This is a list of past and present rolling stock owned and operated by Via Rail in Canada. When Via began operation in 1976–1978 it was with a collection of equipment inherited from Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific (CP), much of which remains in use on long-distance, regional and remote services. Over the years Via has supplemented this initial fleet with new orders and with acquisitions of secondhand equipment from other operators. The fleet used in the Québec City–Windsor Corridor was replaced between 2022 and 2025 by Siemens Charger locomotives and Siemens Venture cars, and in 2026 Via signed contracts with Stadler Rail and Alstom to replace the equipment used on its long-distance, regional and remote routes.
Via does not publish a unit-by-unit roster, and the aggregate figures it publishes differ according to the basis of measurement. Its 2025 annual report gives 70 locomotives and 294 train cars "in and out of service" as at 31 December 2025, together with all 32 new trainsets received for the Corridor. Its corporate fleet pages describe a fleet of "over 450 train cars and locomotives" and give nominal quantities by model that in several cases exceed those corporate totals. The tables below therefore give published fleet quantities together with their sources rather than a single active roster, and note where an active count has not been published.
Locomotives
Current
Via operates diesel locomotives exclusively. Its fleet of F40PH-2 locomotives was built by General Motors Diesel between November 1987 and April 1989 and was rebuilt under a programme funded in 2007, which added a separate head end power generator. The GE P42DC fleet was built in 2001. Siemens Charger locomotives were introduced from 2022 to replace the equipment then used on Corridor services, and Via reported that commissioning of the new Corridor fleet was completed during 2025. Via also operates a small number of self-propelled Budd Rail Diesel Cars, which are listed separately below.
Model Road numbers Fleet quantity Years of service Notes GMD F40PH-2 6400–6459 53 1987–present Built November 1987 to April 1989. Rated at 3,000 hp with a 500 kW head-end power generator and a maximum speed of 145 to 153 km/h, units 6437 to 6458 being restricted to 145 km/h. The rebuilding programme, funded by the Government of Canada in 2007, covered 53 locomotives and added a separate head-end power generator and improved emissions controls. Number 6403 appeared on the Canadian $10 note issued from 2013 and was subsequently renumbered 6459. Locomotive 6400 led train 15 when it derailed at Saint-Charles-de-Bellechasse, Quebec, on 25 February 2010; the Transportation Safety Board of Canada reported that the lead locomotive was destroyed. Locomotive 6444 led train 92 when it derailed at Aldershot, Ontario, on 26 February 2012, rolling onto its side and striking a building foundation; the cab roof collapsed and the cab interior was extensively damaged. Units 6422, 6423, 6430, 6447 and 6450 were wrecked or retired before the rebuilding programme. Via does not publish how many units are active, stored or withdrawn. GE P42DC 900–920 21 2001–present Built October to December 2001. Rated at 4,250 hp with an 800 kW head-end power generator and a maximum speed of 160 km/h. Fitted with a third headlight below the numberboards. Via does not publish how many units are active, stored or withdrawn, and has not published the fleet's route assignments following completion of the Corridor fleet replacement. Siemens Charger 2200–2231 32 2022–present Operated in trainsets with Siemens Venture cars on the Québec City–Windsor Corridor. Powered by a Cummins QSK95 sixteen-cylinder diesel engine of 4,200 hp meeting EPA Tier 4 emission standards, with 600 kW head-end power, a maximum tractive effort of 290 kN and a design speed of 201 km/h, although passenger trains in Canada are limited to 160 km/h by track classification. All 32 had been delivered as at 31 December 2025. The designation SCV-42 is widely used for the Via variant, although Via's own material refers to the type as the Siemens Charger. EMD SW1000 202 2 1978–present Switchers used to move cars within the Montréal Maintenance Centre; they are not equipped to supply head-end power. Built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division between November 1966 and January 1967 and rated at 1,000 hp, with a maximum speed of 100 km/h. The units previously spent twenty years in the service of Inland Steel in Indiana. Via's fleet page gives two units without publishing their road numbers.
On order
On 29 July 2026 the Government of Canada announced a $1.95 billion investment to renew Via's long-distance, regional and remote locomotive fleet. The investment comprises $1.6 billion for 45 locomotives to be supplied by Stadler Rail and $357 million for a new assembly and maintenance facility to be built by Pomerleau at Via's Montréal Maintenance Centre. Stadler announced the contract the following day; it includes a twenty-year technical support and spare supply agreement.
The four-axle locomotives combine diesel-electric propulsion with a battery-assisted traction system. Stadler states that they will deliver up to 4 MW at the wheel, a starting tractive effort of 350 kN and a maximum speed of 160 km/h. The traction batteries supply onboard auxiliary systems, head-end power and traction, and store regenerated braking energy. The locomotives are designed to run in battery mode at stations and in other environmentally sensitive areas, and the battery system is intended to allow a locomotive to continue operating as far as a safe location following a failure of the diesel powertrain. The design envelope extends to −50 °C and draws on technology previously deployed in Sweden and Norway. The battery systems are to be supplied by ABB from its plant in Saint-Laurent, Quebec, and the locomotives are to retain the flexibility to use renewable diesel.
Stadler Valencia, at Albuixech in Spain, retains responsibility for the design, manufacture and delivery of the fleet, while part of the assembly together with testing and commissioning is to be carried out in Canada. Transport Canada states that the Montréal facility, expected to be completed in 2029, will support the final assembly, testing and commissioning of up to 36 of the locomotives before moving to long-term maintenance work. Transport Canada describes the fleet as North America's first hybrid-powered passenger locomotives. Support services are to be delivered through a Canadian subsidiary of Stadler with personnel based at Via's maintenance facilities in Montréal, Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver.
