VIA must make Renaissance cars more accessible

Via Rail must make changes to 40 of the new coaches it bought in 2000 to make them more accessible to people in wheelchairs, Canada's top court ruled Friday.

The Supreme Court upheld a decision by the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), which in 2003 ordered Via to make changes to some of its 139 Renaissance coaches.

CBC News story

At first glance, this appeared to be an overreaction by the Court to unnecessary demands from special interests, since these trains already provide accessibility to those using wheelchairs. However, the order doesn't require the entire fleet be modified. I'll need to find out more before making any conclusions.

How board wheelchair drivers the trains?
In America and Canada the plattforms levels are very low, maybe same level like top rail egde. The Renaissance cars were built to stop at high platforms (in UK and Europe), so addional steps were mounted: http://dewi.ca/trains/2004/VIA/pict0001.jpg

But how does wheelchair drivers board the trains? Have they to carry into the cars with theirs chair?

Is there any technical solution in planing/ in use?
collapsable wheelchair elevator beside the doors (reaching from the coach car level down to platform level) or mobile wheelchair elevators at the stations?

Greets

I believe they have mobile wheel chair lifts at the stations or storage aboard the train for such. The Renaissance Service Cars on the Ocean have a special sleeper room dedicated to handicap passengers. Not sure about coach. However, even on the corridor, Renaissance Service cars are operated with a "handicap room." Thus I am not clear on the modifications that need to be made for the Renaissance cars.

Perhaps this may help:

http://www.cta-otc.gc.ca/media/communiq ... 029_e.html

George L. wrote:Perhaps this may help:

http://www.cta-otc.gc.ca/media/communiq ... 029_e.html

George, That was interesting to read.
Thanks,Skull

>13. the order in which the service cars are connected to the other cars on >the Montréal-Toronto overnight trains; and,


This won't be a problem since VIA no longer runs this overnight service. It ran when I visited Canada back in 2006 however, can anyone tell me why the killed it off? I don't remember it being very busy on the four occasions when I rode it. Shame really as I found it handy for making a long journey but at the same time saving money on the cost of a hotel. The only problem that I saw with it was the layover in a yard somewhere for a couple of hours in either direction. It would have made more sense for the train to have been made available for boarding earlier in Toronto Union or Montreal stations for the sleeper passengers, whilst also allowing for a later departure time from Toronto. Sitting in a yard didn't really help anyone.

But VIA has a cart that goes down the isle to serve passengers food and drinks.Crippled people do not need to go to the food service car.On every VIA train that I've been on that was how it was done.

dmclement wrote:It ran when I visited Canada back in 2006 however, can anyone tell me why the[sic] killed it off? I don't remember it being very busy on the four occasions when I rode it.

It looks like you've answered your own question. Ridership on the overnight train never quite lived up to VIA's expectations. The two-hour stop in a siding near Kingston (it wasn't really a yard) served two purposes. One was to have a reasonable arrival time at each end point. The other was to provide a commuter service between Kingston and each of Montreal and Toronto. While the layover didn't really hurt anything - most passengers were asleep at the time, the same objectives could have been met with earlier departure times and an even slower schedule.

For more discussion on this subject, refer to Enterprise Constellation Class.

I still think they should have run this train from Montreal to Toronto via Ottawa. It could have left Montreal earlier to still allow passenger friedly times at Ottawa. But there was some competition that VIA Rail had and they couldn't get the train routed to Ottawa. I don't know when I rode this train, even when it had two or three sleepers, they were full. Course I largely rode it to connect with the Canadian. I hate to say it, but I enjoyed the corridor service more while I was sleeping, as the overnight train - Enterise - provided the ideal hotel on wheels and connection to the Canadian.