A Train Grows - Venturing into VIA's Success

After the annus horribilis that VIA Rail Canada has been experiencing with its CN's crossing speed reductions on its new Siemens Venture trains, the operation of one slightly-longer Corridor train screamed 'success!' this week. Doubters, cynics and pessimists can consider this post TLDR - but this post is unbridled optimism bordering on fanaticism and perhaps fantasy, and I think we need it right now! 

Let's rewind a bit...

(In this post, I'll use the terms trainset, Set and consist interchangeably. I'll also refer to the length of Venture trains by units, incorporating locomotives, cab cars and Economy and Business Class coaches, instead of by the number of the latter only.)

THREE IMPORTANT DATES FOR ONE TRAINSET

Here are a few significant dates from this third VIA Ventures in Service post:

June 3: VIA operated train No 631-03 comprising Set 12 with two cars (one Economy Class and one Business Class) taken from Set 7, Montreal-Ottawa return. This is the first known remarshalling of a Venture set, and perhaps the most sensible way to meet CN's 32-axle minimum requirement in order to operate without crossing speed reductions! Consist: 2311-2811-2911-2906 (Set 7 coach)-2706 (Set 7 Business Class)-2711-2611-2211. (Top photo taken at Caron/Mile 19.21 Kingston Sub on June 3, 2025. I'm indebted to Lion Liu for sharing all the photos in this post.) The augmented trainset looks remarkably similar to a regular six-unit trainset, but requires coach-counting using fingers on both hands.)

July 5 - The early-June augmented consist experiment apparently ended. Reports hinted that the idea was not being pursued by VIA. The augmented consist had been disassembled: 2211-2611-2711 sitting outside at east end with end door of 2711 sealed. Four photos at the MMC on July 5, 2025:

The other cars and cab car 2311 are coupled to guard unit 6445. 

Set 7 (donor) remained as a four-unit set, at right (below), next to Set 30 which arrived at the MMC on June 7. On June 3, Set 30 had operated as test train VIA No 636 between Montreal and Ottawa. Spot the blue & yellow baggage car and RDC!

The 'ajoutay' trainset reunited - July 12, 2025 at MMC:

Then this happened...

July 14 - Augmented Set 12 operated as Nos 67-79. The first use of this set since its June 3 test. The 'ajoutay' consist left the MMC on-time, but inexplicably departed Central Station 28 minutes late. Thereafter, with its CN-approved axle count and track speed, it only lost another 17 minutes all the way to Toronto, arriving only (!) 45 minutes late. 

July 15 - Augmented Set 12 operated as No 72-66. Despite an on-time departure, the lateness profile resembled the standard Venture falling-behind and arriving in Montreal 73 minutes late. (I have to wonder if this action was hurriedly taken based on the result, perhaps yet undivulged, of VIA's Quebec court case.) Lance Gleich kindly shared these excellent photos from the Roncesvalles Avenue pedestrian overpass along the Gardiner Expressway, showing the 'ajoutay' set's augmented length:

Lance notes wryly that's a Siemens hi-rail pickup!

July 16 - Augmented Set 12 to operate as No 67. A last-minute equipment swap to 6411-7 LRC. Departing Montreal 18 minutes late, an hour earlier the crews' chatter included the terms "bad bearings, locked axles, hot journal" with the MMC controller by radio. Reportedly, none of the Augmented Set 12 cars' refrigerators are working properly! VIA is referring to this set in internal documents as "1-7 V", instead of the regular "V" denoting a Venture set.

***UPDATES ***

July 21 - Set 12 departed Ottawa as No 24 after being at the MMC on the evening of July 20 (see image below).

July 22 - Set 12 operated as No 79.

July 23 - Set 12 operated as No 66.

July 24 - Set 12 operated as No 67 planned as No 79 to Windsor.

July 25 - Set 12 operated as No 79, detouring via Stratford due to a CN freight derailment at Paris, after likely operating as No 72, arriving in Toronto 3+ hours late. The 'ajoutay' consist on Youtube (5:15 mark).

July 28 - Set 12 was planned for Nos 67-79.

July 29 - Set 12 operated as No 66 planned as No 72.

July 30 - Set 12 was planned for Nos 67-79

July 31 - Set 12 operated as No 72 planned as No 66.

Aug. 1 - Set 12 was planned for Nos 67-79.

Aug. 2 - Set 12 operated as Nos 61 and 68, though only Business Cars 1 and 2 are use.

Aug. 3 - Set 12 operated as No 63 and 68, though only Business Cars 1 and 2 are in use.

Aug. 4 - Set 12 operated as Nos 63 (5) and 68 (33) (On-Time Performance in brackets).

Aug. 5 - Set 12 operated as Nos 63 (10) and No 668 (15).

Aug. 7 - Set 12 was planned for Nos 72-66.

Aug. 9 - Set 12 was planned as Nos 61-68.

Aug.10 - Set 12 was planned as Nos 63-668.

