Liberal (Minority/Majority) Government 2025 - ???

[lenaitch]

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.

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.

 

[brihard]

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?”

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.”

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.

 

[brihard]

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?”

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.”

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.

 

[Czech_pivo]

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 maintenance refurbishment work for GO as well.


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.

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.

 

[The Bread Guy]

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:

Persian (roll) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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

 

[MilEME09]

I dont think the PM is a leafs fan.....zing

https://twitter.com/x/status/2095516831708586414

 

[YZT580]

• 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).

•

So its the Siemens coaches with the crappy seats:

 

[brihard]

So its the Siemens coaches with the crappy seats:

‘Cause there’s Siemens on them?

 

[Furniture]

I dont think the PM is a leafs fan.....zing

https://twitter.com/x/status/2095516831708586414

I might have to sign-up for a LPC membership now... Defence spending, Dad adjacent jokes that land, and trashing the Leafs.

 

[lenaitch]

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
View attachment 102071
More on the Persian:

Persian (roll) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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

Mmmm. Persians and Finnish pancakes at Hoitos. Two things I miss about the city.

 

[lenaitch]

So its the Siemens coaches with the crappy seats:

It depends on what you were in. The Corridor fleet is still very much a mixed bag. They had hoped that all of the Renaissance and LRC fleets would have been retired with the delivery of the new Siemens Venture fleet, but reliability and a cat fight with CN over a train length/signal performance/train speed has delayed the retirement.

I dont think the PM is a leafs fan.....zing

Naw . . . just a realist.

 

[ytz]

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.

Not really. The Venture fleet is almost end of delivery and commissioning. I wouldn't expect anything ordered this week to be used on Corridor services. Eventually, VIA should end up with two fleets. Siemens Venture for the Corridor. Alstom for everything else.

 

[ytz]

It depends on what you were in. The Corridor fleet is still very much a mixed bag. They had hoped that all of the Renaissance and LRC fleets would have been retired with the delivery of the new Siemens Venture fleet, but reliability and a cat fight with CN over a train length/signal performance/train speed has delayed the retirement.

The whole Venture fleet has been delivered. I expect commissioning of what's left and reliability work to slowly phase in Venture fully across the Corridor over the 12-24 months.

 

[Czech_pivo]

The bloom from the last 3 months turned on us for August.

August jobs report ‘disappointing’ but too soon to sound the alarm: economists

Economists weren’t ringing any alarm bells after fresh data showed the labour market broke its hot streak with a loss of 42,000 jobs in August.

www.ctvnews.ca

Economy sheds 42,000 jobs, unemployment rate steady in August: StatCan​

In looking for some flecks of positive news, I see the following pieces.
StatCan said there was little change in the private sector and self-employment in August, but the public sector shed 20,000 positions in its third straight month of losses.
The manufacturing industry has been hit hard by U.S. tariffs but the sector proved to be a surprise pocket of strength in August with a gain of 22,000 jobs.
Young workers aged 15 to 24 faced 19,000 job losses in August. Despite a tough end to the season, StatCan said this past summer jobs market was statistically better for youth than last year.
On average, the jobless rate for students returning to school in the fall stood at 15.9 per cent from May to August this year – two percentage points lower than the same period in 2025.

 

[Good2Golf]

I wonder how many of the 20,000 public servant positions were retirees/reductions who took ERI?

 

[PPCLI Guy]

The bloom from the last 3 months turned on us for August.

August jobs report ‘disappointing’ but too soon to sound the alarm: economists

Economists weren’t ringing any alarm bells after fresh data showed the labour market broke its hot streak with a loss of 42,000 jobs in August.

www.ctvnews.ca

Economy sheds 42,000 jobs, unemployment rate steady in August: StatCan​

In looking for some flecks of positive news, I see the following pieces.
StatCan said there was little change in the private sector and self-employment in August, but the public sector shed 20,000 positions in its third straight month of losses.
The manufacturing industry has been hit hard by U.S. tariffs but the sector proved to be a surprise pocket of strength in August with a gain of 22,000 jobs.
Young workers aged 15 to 24 faced 19,000 job losses in August. Despite a tough end to the season, StatCan said this past summer jobs market was statistically better for youth than last year.
On average, the jobless rate for students returning to school in the fall stood at 15.9 per cent from May to August this year – two percentage points lower than the same period in 2025.

So, Summer jobs disappear when students go back to school? But less this year than last? And 20K PS retired as planne?

 

[Czech_pivo]

So, Summer jobs disappear when students go back to school? But less this year than last? And 20K PS retired as planne?

That's kind of how I see it.

Continued reduction in the PS, loss of summer jobs held by Students and manufacturing jobs held onto and returned a decent gain.

I'd like to take a bit more time and look into the number that I've always thought had more meaning, 'labour participation rate'. It was 65.1% last time I checked.

Would also like to see if the August number for the US break out manufacturing numbers.

EDIT:

Found the US August numbers:

Restaurants and bars led with 59,000 new jobs, while government education rose by 42,000 and manufacturing contributed 16,000. Health care, the primary engine of job growth, saw a gain of just 13,000, compared with the monthly average of 32,000 over the prior 12 months.

When comparing to our 22,000 manufacturing job gains for August vs the 16,000 for the US - we clearly outperformed them in August on this issue. Remember folks, 340m vs 41m.

 

[MilEME09]

That's kind of how I see it.

Continued reduction in the PS, loss of summer jobs held by Students and manufacturing jobs held onto and returned a decent gain.

I'd like to take a bit more time and look into the number that I've always thought had more meaning, 'labour participation rate'. It was 65.1% last time I checked.

Would also like to see if the August number for the US break out manufacturing numbers.

EDIT:

Found the US August numbers:

Restaurants and bars led with 59,000 new jobs, while government education rose by 42,000 and manufacturing contributed 16,000. Health care, the primary engine of job growth, saw a gain of just 13,000, compared with the monthly average of 32,000 over the prior 12 months.

When comparing to our 22,000 manufacturing job gains for August vs the 16,000 for the US - we clearly outperformed them in August on this issue. Remember folks, 340m vs 41m.

Face value it sounds bad, but given it was majority public sector. The private sector is holding strong despite the situation which is good. Given the unemployment rate stayed steady, tells me we had a lot of people leave the job market entirely such as retirement

 

[brihard]

The fact that manufacturing is growing despite everything is pretty great.

 

[Czech_pivo]

The fact that manufacturing is growing despite everything is pretty great.

I’d rather have 22,000 new manufacturing jobs than the 59,000 ‘restaurants and bars’ jobs that the US.
Knowing what restaurant workers get paid in the US vs manufacturing jobs here is night and day.