VIA Rail

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by milomilo

The people in offices that need to be replaced to get what you want sit in Ottawa, not Montreal.

The people in Montreal and other offices are the ones that put out the proposals that the government vote on. Garbage in, garbage out.

Originally Posted by GoTrans

If you look at the plans for Via's new trains they consist of cars where half the seats face forward and half backwards with a locomotive on one end. This is a push pull operation that was descried in other posts. The car configuration is common in Europe, including the TGV, so to say that no one wants to ride backwards is not true. There is very little difference, from a comfort or safety point of view.

With respect to the locomotives, the Northlander ran for a short time in push/pull configuration. This was subsequently changed due to safety issues with the curvatures, particularly in rock cuts on the line. Clearly positive train control and reduced curvatures would eliminate this on other routes.

This is probably the first time that Via is actually doing something smart.

Originally Posted by milomilo

Well I'm more on the side of scrap the sleeper service, so my opinion is they were worse than nothing.

Originally Posted by J81

All of VIAs LRC and HEP2 equipment are configured like that as well. It is a problem for a surprising number of passengers who dont like facing backwards. I myself would like to see the seats be reversible like the HEP1 coaches.

Like I said, when they are refurbished, they can get changed to some sort of payout that allows the cars to go both way without everyone sitting backwards.

Originally Posted by J81

Where did you get the idea that sleeper cars were deemed pointless in Europe? Ive used a sleeper car in Europe. Theyre very popular for overnight trains. Just not 3HR trips between London and Paris which the Renaissance equipment was originally supposed to be deployed on.

The Ocean takes almost a day. Looks like about 21 hours from their published schedule.
https://www.viarail.ca/sites/all/files/media/pdfs/schedules/summer2020/30_Halifax-Montreal.pdf
So, how do you deal with that for the ones that ride it end to end?