As a european, I have stress that this really narrow body of those "european" coaches is a british feature. The british loading gauge is narrow compared to most continental europe railroads. As our wonderful host, who has been to continental europe and the UK before, surely can confirm. Also, it is really great video, as always!
@@LonestarTrips You shouldn't feel to bad. I just wanted to add some knowledge for the viewers with a limited knowledge about european trains. Otherwise they would be shocked when seing an ICE for the first time and noticing that is around the same width as an ACELA EMU. ;-D BTW, MY knowledge about passenger trains in and into Canada was really lacking before you made those really comprehensive trip reports about them.
@@LonestarTrips To be fair, they were explicitly designed for sleeper service through the Channel Tunnel, so they were designed to operate into continental Europe, so European is still a valid description.
@@owenstockwood5040 That is a fair point, but the reason they are designed the way they are is to meet the specific needs for british infrastructure. Also, they were made in the UK. So, calling them european is not outright wrong (since the UK is still part of europe besides their best efforts not to^^) it is just kinda missing the point. That is all I wanted to add. I guess that is agreeable?
Funny thing, I'm actually watching this both after and before a trip on Amtrak's Northeast Regional, to and from Trenton, that I utilize pretty much daily for travel to and from my railroad of work's yard and facilities of both Flemington and Ringoes, 16 miles down the road. Happy travels, all the same 😊
Nice! The NER is pretty much Amtrak's equivalent to VIA's corridor services, though I do find the Amfleets are much more comfortable than the Renaissance coaches. Glad you could stop by and safe travels as always!
That place would need renovation of the inside. I eared many people saying that station is so nice inside. I disagree. It's dark and outdated. Also the trains are old... I would like ViaRail copy the SNCF.
Great video! Gare du Palais is my favorite train station in North America. I still have the carboard cut out of P42 & Renaissance Coaches that Via Rail used to give out to kids. I got that back in 2005.
I took VIA from Ottawa to Quebec City at Xmas. (On the new Siemens trains but in cattle class). There is nothing like the Gare du Palais. It is stunning,
Gare du Palais is such an underrated station. Everyone always talks about Toronto Union station, but almost no one actually looks at Quebec's stunning facility. I hope your ride on the new Siemens trains was comfortable! Even in "cattle class" (lol), I found that those trains were still very nice.
@@LonestarTrips until it was relocated to its current premises in ‘66, the Ottawa station was located downtown in a beaux-arts structure that is rather impressive in its own right. Some still complain about the change of location. I saw your vid on the Siemens trainset from Ottawa to Montreal. Union Station, and Gare Centrale in Montreal do little for me. Nothing compares to those of Europe, where trains are part of the fabric of society, which is sadly not the case in North America.
16:45 The maximum speed of the Renaissance coaches and LRC coaches is also 125 mph (200 km/h), same as the Siemens Venture sets. The Renaissance coaches also qualify for the highest speed limit category, known as "LRC", which the LRC coaches themselves no longer qualify for since their tilting mechanisms were removed. That means that Renaissance coaches can travel through corners more quickly than LRC or Budd coaches. The Venture coaches will supposedly eventually be certified for LRC speeds but that has not happened yet.
I took the same trip back in 2008. I wanted to travel Business but there were no places left so I had to book Coach. The VIA employee said "don't worry, all you're missing out on is a poor-quality meal...". Judging by your score, I was probably happier in Coach with a few sandwiches bought before the trip!
Picking up a few sandwiches would have definitely been a better move than business class. It was worth it for me just for the sake of documenting the entire trainset, but for the everyday traveler, it's not worth it at all.
Interesting rail trip along the St. Lawrence. My ancestors were Prussians, emigrating to the U.S. from 1845 (my father's side) to 1864 (my mother's side). My mother's great-greats came in by ship on the St. Lawrence, spending 6 months in Montréal because of the ongoing U.S. civil war, before reconnecting with the earlier arrivals outside of Buffalo, N.Y. I enjoyed the trip down memory lane! Thanks.
