Tuesday, October 02, 2012

Chaleur Update

This LaPresse article indicates that the VIA Chaleur Montreal-Gaspé train will not be going to Gaspé at all this year. There is a new provincial government in Quebec, and although the previous Liberal government promised $17 million to repair the bridges between New Carlisle and Gaspé, it remains to be seen if the new Parti-Québécois government will honour that commitment.

You may remember that it has been since mid-December 2011 that VIA went to Gaspé, and only since May 20 2012 that VIA has been going to New Carlisle.

The article has a lovely photo by Gilles Gagné showing a flatcar with a wind turbine blade (with an RS-18 peeking out behind it) and one of the SFG passenger cars destined for a future tourist train.

Beyond VIA Rail, other customers waiting to use the line are the wind turbine manufacturer in Gaspé and the aforementioned tourist train meant to partner with cruise ships.

Currently, VIA turns on the wye at New Carlisle, as shown in this great video by J.A. Berthelot. See my photo sequence of the same maneuver from a few years ago.


Be sure to check out J.A.'s other videos featuring trains from the Gaspé.


4 comments:

Graham said...

Thanks Steve. Do you know the reason for making the "Y" in two movements? Is it because the "Y" is too short to turn the whole length of the train in one movement?

Canadian Train Geek said...

That's exactly right, Graham, the tail of the wye is too short for the entire train.

Unknown said...

The Chaleur's toast.

Eric said...

Pretty amazing location for a wye, Steve. I checked it on Googlemaps, and the tail track of that wye gets really close to Chaleur Bay, like it looks in the photos/video!

Thanks for sharing,
Eric