"Canadian East", the new Sunset East?

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zephyr17

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Service still has not started east of Winnipeg after the Gogama derailment weeks ago and the March 11 service advisory cancelling Toronto-Winnipeg service indefinitely is still up.

There are discussions about moving to the CP between Winnipeg and Sudbury, but given CPs hostility to passenger trains and lack of comment, the odds of that look pretty long to me.

There should at least be some news about service resumption and if CN doesn't have the track largely restored by now I'd be surprised.

Substitute "Gogama Oil Train Explosion" for "Hurricane Katrina" and this is starting to bear a resemblance to the Sunset East.
 
I sure hope it won't get that bad! Good Lord, if that happens, how would VIA transfer equipment between Winnipeg and Toronto? They're be stuck on both sides! At least VIA has a Maintenance Center in Vancouver.
 
No I can't see it becoming, two many tourism dollars are at stake in the summer months.

I'm riding next week from Vancouver to Jasper as part of a ski trip and will be really curious to chat with the crew about their thoughts on the train.
 
Other website forums are reporting that Via plans to resume Canadian service east of Winnipeg on 14 April.
 
I remember that, in the case of the SL, CSX actually downgraded the tracks and routed freight through Montgomery. But the Canadian runs on the CN mainline, which will definitely not get downgraded.
 
The line won't get downgraded, but CN would like to not have train and CP doesn't want anything to do with it. One of the surprises to me about Canada is that VIA seems to have much less clout with their host railroads than Amtrak has, which is saying something.
 
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zephyr17 said:
The line won't get downgraded, but CN would like to not have train and CP doesn't want anything to do with it. One of the surprises to me about Canada is that VIA seems to have much less clout with their host railroads than Amtrak has, which is saying something.
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It does help that Amtrak is much bigger than VIA, and has a lot of political sway, despite how much Congress maligns it - they can seriously put the hurt on the Class Is if push truly comes to shove. It helps that most Amtrak directors (such as Boardman) are well connected politicians. Amtrak also owns and dispatches track that quite a few NS and CSX trains need to use. This is another way Amtrak can make a point. Also, Amtrak pays generously for their slots and in some cases puts in money for track maintenance. This generally helps the process of being 'friendly' with the Class Is.

On the other end, VIA is basically a non-entity to CP and CN that's only tolerated because they absolutely have to, not because they're being paid to.
 
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Amfleeter's views nabout VIA's clout are only partially true; certainly not in the Corridor.

The delay in reopening service in Northern Ontario is the result of the Federal Department of Transport. The Minister was in the Canadian media last week indicating that line would not be reopened for passenger service until it had been declared suitable. She also indicated a majnor concern about the three recent derailments, saying they were not coincidences. Bascially Transport Canada is pjutting CN through the wringer to demonstrate that its track maintenance is up to scratch.

On Tuesday, March 31 a Canadian trainset left Toronto empty on a test run. As far as I know it continued trhough as the depafture ex Winnipeg yesterday.

Incikdetnall;y the Minister also lifted the madated obligations of CN and CP to carry a specified volume of grain . These regulations had been in place for about a year, and were designed to address the backlog resulting ffrom the record harvest of two years ago, which had been slowed down by severe winter weather two years in a row, The connection is that that federal government ordering the railwayts to stretch their capacity to the limit, with transcontinental passenger timekeeping being the obvious collateral damage.
 
Thanks, Guest. The fact that Transport Canada had stepped in on passenger service is news that it isn't just CN screwing VIA around. It is good that they are stepping in, because 3 major derailments in a short period of time was definitely indicative that something may be going on with MOW.

Parenthetically, that goes with my own thinking about how the media was covering the tank car design while it was basically not questioning why the dertailments were happening at all, as far as I could see.
 
I saw one of the derailments on YouTube. It seems like CN needs to scrutinize the tracks a bit more. Freight derailments are bad, passenger derailments are really bad.
 

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