VIA Rail Unveils New Trains

On 30 November 2021, VIA Rail and Siemens unveiled new passenger train sets for numerous services departing Toronto, beginning in 2022.

The trains are pulled by slick new Siemens Charger locomotives, basically the de facto standard new intercity rail locomotive in North America. VIA’s Charger is a variant, known as the SC-42, and has a distinct design that looks better than most of the railroad’s trains, as shown in the figure below.

The units are capable of speeds up to 200 km/h, or 125 mi/h, although VIA won’t be operating that fast on current services, largely due to track quality. Yet, the improved performance of the new fleet will help upgrade service speeds by about 5% to reduce trip times.

Full Article: IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine, Volume 17, Number 2, June 2022