Alstom has revealed that it has signed an agreement with Canada’s national passenger rail operating company VIA Rail Canada, under which it will design, engineer, manufacture and support a new Long Distance, Regional and Remote (LDRR) fleet.

Alstom will deliver 313 Adessia railway cars, valued at approximately C$4 billion, and will enter into a 15-year Technical Support and Spare Parts Supply Agreement (TSSSA) valued at nearly C$700 million.

The overall agreement has a total value of C$4.7 billion (approximately 3 billion euros).

The new fleet of trains will operate on eight major routes which connect nearly four hundred communities across the country.

These routes link Montréal, Halifax, Gaspé, Jonquière, Senneterre, Toronto, Vancouver, Churchill, Prince Rupert, Jasper, Sudbury and White River.

The new Adessia rail cars will be engineered and manufactured in Canada, and are designed to have built-in resilience to the country’s climate extremes.

The operator will be able to deploy the new Adessia fleet in nine different car configurations.

This will enable it to run long-distance, regional and remote services, with coach, sleeper, accessible, berth, prestige, panorama, dome, dining and baggage cars.

The interiors of the trains are brighter and more spacious than its predecessors’, and there will be full connectivity with the latest cybersecurity protections.

Alstom is the only company that manufactures passenger trains in Canada, where it employs around 5,200 workers.

The company has supplied Adessia trains to several different countries, including Portugal and New Zealand.

Canadians deserve a passenger rail system that is modern, reliable and built to serve them for generations to come.

This investment delivers exactly that while supporting good-paying Canadian jobs and strengthening our domestic rail manufacturing sector. By assembling these railcars in Thunder Bay and La Pocatière, supported by Canadian design and engineering expertise in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, we are investing in Canadian workers, Canadian innovation and a stronger, more resilient economy.

The Hon. Steven MacKinnon, Minister of Transport and the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons