Rail Fans Canada is dedicated to the exploration and discovery of rail public transit across Canada. Our platform provides a wealth of engaging content, from captivating photos and informative videos and articles, all designed to take our viewers and readers along for the ride. Join us in our journey as we interview the experts to bring you first-hand knowledge and informed-based commentary on rail transit in Canada. Whether you're a lifelong rail enthusiast or simply curious about Canada's impressive transit systems, Rail Fans Canada is the perfect destination for discovering and learning about the history, operations, and latest developments in rail transit.
On trim station, there are two extra pillars that they built that are just standing there. Right beside the station, direction to the West. Does anyone know if those are meant for some future pedestrian cycling Crossing? I really hope so. The deviation they created for pedestrians and cyclists is not convenient at all.
They are! Unfortunately, there is no timeline or funding for its construction as of now. Stage 2 construction wanted them to be in place as to reduce the requirement for closures / deviations of the highway in the future. -David
@@RailFansCanada That's great news. How did you find out? Even though there is no timeline for completion, at the very least they planned it. Hopefully funding will be announced soon.
I imagine that Convent Glen is gonna be a bit nicer and less chaotic than the other stations, namely because it doesn't have a highway on/off ramp next to it, and it's easier to get away with narrowing the road there
This project need more positif marketing throughout internet and social media and make it attractive, make it closer to people that will use it in the future, and communicate much better with users. It seems there is a problem in communication with the public. The project is a good futuristic concept but it was badly conceived by cutting here and there, by matching different materials from different providers it was a bas idea. you never try to save money on big infrastructure like this one, it's for the future generation. The project is amazing so some transparency on what went wrong and why, will be good and it will make people interested and interactive. I am proud of Ottawa city for having this amazing infrastructure. We love it, you make our life easier and much confortable, so thank you. Please find a better way to promote the project and make it desirable.❤❤❤❤❤
Still makes no sense for the LRT to go along the highway & have these overly grown massive stations you see just but yet the city wonders partly why they needed funding from the provincial & federal government. Had they ran the eastern line 1 extension south of the highway where 80-85% of the population lives, ran tunnels using a smaller TBM which actually takes way less people to operate compared to the cut & cover method you see on the line 1 extension going out west which takes actually longer, costs more to build when it comes to manpower, the city & OC Transpo would have saved money.
Really enjoying your updates! Good choice of music too. I still have yet to ride the O train as every time I’ve visited, the line has been out of service. Have they been testing trains on the new section?
Yes they have done some testing heading East past Blair and trains reached Trim several months ago. This will only start to ramp up as elements get completed over the coming weeks/months.
Hate hate hate highway median stations. The land closest to stations should be high density housing, shops, and offices - not lane after lane of highway.
yup i avoid the line 1 trains like the plague, worst decision city has made in regards to transit the old transitway was alot faster with more stops and did not reek of raw sewage everytime downtown was the easiest to get to before 1 bus maybe the off transfer here or there on a cruddy day, now its bus, train, bus to get to some of the same spot with ensured 1 of them no showing, OC is really living up to its old nickname, OC No Show
@lagia5 raw sewage, you hit the nail on the head. They punched a sewage line near the UOttawa station. Don't know if it was fixed or if they just covered it over.
The layout of the Convent Glen and Jeanne d’Arc stations is very similar to that of the existing Cyrville station, with an entrance on either side of the road leading down to a central platform on the lower level.
Let's talk about the St-Laurent station newly constructed and the ceiling falling down. Someone installed the membrane backwards causing water to flow into the station. Now the Ottawa public will have absorb the cost with an added transportation tax, not that we don't pay enough Transpo tax on city taxes already. No accountability and no follow up during construction.
The tunnel was built in the 1980s, and was left mostly as is when the bus transitway was converted to LRT. In an ideal world, the tunnel should have had more work done but it was and still is the property of the City of Ottawa, and not actually OC Transpo. Sure the train infrastructure and other related assets are OC Transpo, but the tunnel itself is not OC Transpo or part of the original LRT project.
that tunnel has been falling apart since the 90's, kinda the problem when you put a bus station, highway onramp and a shopping center loading dock all on top of it
@RailFansCanada the bottom line, who ends up paying for this, whether it's OC Transpo or the City of Ottawa. It's not fixed, and the issue continues. OC Transpo has been part of the City of Ottawa since 2001. This project has become a white elephant, taking passengers longer to get home than with the buses. Why does the 417 have traffic issues, but OC trains are under utilities. Why are Uber taxis waiting at Tunneys Pasture because we are not receiving the OC Transpo service. We should have stuck with the buses. We could have bought a lot of buses and gas with the money invested in the O Train.
@@RailFansCanada In early June they said, "eight to ten weeks" but clearly that hasn't happened. At least they finally opened the pedestrian bridge over the Rideau river. It allows people to go between Mooney's Bay and the arboretum through Hog's Back park and Vincent Massey park.
I would say very likely in 2025, hopefully around mid-year, as many things are nearing completion and they are already sending trains down that line at low speeds for early testing.
I pretty much grew up in Orleans in the 70’s, (We moved there in 69.) For those first few years there was no city bus service. we had to catch the Voyageur bus from Montreal to get a ride in to Ottawa. I’m 66 now, and live near Bayshore. I’m just hoping that in my lifetime I can ride one train from the Bayshore mall to Place d’Orleans. A section of Richmond road near me has recently been closed for railway construction. It will remain so for, not the Summer, or a year. But for three years! One can dream. Edit: Hopefully the train will be operational through there sooner than that. The extra time may be just be for other changes in the neighbourhood related to the rail service.
I love these updates! A lot of people in this city have given up on public transit but I maintain that someday everything will be operational and effective. These videos give me hope!
Definitely lots to be excited about over the coming years. Thanks for your comments and feedback. We will have an update on the West and South coming out over the next two weeks.
Thank you for the feedback. We did visit three stations on each extension late last year. You can find them on our channel (Limebank, Jeanne d'Arc and Lincoln Fields, as well as South Keys earlier this May).
This project needs to happen the problem with this is that Gatineau would need to get funding from the government of Quebec and the government of Canada to help build this system but it's most likely going to be connected with the Ottawa system from what I was looking at
The system would not be connected to the O-Train directly. It would either pass down Wellington on the surface or go underground underneath Sparks. (In the underground tunnel option), it would likely although it hasn't been clearly elaborated, that there would be underground connecting corridors to go between O-Train and STO. But in no scenario would STO trains use OC O-Train tracks or infrastructure. Being connected would only be in relation to how easy transfers are (with the Sparks option being seen as better than Wellington surface, walking two blocks then going underground).
I love the o train , thanks to all the engineers and workers who made this possible. Ottawa is such a beautiful and peaceful city and the go train makes it possible to enjoy the views to the fullest.
Temporary Speed Restrictions more like Forever Speed Restrictions 😔 Remaining hopeful we get better leadership that will actually take ownership and fix this mess.
@alexitanguay well there two solutions replace the rails but still won't be fast cause is a tramway not a metro train 2 is to replace to heavy train like in Montrail rem but they will have to retrofit all the stations level up to a 1 meter deep from plataform to rail that's a lot of money.
The issue is all the curves between St-Laurent and Lees stations. Changing the rails or vehicles does nothing to change that. The TSRs will be removed but that is at the city's discretion to do, whether it takes a few more weeks or they wait another couple years until a permanent solution to the axle issue is developed and installed (the mitigations they have in place currently apparently allow for the TSRs to be removed but they seem to be erring on the side of caution by keeping them). The good news is that outside of that area (St-Laurent to Lees), the rest can operate at higher speed, and the extensions east and west contain few curves and mostly straights, so it will operate at high speeds for most of the trip.
Since 2016 i have been using the Union Pearson Express to get to Anime North and it is 5 times faster than that of the subway I hope one day the Toronto Congress centre gets a trackless shuttle tram between Weston station and the convention grounds
Every time I ride it I'm sad. It could have been a good system with better planning and more money. What we have is a metro because it's grade-separated and the wrong vehicles are used. It's also slower than systems in other cities, for example from Cyrville to St. Laurent. Imagine how good our system would be if it used Alstom's Metropolis cars like the REM. As an Ottawan, I can only dream of what it could have been like...
