OTTAWA, Ontario — Fleet availability for VIA Rail Canada’s Siemens Venture trainsets has dropped below 50% this winter, leading to a series of train cancellations over seven days that began on Saturday, Feb. 7, according to the nonprofit transit advocacy group Transport Action Canada.
The organization reports that VIA has begun turning the trainsets, which are equipped for push-pull operation, to run locomotive first to reduce problems with snow entering the equipment, but this has led to terminal delays.
The group cites a report last month by Le Journal de Montreal. It quotes a spokesman for Teamsters Canada, which represents VIA engineers, as saying that snow leads to trainsets shutting down several times a month. When this happens, the heating system and USB ports for passengers shut down, while lights will continue on battery power.
“The train will start to slow down and operators [will then] be able to stop the train quietly to restart the power supply,” spokesman Christopher Monette told the newspaper. “But sometimes they are not capable of it.”
The Journal article cites the December incident in which passengers were stuck overnight while traveling from Ottawa to Toronto [see “VIA passengers stranded overnight …,” Trains.com, Dec. 11, 2025]. It quotes a VIA spokesman as saying the company and Siemens are conducting “in-depth technical investigations” into that incident and had received preliminary results, but did not provide details. A Siemens spokeswoman told the newspaper that the company’s locomotives “are designed by our engineers to operate optimally and reliably throughout the year.”
Trains has also asked VIA and Siemens if they will provide any additional information.
Because of the equipment issue, VIA canceled two trips on Saturday, Feb. 7, and is slated to cancel three today, Sunday, Feb. 8: Train No. 38 (Ottawa-Montreal), and Nos. 44 and 54 (Toronto-Ottawa).
Eight trains are slated to be canceled Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, six on Thursday, and one on Friday. The full list is available in the Transport Action Canada article linked above.
— Updated Feb. 9 at 8:20 a.m. CT to correct number of cancellations on Monday and Tuesday. To report news or errors, contact trainsnewswire@firecrown.com.
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