* * * * *

VIA No 67 Meeting EXO at Rue Bridge Sud on July 14:

THE FIRST AUGMENTED / 'AJOUTAY' CONSIST IN REVENUE SERVICE

The initial consist was reportedly augmented as early as May 22, 2025, comprising Set 12 with two cars (one Economy Class and one Business Class) taken from Set 7: 2311-2811-2911-2906 (Set 7 coach)-2706 (Set 7 Business Class)-2711-2611-2211. 

VIA sources suggest that the use of the augmented consist (I'm considering using term 'ajoutay' for such consists, just as I use the term 'doublavay' to represent J-trained Venture consists. Not only do both applications of Venture trainsets deserve their own Venture-specific terms, but both are marginally bilingual!) on July 14 was a game-day decision. 

Some have expressed concerns about whether the Ventures were ever intended to operate in variable-length consists, despite many quoting the 'NGEC' PowerPoint that shows 3-, 5- and 7-car consists. Unlike hitching up steam lines and air lines on a bunch of steam-heated coaches at Spadina or Pointe St Charles  and you're good-to-go, there are lots of 'black boxes' on Ventures that have to operate throughout a train with any number of cars. Each car, for instance, has its own interior  and exterior signage that is constantly updated. There would also be sensors, status lights, HVAC, light and power and many more systems that are controlled from one point then throughout the consist.

There is only one important number right now. It's not the number of minutes late, the number of passengers sick of arriving late and fleeing VIA, it's the number of axles CN is forcing VIA to run its Venture-equipped trains with. Or else. The magic number is 32! With a standard, six-unit Venture totalling 24 axles, the additional two cars add the requisite eight axles. 

So, 24 + 8 = success!

THE VENTURES' ANNUS HORRIBILIS

Let's look at the VIAriety of terrible, negative punishment that VIA's image and internal morale has taken over the past nine months, perhaps more precisely a novem menses horribilis!

• the overnight introduction of the completely-unexpected and unprecedented CN Crossing Supplement as an over-reach, over-reaction and technically groundless weapon against VIA.
• the thousands and thousands of hours that lawyers spent crafting a legal strategy to battle CN, collecting affidavits and sifting through the previous three years of communication with CN.
• the crushing blow that the jurisdictional argument dealt to VIA's case, not even getting a hearing in Federal Court in Montreal.
• VIA shifting the case from Federal Court to Superior Court in Quebec, in which its interlocutory injunction was not only denied but then upheld on appeal.
• both court cases pointing to VIA's case against CN not being a legal issue, not even a commercial contract issue, but a regulatory issue that needs to be not solved by the courts but by the Federal regulator.
• Transport Canada's intransigence and foot-dragging as a regulator, now six months of inaction even after CN supplied requested crossing signal data.
• the resulting fall-out from CN's actions dealing huge blows to VIA's ridership, reliability, public perception, on-time performance and public image.
• VIA's apparent reticence to name CN as an aggressor, instead having to politely refer vaguely to the 'infrastucture operator/host railway' due to its inability to advocate for itself.
• the extent to which CN's crossing speed reductions has hampered VIA's Venture roll-out.

TRACKSIDE PROGNOSTICATOR

In this initial post on the CN-imposed speed reductions that was not only published in real-time in October, 2024 as we tried to figure out the what and why, but has also been maintained each Monday with Venture-equipped trains' on-time performance as a way of ensuring that we don't miss the timely demise of said reductions, I predicted the following solutions:

• probable SHORT-TERM SOLUTION: Continued speed restrictions at affected crossings causing Venture trains to operate at the 30-60 minute late range.
• probable MEDIUM-TERM SOLUTION: Lengthening Venture consists with unused Venture cars. 
• probable LONG-TERM SOLUTION: Shunt-enhancer installation on Venture sets. 

At this point, my short- and medium-term predictions are coming true, while the long-term is cloudy and confusing. Not only would this require technology and testing not only not operating in Canada, but only recently approved and not-yet implemented in the US.

OTHER SOLUTIONS

Other solutions that VIA could attempt are few, but they do exist:

ADD LEGACY CARS TO VENTURE TRAINSETS - There are lots of Legacy cars currently sitting in VIA's maintenance centre yards. HEP cars like spare Chateau sleepers or coaches seem the most likely, since the majority of LRC cars are still in use or stored, not spare. The HEP cars are now surplus, and it only takes two per train to reach the magic number. These additional cars do not have to be 'part' of the train for operational purposes, and yes, require running-around at destination. Consider them passenger-less place-holders.

ORDER MORE VENTURE CARS - The purchase of Siemens Ventures was to secure VIA's Corridor future. Imagine the current Federal government, up to its eyeballs in issues that are important to every Canadian such as tariffs, pipelines, housing, inter-provincial trade, artificial intelligence, jobs, pensions, increasing defence and NATO spending, border security, the drug war, etc., shelling out millions for additional equipment to satisfy a bully of a host railway in a very profitable but very small part of VIA's national network. Especially since it was just announced that federally-funded institutions and Crown corporations like the CBC and VIA are expected to propose their own cuts under the Liberal government’s sweeping efforts to find $25 billion in annual savings from the federal budget in the next three years

CONVINCE CN THAT THEY'RE JUST PLAIN WRONG - However, CN has not only doubled-down on its claims of safety and philosophy of risk-aversion, it has in true Canadian fashion double-doubled-down, dug in its corporate heels, put out its corporate horns and fought VIA tooth-and-nail on this. All this in a toxic environment of a Train Service Agreement that neither party has been able to agree on for years.

