Ottawa is committing another $4.7 billion to VIA Rail’s fleet renewal, handing Alstom Canada a 313-car order that will make domestic manufacturing a central part of a federal rail program now exceeding $6.6 billion.
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the investment Thursday at Alstom’s Thunder Bay facility. The funding will cover the acquisition and maintenance of new passenger cars for VIA Rail’s long-distance, regional, and remote network, according to the Prime Minister’s Office.
The cars will be manufactured in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and La Pocatière, Quebec, while design and engineering will take place in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, Quebec. It will be the first time in roughly 40 years that VIA Rail passenger cars are manufactured in Canada.
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The government said the contract will support nearly 700 jobs and generate more than $1.6 billion in economic benefits. Alstom is also expected to draw on a network of more than 900 Canadian suppliers and maximize Canadian steel use in structural components.
The deal substantially expands an already costly replacement program for VIA Rail’s fleet outside the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor. Ottawa previously committed $1.6 billion for 45 locomotives from Stadler and $357 million for a Montreal assembly and maintenance facility, bringing total federal investment in the program above $6.6 billion.
Some of the equipment being replaced is more than 70 years old. The 313-car order will include dining cars, panorama cars, sleepers, and other configurations serving eight routes across eight provinces. Those routes carried more than 216,000 passengers in 2025.
The spending will not translate into new equipment immediately. Carney said the first Alstom cars are scheduled to enter service in 2031, with the full fleet expected by the mid-2030s, according to Dow Jones.
The procurement also places VIA Rail directly inside the government’s Buy Canadian policy. Ottawa said much of the Crown corporation’s existing fleet was built in the US, making the Alstom award both a fleet replacement project and one of Carney’s largest efforts so far to redirect federal purchasing toward domestic industrial capacity.