I spent a lot of time in business class on these cars over the years and it's safe to say none of their meals would go above a 4/10. Depending on the timing, I would either eat before the train or bring something on-board.
@@chrissoukas4288 Not really - it's got to be the reheat method because anything moist always looks like they poured a portion of hot water in before serving. I don't think they microwave but it kind of had to be.
Looks like the last Renaissance train set on the Corridor is done either start of March, or start of April. Great timing for this video - best video I have seen on Renaissance equipment on the Corridor.
Wow I didn't know they were going so soon! I mean, I knew they would be going quickly, but I didn't think it would be early this year. Really glad I made this then, as they'll soon be history.
The Pierre LaPorte will not lose its title as Canada’s longest suspension bridge as the Gordie Howe Bridge is not a suspension but a “cable-stayed” bridge.
The LRCs even have German ICE 3 seats... I noticed that when I rode the corridor from Quebec City to Toronto last year in June. It happened that I spent some 7 hours on an ICE 3 seat in the Canadian wilderness, flew to Frankfurt, to spend another 2 hours on the same seat on an ICE3. The DB sorts out these seats obviously, the Luxembourgish CFL uses them in the first class on trains from Koblenz to Luxembourg, probably due to the ICE 3Neo upgrade.
Just to add, the "new" cars are strictly for corridor services. The ocean and the Canadian will continue to use the older equipment for the time being. As mentioned in another comment, there are plans to upgrade, but nothing has been announced yet.
Thank you as always! I ended up losing my gopro footage from a lot of my travels over summer, so I'm glad this one still lived up to expectations without that supplemental footage.
10:10 Gordie Howe is a cable-stayed bridge not a suspension bridge. However the Quebec Bridge hold the record of the longest cantilever bridge by the longest span in the world.
While the Siemens coaches are on their way to replacing older coaches on the main trunk line, the ancient Budd cars although having been refurbished, must soldier on with VIA's long distance overnight trains. With VIA not providing daily sleeper trains on their long routes, they have managed to sustain their Budd fleet by cutting frequency of service... But their in service days is approaching the end as well, sooner or later VIA will have to buy new sleepers. VIA probably needs four transits, three for the Canadian and one for the Ocean. Hopefully VIA buys eight to double the frequency of service for their sleeper trains. Four trains a week is better than two trains a week, although VIA should splurge to seven trains a week, upgrading to a daily service...
@@ronclark9724 As I am not from Canada, I still know that they have Siemens Venture cars being delivered. I can’t wait to see what new sleepers they order. They have had outdated Budd rail cars forever now. I haven’t ever seen the ones that were in this video. I’m sure they will rebrand at some point… but for Canada, I would much rather ride GO Trabsit in Canada. Thanks for the knowledge, you taught me railway history today! Thanks, Ron!
The Nightstar coaches were built by Metro-Cammell in Birmingham UK based on the Mk4 coach design used on the Intercity 225 trains in the UK, which in turn are based on the Class 156 DMU bodyshell. I did wonder if the Metro-Cammell builders footplates were kept intact in the vestibules, but it looks like they were not.
@@trainswow2 It's going to be a general overview of the roomette, superliner facilities, additional amenities, and travel costs. Essentially, a How To video for anyone wanting to ride in a Superliner Roomette. It'll be good regardless, just a little different from normal.
Thank you! The trip was fantastic. Quebec is such a beautiful city, so it was wonderful to spend a day there. Plus it meant wrapping it up with this journey so all in all a great time.
My dear sir, You say you're planning a trip on Via Rail's Ocean to Halifax. Oh, my dear sir. Ps, expect the Budd HEP cars to be the last to go when the Siemens consists settle in. If they go at all. Might be bumped to remote lines.
The Budds will be around for a while longer. There aren’t any replacements for them yet, especially for the Ocean and The Canadian. The LRC coaches will be retired but can’t really be cascaded to other non-corridor services as they are all coaches and are definitely worn out mechanically. The Budds at 70 years old keep soldiering on, testament to the quality of their design and construction.
