few billion bucks (maybe over $10B) not going south.
Brain fart, I had $14B in mind, not $4.7B. Still a couple bil not going south.
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I know someone who works for Alstom's Pittsburgh facility. Over the past year he has told me about the 'wheel systems' being manufactured at Alstom's Pittsburgh facility for shipment up to Alstom's facility here for recent TTC contracts.
I'm going to assume that the Alstom Pittsburgh facility will not be supplying anything up to the Alstom Thunder Bay site under this new VIA contract. I'll be seeing him soon and will ask him but I think it will be much too early for him to have any sense/info on this.
- Reaction score
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Since the PM (here for the rail car announcement) and Bryan Adams (here for a concert) are in Thunder Bay at the same time, they stopped at a local bakery for a Persian (a pink-frosting-topped cinnamon bun strongly associated with the city) 
- from FB
More on the Persian:
en.wikipedia.org
www.flavournetwork.ca
- from FBMore on the Persian:
Persian (roll) - Wikipedia
The Sumptuous History Of The Thunder Bay Persian Roll | Flavour Network
Learn more about The Sumptuous History of the Thunder Bay Persian Roll from the experts at Flavour Network
www.flavournetwork.ca
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