MONTREAL — The second set of new Siemens equipment for VIA Rail Canada corridor service has been delivered. With Union Pacific ES44AC No. 5275 providing power for the entire trip from the Siemens plant in Sacramento, the new trainset was delivered to VIA’s Montreal Maintenance Centre early on Saturday, Aug. 6.
VIA is receiving 32 of the bidirectional trainsets powered by Siemens Charger locomotives with cab cars as part of a C$989 million order [see “VIA Rail Canada, Siemens announce deal …,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 13, 2018]. The first of those trainsets arrived in Montreal in September 2021 and began testing in April [see “VIA runs test train …,” Trains News Wire, April 15, 2022]. Deliveries are expected to continue through 2024; VIA has said the first of the equipment could enter service later this year.
Just wonder if they will have the same problems Amtrak has been having with the cars?
Is it ddeliberate that VIA has ordered trainsets and Amtrak still fiddles while the LD trains burn?
Amtrak has ordered the same trainsets to replace the Amfleet and Horizon cars. These are for corridors and not LD, which neither Amtrak nor VIA is replacing as of yet.
Alan, You give too much credit to VIA, that they have ordered some corridor cars and no LD cars in their many decades.
These corridor cars will do nothing except to replace the Euro cars VIA never should have bought.
The transition continues. After WWII, railways ordered new lightweight passenger cars and locomotives with matching profile from the late 1940s to 1950s, practically displacing the heavyweight cars except on more conservative lines like Southern Railway.
Nice looking trainset.
Siemens is really pumping out the product. First Brightline and now VIA. Need to see more Amtrak.