WHAT THE RAILFANS WANT (AND WHY THEY SHOULDN'T WANT IT!)

JUST ORDER MORE VENTURE CARS - our newly-elected Federal government would have to approve this purchase, right? You know, that government that is awash in the fraught files listed above. And VIA is going to go to that government, cap in hand and ask for millions of dollars (not to mention one to two years even if approved) to settle a dispute that only recently emerged between VIA and CN, two current/former Crown corporations. One that could be proven at any time to be without basis and magically dispensed with.

THE VENTURES ARE 'JUNK' AND SHOULD BE RETURNED/SCRAPPED - a non-starter, don't you think? This isn't like an item you order on Amazon, comes with one piece missing and they send you a replacement the next day with all the pieces. The Ventures are the best option VIA arrived at, and now that they've arrived, continuing to question their implementation is pointless.

THEORIES ON HOW MANY TRAINSETS VIA NEEDS - the original order was for 32. Railfans reason that when you build an eight-unit consist, somewhere there is a four-unit consist sitting there idle. Yes, but the hope would be that this is a short-term coping mechanism only. 

THEORIES ON HOW VIA SHOULD CONFIGURE ITS VENTURE TRAINSETS - what car can go where, which cars have end-doors, which cars have which type of coupler. Are the two augmented cars being sold as passenger space, and will this conform to VIA's sales protocols? Not important right now. Remember, the magic number of 32, whether the cars' space is sold or not.

'AJOUTAY' CONSISTS ARE TOUGH TO TELL APART FROM REGULAR VENTURE TRAINSETS - well, that's true. When passing at 90 mph, two additional cars painted the same and with minuscule numbers are difficult to discern because they only take one second to pass by! Flying by covering 132 feet per second is scarcely time to appreciate the new, longer, improved and of-railfan-interest 'ajoutay' consist'.

'AJOUTAY' CONSISTS CAN'T POSSIBLY FIT INTO VIA'S CORRIDOR ROTATION - VIA has slowly but consistently found its creative chutzpah when it's come to dealing with the ripple effects of CN's actions: 

• cancelling certain perpetually-late Venture trains caused by late arrivals on the previous leg. 
• making near-daily Nos 60/50 and 62/52 'doublavays' as far as Brockville, resulting in far improved on-time performance at Montreal and Ottawa, respectively. 
• experimenting with other 'doublavay' trainsets elsewhere in the Corridor
• shifting Ventures away from early-morning 'commuter' runs like Ottawa-Toronto Nos 641 and 41. 
• temporarily pausing implementation of Ventures to South-West Ontario, before reintroducing Ventures to Toronto-Sarnia train Nos 84-87 and now sparingly to Windsor.
• stationing readily-available guard consists at the TMC and MMC to replace last-minute problematic trainsets prior to departure.

With continued scheduling synergies, there are likely other ways to get the best utilization possible from 'ajoutay' consists, especially now that VIA has been able to lengthen most Montreal-Toronto trains to seven or eight LRC cars.

VIA needs to break through its 13-Venture rotation at which it has been stymied for months now! It's not crew training, and with 31 trainsets now on the property, it's not supply. It's not even maintenance, because VIA seems to have a handle on some of the mechanical problems dogging the new technology, steadily increasing the sets in service and reducing the number of 'shop-queens' not available for service. Here are the facts to support that contention. 

The effect that CN's crossing speed reductions have had on VIA's Venture roll-out has been significant. Despite a continually-increasing drumbeat of delivered trainsets, the implementation thereof has reached a plateau, with relative numbers in the last two years especially disappointing:

• 2021 - 1 trainset delivered
• 2022 - 1 trainset delivered - 1 in revenue service of 2 available
• 2023 - 9 trainsets delivered - 6 in revenue service of 11 available
• 2024 - 14 trainsets delivered - 14 in revenue service of 25 available
• 2025 - as of July, 7 trainsets delivered - 13 in revenue service of 31 available

'Ajoutay' VIA No 67 at Ste Anne de Bellevue also on July 14:

WILL 'AJOUTAY' CONSISTS CONTINUE?

Questions remain, and we watch and wait to see if this success is sustainable and if more augmented consists will follow:

• How will 'ajoutay' consists affect the use of VIA's maintenance centres in Montreal and Toronto that are apparently designed to only handle the as-delivered six-unit consists, not these eight-unit consists.
• What will the impact be of additional 'ajoutay' consists on VIA's Venture fleet utilization and availability on the whole?

Running extra...one-liner edition...

This AI-generated YouTube thumbnail defies description:

This EG-generated PowerPoint awaits presentation:

Bristles gone from the street-sweeper made their way to my gons!

Glittering condos on the site of Kingston's grain elevator. Artist's conception:

Walker's reality:

First past the post...

Thanks to Lion Liu for his assistance with this post. His fine drone photos have certainly added much to my droning on-and-on about VIA's Ventures! He may not always share my rampant optimism, but I respect his realism.