Scotian Railroad Society 1980-07 News - VIA Yarmouth-Halifax Service News

Scotian Railroad Society - News July 1980 - VIA Yarmouth-Halifax Service News

Scotian Railroad Society records that VIA's RDC service is running with two cars, sand sucking into RDC engines, surging ridership continues.
A transcription of the article text appears after the article scan, for search purposes.

Reference Tag

Please use this tag when referring to this article: Scotian Railroad Society, News July 1980

---

The DAR Railiner service Yarmouth to Halifax has really been successful, as just about daily now, they run two units on both trains, and they are usually always full. Units which are used most often are 6113, 6132 and 6213, with one other RDC unit from those based out of Halifax.

It seems that the RDC's that operate over the Dominion Atlantic trackage are suffering from problems with sand getting into the motors. Each of the units that has been operating on the DAR line since June 8th has had a motor replaced due to the sand problem. To combat this, VIA are installing larger air filters on the units which will be assigned mostly to the DAR service, and so far two units have already received this larger air filter. Two more units will receive this modification, to make a total of four units to be so equipped.

VIA Rail reports a dramatic increase in the number of passengers travelling on the Yarmouth-Halifax service since the change in scheduling.

The new schedule and refurbished railcars have attracted an average of 76 passengers per train during the first month of operation. The average during the years 1975 to 1979 was 17 passengers per train.

Two railcars are now used for each train, and as the new service is being provided on a twelve month trial basis starting in the Autumn, prospects look good for continued service.