Riding Mountain Park car

Hello all,

I was just reviewing this month's Canadian Railway Observations (http://www.canadianrailwayobservations.com) and it has this section:

A former Budd-built ex-CPR Dome-Observation-Lounge car “Riding Mountain Park”, owned by the Adrian & Blissfield RR and is currently in Blissfield, MI and has been repainted in CP 1950’s livery. They intend to use the car on their dinner train then modify it to run with Amtrak.

Why did VIA give up this Park car? I thought there was a shortage of the refurbished Budd equipment.

-Chris

Riding Mountain park was one of three Park cars that were not included in the HEP programme of the early 1990s. The other two were Algonquin Park and Sibley Park. For a few years after Conservative PM Mulroney cut VIA in half those three Park cars sat at the west end of Ottawa station. Later I saw them stored in Montreal.

Any idea why VIA didn't refurbish them with Renaissance money? It couldn't have cost that much for only three cars, and now they're lost forever.

VIA simply had no need for these three Park cars. The 14 currently in service are more than enough to meet daily operations and anticipated future needs.

I believe the cars may have been sold off prior to any "Renaissance Money." And as pointed out, VIA sort of has enough Park Cars to go around at present to cover their routes that have Park Cars not only seasonally, but also year-round! There's actually somewhat of a surplus of these cars if you will. VIA could certainly operate these cars more frequently on say the Hudson Bay Line or some of the day trains that originate out of Montreal.