VIA Rail Canada on July 15 celebrated the completion of its Halifax Station renovation project, part of a C$80 million investment to upgrade four “heritage” stations. Canada’s national passenger railroad marked another milestone during the event: more than a century of continuous service by The Ocean, the country’s oldest named passenger train, which runs in Atlantic Canada from Halifax to Montreal and may soon be adding “new” railcars.
“For more than a century, The Ocean has served as a vital link for communities across the Maritimes, carrying generations of Canadians and their stories across beautiful landscapes,” according to VIA Rail.
The Ocean originated in July 1904 as the Ocean Limited, a seasonal summer train run by the Intercolonial Railway of Canada. It became a VIA Rail train in 1978. According to VIA Rail, the locomotives were replaced in the 1980s, but some of the cars are still the original stainless steel Budd cars built in the 1950s. VIA Rail in 1988 started the complete renovation of its 190 cars. “The car interiors were thoroughly updated by Canadian design pioneer Madeleine Arbour, and some accessible facilities were installed,” according to VIA Rail.
In 2000, VIA Rail acquired 139 Renaissance cars built in the United Kingdom. These cars are now used in combination with the stainless-steel Budd cars on The Ocean. A typical Ocean Train consist has two locomotives and 18 cars.
VIA Rail in December launched the procurement process to replace the trains on its Long-Distance, Regional and Remote (LDRR) fleet outside the Québec City–Windsor corridor. Most of that equipment is said to be 70 years old and the “useful life has long since expired.”
The government of Canada announced new funding for the replacement project in its 2024 budget.
“Ottawa has committed to renewing Via Rail’s entire Canadian fleet within ten years,” according to The Canadian Press, which on July 15 reported on the Halifax Station celebration and on an interview afterward with VIA Rail President and CEO Mario Péloquin. “However, in the interim, Péloquin says there are plans to refurbish stainless steel cars that are being retired in Central Canada for use in the Atlantic region. The rail cars, originally manufactured in 1954 by the now-defunct Budd Company of Philadelphia, can be modernized and sent to Halifax as they become available, he said.”
“As soon as we free up one of those (Budd rail cars), we’ll repurpose it in the segments of the long-distance runs where we can best benefit from their use,” Péloquin told Canada’s national news agency.
“Some of the refurbished cars will run on The Ocean line, and others, he said, will be sent to The Churchill, which runs between Winnipeg and Churchill, Man., or The Skeena, between Jasper, Alta., and Prince Rupert, B.C.,” The Canadian Press reported.
Join Mario Péloquin at Railway Age’s Next-Gen Rail Systems conference (formerly Next-Gen Train Control), to be held Oct. 30-31 in Jersey City, N.J. He will be a featured speaker at the 30th annual conference, which has been expanded to encompass the entire system, examining how signaling and train control technologies are modified and improved by telematics, artificial intelligence, deep data analysis, cybersecurity measures, and more.
Further Reading: Canada: Tough Traveling Without a Car