@@Play_fare and the Renaissance cars? Will they be bumped from the Corridor to other routes? They're also used on the Ocean to Halifax but lately with Budd HEP cars in the consist.
@@centredoorplugsthornton4112 Good question. It may depend on whether there will be enough new equipment to take over most if not all of the Quebec City - Windsor corridor routes. I have my doubts that will be the case, but it may all come down to maintenance cost, flexibility, and interoperability. Not sure about maintenance costs, but they do have strike marks against them for flexibility (they can only be in consists of other renaissance coaches because only end cars have knuckle couplers so only operate as fixed length sets) and interoperability (they can not be consisted with other types of passenger equipment such as LRC or Budd equipment). The LRC equipment is wearing out after being used for 45+ years. They haven’t proven quite as robust as the Budd equipment, so as equipment needs major upgrading I can see them being retired a car at a time, unlike the smooth sided Canada Car equipment which was retired en masse following massive route reductions in the late 1980’s/early 1990’s.
There was a route between Montreal and Quebec City that went on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence via Trois Rivieres and only crossed the river once. I am not 100% sure, but I believe that route was cut as part of the massive cuts to VIA in 1990. If the high frequency strategy becomes a reality, it is supposed to take the north shore route between Montreal and Quebec City again.
How good or bad was the ride quality? I went from Toronto to Montreal and back, we were on the Via LRC’s and it was the worst train ride I’ve ever had. Felt like we were constantly going over switches. And when we went over a switch, the train would aggressively jerk from side to side. Was not fun…
The ride quality wasn’t great for sure, but not nearly as bad as my ride on The Ocean. I’ll talk about the ride quality more in the upcoming sleeper video.
@@LonestarTrips do you think it was the infrastructure (track, rails, ballast, ties, etc)?Or do you think it was the cars themselves (seats, suspension, flat wheel)?
@@LonestarTrips When I rode Amtrak's Maple Leaf and Adirondack the Canadian track roadbed went to hell as soon as both trains crossed the border. Canada should be putting its best foot forward, but alas does just the opposite... Europeans complain about the condition of American tracks, but they are considerably better than they are in Canada. Furthermore, it is the same with Amtrak's Cascade train as well. Zero for three Canada, not very impressive...
I don't know if I would call the Renaissance coaches "European". They are British in origin and have little in common with coaches from mainland Europe
Yeah, the Renaissance cars haven't exactly been very good. These days, they aren't in very good condition at all comparatively speaking. As mentioned, soon they'll be replaced by the Venture sets in the corridor, meaning that for the forseeable future, the only place to see Renaissance cars will be on the Ocean as VIA still has to fulfill its obligation to provide accessible service on that train. The budds in the corridor will all be reallocated to the regional and long distance services outside of the corridor and continue in service for the foreseeable future. Current plans are for VIA to order a new fleet of long distance coaches that would be fully compatible with the heritage budds so that the Ocean Renaissance sets can be retired. The budds are actually good for another 10 or so years since they've all been recently refurbished and a small number of them were tested to destruction to determine that they are still very safe
I do wish VIA orders the Viewliner sleeper cars... Amtrak spent considerable time designing and developing them, and being stainless steel cars, should last VIA as long as the Budds have...
hello! I know I've made this comment before and you have acknowledged it but as a reminder could you please add in metric units for speeds and distances to your videos?
Oh my gosh I’m so sorry! I’ve been doing my best to add metric units to each script, but I have to remember to add units for those not converted in the audio. Again I’m sorry about that!
A rough estimate for a kilometer would be to multiply a mile or a mile per hour by 1.6, or think a bit more than 1.5.... On my car's speedmeter, 60 mph is near 100 km/ph... 90 mph would be near 150 km/ph, and 120 mph would be near 200 km/ph... Inches and feet are another story...
Also, they are allowed in Europe. If VIA wanted to run a service, as long as it passed the requirements of the country or countries it wanted to run in, they very much could run in Europe. North American train companies haven't had much involvement in European railways, although Wisconsin Central at one time operated a large amount of the freight trains in the UK (under the brand EWS, or English Welsh and Scottish).