Hello, Wow!!!!!! Compaired to the rail families i,ve worked in out of the states, especially commuter rail, this place is immaculate and well kept above all safe to work out of. .l. Hence, it looks like I can eat off the floors and servicing pits....... Now if VIA CAN AT LEAST START IMPLEMENTING ELECTRIFICATION OF THAT QUEBEC/WINDSOR CORRIDOR, ALONG WITH HSR, THEN VIA WILL BECOMING WORLD CLASS. With cheap Quebec hydro power, there is no excuses why VIA CAN,T START ELECTRIFYING THAT CORRIDOR. MISS PAULA WALACH-FORMER INDUSTRIAL ELECTRICIAN-UNION MEMBER IBEW. STILL WORKING IN THE TRADE AS A TRANSIT ELECTRICIAN. LIC SINCE 1972😊
Just in time for next year meeting accessibility compliance. Now if we could just get the airline industry to do the same. Congrats VIA for meeting compliance regs.
Congratulations to Canada for modernizing its train fleet, however, all of this is useless with Canada's actual rail infraestructure, what is needed is a new, modern, electrified higher speed infrastructure and network, with, please, high platforms😅 Great video by the way and Greetings from Spain!🤗
Via ridership won’t be sustainable until they figure out they have to be cheaper than airfare. They could also be less Quebec everything. They may not realize but 90% of the country isn’t French, this presentation is a perfect example. Couldn’t be spoken in half English…they create resentment.
Umm VIA is not 'completely changing its fleet of trains'. Far from it. They are only introducing new trains on the corridor service-no long distance trains are being replaced for now, and probably won't be until significant funding is allocated.
Truly hard to beleive that this system SHOULD have been complete in 2018, but here it is, 6 years later, and folks are STILL fooling around with hypotheticals.
Where do you get 2018 from for what's the west extension? If the west extension were a part of the initial build, 2018 still wouldn't be the date completed... its base alignment wasn't even settled until 2015. And that's before adding Bayshore and Moodie to the scope.
Hi 👋 Can someone tell me if I could somehow get a tour of the Montreal Maintenance facility.,? Do they have tours for us engine Fans 😃😃 Many Thanks Art
Hello Art, unfortunately VIA does not offer tours of the facility on normal occasions as it is an active facility and has multiple safety hazards. Whenever we have the chance to visit those facilities, we try to document them to the best extent possible as you could see in this video! -David
When VIA can make rail travel as cost effective for consumers and convenient as rail travel is in Europe, then they will be able to reach their goal. Right now there is no incentive for me to take the train between cities rather than take my car.
Hello! Sacramento, CA resident and casual railfan here! I live and work near the Siemens Mobility plant in the Florin area of Sacramento, CA. I think I may have seen this very train being pulled up the north-south segment of UP's tracks near where I work, bound for Canada, some weeks ago. If not this one, then some other one.
Will there be a washroom 🚻 on the train? It's still going to be a long ride and passengers will need to use a toilet 🚽 or someone could have an accident on the train.
The trains themselves won’t have washrooms, but some stations have public restrooms. Mainly the terminus and interchange ones along the network. Some are also attached to commercial spaces that are open during most operating hours if one needs, even though it is not a perfect solution.
Looks like the swedish x2000 train tested in north american 30 years ago. Can the siemens go 210 kmh -NO Can it tilt NO Can it do Toronto to Montreal in 3 hrs NO. So where is the progress?
Really hoping this western extension goes online in my lifetime without the headaches of the current Line 1. Stopped taking OC Transpo because it just wasn’t reliable even though I on purposefully bought a house near the western terminus to be able to rely on transit for work. But even when I lived near Tunney’s it wasn’t reliable. I remember the BRT system we used to have, and it was a dream of a system! Could get to work and around the city on time. The LRT really made things worse. I get growing pains and all but it’s been an unacceptable loss of service coupled with higher fares. Owning an EV has been cheaper & far more reliable. I just hope when this western portion opens, reliability increases. I will take it from Moodie when it does open but if the reliability isn’t there, I’m going back to my EV.
Btw, train reliability hasn't been a concern since 2022. Buses, there just aren't enough of them, and have been an issue since key years: 2003, 2011, 2017, and continues to be because there aren't enough buses.
I rode one of these new trains in the Corridor. Absolutely hated the experience. I don’t know the other classes but for Business, they make you board at the wrong end. You have to walk through the large kitchen area, walk all the way to the end with your luggage and then walk back to your seat through the crowds to get back to your seat. There’s also still no privacy in Business Class as the working area is usually taken up by staff coats and bags. And of course there’s pretty much every other passenger sick with stuffy nose/sneezing/coughing not masking and exposing everyone else to their crap. I loved VIA in the past but now that I have my own EV car, it’s a much more relaxing (& environmentally friendly) & healthy way to travel the corridor than the train is.