Model Road numbers Quantity Schedule Notes Stadler Rail hybrid battery-diesel locomotive Not announced 45 First units scheduled to enter commercial service in 2029; deployment scheduled to be complete in 2032 Model designation not announced. Intended for long-distance, regional and remote services.
Former
Via inherited a diverse fleet of diesel locomotives from Canadian National and Canadian Pacific. It also received UAC TurboTrain gas-turbine equipment. Between 1980 and 1984 Bombardier delivered 31 LRC ("Light, Rapid, Comfortable") diesel locomotives with matching cars: an initial 21 production units followed by ten more in 1984. The last examples were retired in 2001.
Model Road numbers Built Years of service NotesUAC TurboTrain125, 15119681978–1982Acquired from CN. The equipment was withdrawn in 1982 and none was preserved. LRC-26900–69201980–19841980–2001 6917 was acquired by the Toronto Railway Historical Association and is one of two surviving LRC locomotives; the remainder were scrapped.LRC-36921–69301980–19841980–20016921 is preserved at Exporail.MLW FPA-2U6758, 67591946–19591979–1987Ex-CN. 6758 was previously numbered 6755 and delivered new as FPA-2 6711; 6759 was previously 6751 and delivered new as FPA-2 6707. 6758 was subsequently acquired by the New York and Lake Erie Railroad, which was still operating it on excursions in 2025.MLW FPA-46760–67931946–19591979–1989Ex-CN. The last example operated in early May 1989. Several were subsequently acquired by private train operators in the United States.MLW FPB-46860–68711946–19591979–1989Ex-CN. Cabless booster units, retired with the remaining FPA-4s in 1989.GMD FP76501, 6509, 6521, 65661949–19531979–1986Ex-CP. FP7Au 6566 was destroyed in the Hinton train collision in February 1986 and was retired during that year.GMD FP91405–1407, 1409–14141954–19591979–2002 Ex-CN and CP. Fifteen units were later rebuilt as the FP9ARM class. F9B 6633 was destroyed in the Hinton train collision in February 1986 and was retired during that year. 6307 and 6313 later passed to Royal Canadian Pacific as 4106 and 4107. 6304 and 6311 are at Eastend, Saskatchewan.GMD FP9ARM6300–63141983–19851983–2002Fifteen units rebuilt from Canadian National FP9As. Seven of them, 6300, 6302, 6304, 6307, 6308, 6311 and 6313, were fitted with head-end power equipment in 1997.MLW RS-10855819561978–1981 Conveyed from CP to Via in late 1978 and retired in 1981.EMD E81800, 180219491978–1982Conveyed from CP to Via in late 1978, renumbered 1898 and 1899 in 1980 and retired in 1982.Budd RDC-16100–61481949–19621978–2000sEx-CN and CP. Former Via 6109 and 6120 later ran in Cuba. 6127 was sold to Dallas Area Rapid Transit.Budd RDC-26200–6225Ex-CN and CP. Several cars passed to Industrial Rail Services Incorporated, which rebuilt some of them for Via and scrapped others following its bankruptcy.Budd RDC-36350–6357Ex-CP and CN. Via describes the RDC-3 as partly for passengers and partly for baggage or postal use.Budd RDC-96000–6006Ex-CP and CN. Via describes the RDC-9, also known as the RDC-5, as having no controls and a single engine, the type being used to add passenger capacity.IC37001-7401-720119891996–1997Two three-car sets were brought to North America for demonstration and operated by Via before being returned to service in Israel.
Passenger cars
Siemens Venture The 2018 Canadian federal budget included funding for the purchase of 32 trainsets to replace the equipment then used in Corridor service in Ontario and Quebec. Via issued a request for proposals in 2018, with delivery of the new rolling stock scheduled for 2022. In December 2018 Via ordered 32 five-car trainsets, a total of 160 cars, from Siemens Mobility for use on the Québec City–Windsor Corridor at a cost of $989 million, together with a fifteen-year technical services and parts agreement valued at $355.5 million. The cars were built at Siemens' plant in Sacramento, California. Similar equipment is used by Amtrak Midwest and Brightline in the United States and by Railjet services in Austria and the Czech Republic.
Each trainset is formed of one Siemens Charger locomotive and five Siemens Venture cars: two Business class cars, two Economy class cars and an Economy class cab car, the first cab cars operated by Via. Via describes the standard configuration as four coaches, one cab car and one locomotive, and states that the formation can be lengthened or shortened as required. A standard trainset seats 194 passengers in Economy class and 87 in Business class, with five mobility aid spaces and onboard wheelchair lifts. The paired number series denote position within a trainset rather than separate production batches.
The first trainset entered revenue service in 2022. Via reported that all 32 trainsets had been delivered as at 31 December 2025 and that it had completed the full commissioning of the new Corridor fleet during that year.
+ Position Type Built Fleet numbers Quantity Image 1 Venture Business class car 2021–2025 2600–2631 32 2 Venture Business class car 2021–2025 2700–2731 32 3 Venture Economy class car 2021–2025 2900–2931 32 4 Venture Economy class car 2021–2025 2800–2831 32 5 Venture Economy class cab car 2021–2025 2300–2331 32
Stainless steel