Funny (sad?) story about a company that sent some operations to Mexico.
The new plant fell behind schedule on the product and a senior manager, who was known for getting things done, was sent there to improve the situation. He started every morning with a meeting to discuss the various problems and what could be done about them. One area was discussed and he asked the man in charge of that process when it would be fixed. The reply was; “Mañana.”
They went on to other problems.
This occurred several days in a row… the answer was always, “Mañana”.
The next time, the senion manager stopped the meeting and said, “For several days now you have told me this problem would be fixed tomorrow. How come it has not been done yet?”
The process manager responded, “I have not told you ‘tomorrow’, when I said, ‘mañana’, I meant, ‘not today’.”
I was in Thunder Bay a few years ago and found the coaches by accident. Most were unfinished with windows missing, no trucks and just sitting on the ground. My friends in the U.K. said it was politics that killed the Night Star service as well as competition from Ryan Air and Easy Jet. I was in TB this past June and tried to find them again, I was pretty sure I was in the right area but they were gone.
One rumour suggested the primary reason for the Montreal-Halifax train being cut from daily to tri-weekly was difficulty in keeping sufficient members of the fleet in service. Supposedly the members of the fleet that had been converted were not standing up well to the Canadian operating environment, and spent enough time in maintenance that supporting a daily schedule had become problematic.
Certainly the cars were not designed to stand up to the winter weather they were subjected to, and the plumbing had to be modified so that it would not freeze.
I would rejoice if VIA would be able to obtain new equipment built on the same order as the Canadian’s equipment-- and relegate all the Renaissance equipment to the scrap pile.
The doors and floor traps and steps could be removed as spares without cutting the whole end off the car. I’d think that these would be used for more major changes, such as widening the doorway to accept wheelchairs.
VIA did a good deal to get the cars, but they were designed for much more restrictive clearances than those in Canada. There should have been a follow-up plan to convert them for service in Canada but this does not seem to have been a plan but just reacting to failures and problems.
Like Amtrak, VIA is not funded sufficiently to replace life expired equipment, but is still expected to provide services to remote areas with no chance of a commercial return.