Alstom's Thunder Bay line replaces a fleet averaging 77 years, adding nearly 700 jobs
Ottawa is spending more than $4.7bn on 313 new Via Rail passenger cars, to be manufactured and assembled at Alstom Canada plants in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and La Pocatière, Quebec, with design and engineering work in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, Quebec.
According to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), the contract is the largest investment in Via Rail's history and in Canadian intercity passenger rail in a generation, supporting nearly 700 jobs in Ontario and Quebec and generating more than $1.6bn in economic benefits.
Alstom will leverage and expand a network of more than 900 Canadian suppliers under the Buy Canadian Policy while maximising the use of Canadian steel in structural assemblies, supports, and fabricated metal elements, the PMO said.
VIA's passenger cars will be built in Canada for the first time in four decades, Prime Minister Mark Carney said in the Prime Minister's Office release.
He said the work moves from the United States and brings contracts for Canadian suppliers, jobs for Canadian workers, and paycheques that stay in Canadian cities and towns.
Rail cars on long-distance and remote routes are "more than 70 years old," Carney told reporters at the Alstom plant in Thunder Bay, according to The Canadian Press.
He said they were built when the NHL had six teams.
A PMO spokesperson told the same outlet the average age of cars on Via's long distance and remote routes is 77 years.
Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon said the project will lead to 700 new jobs and that the first new car should be delivered in 2031, per The Canadian Press.
CBC News reported there is no timeline yet for construction of the cars.
The government announced $1.6bn in July to replace 45 Via Rail locomotives and a further $357m for a new assembly plant and maintenance facility, The Canadian Press reported, with the locomotive contract going to Swiss company Stadler, which will design and manufacture much of the fleet in Valencia, Spain.
The PMO puts total federal spending on renewing Via Rail's long-distance, regional, and remote fleet at more than $6.6bn.
Canada's auditor general found Via Rail's on-time performance had dropped to 30 percent in the first three months of 2025, according to The Canadian Press.
Unifor said Alstom will invest $38m in upgrades to the Thunder Bay plant, where Local 1075 represents about 250 manufacturing workers.
"It took a trade war to get us here, but let's keep building Canada by Canadians and for Canadians," said Unifor national president Lana Payne in the union's statement.
The union wrote to Carney in March warning that Buy Canadian rules would not apply to the Via tender, since the policy covers only federal solicitations launched after December 16, 2025, and the Via process began in 2024.
Reuters reported that Canadian retaliatory tariffs on about $20bn worth of annual US imports take effect on September 8, in response to tariffs imposed on Canada last month by US President Donald Trump affecting $20bn of Canadian imports.
Reuters did not specify the currency for either figure and valued the Via contract at $4.7bn, or US$3.41bn.
"The fundamental issue is Via Rail's reliability," Conservative transport critic Dan Albas said in a media statement carried by The Canadian Press, pointing to the auditor general's reporting.
He said new passenger cars do not fix that, and that Conservatives have pressed the government to keep taxpayer dollars behind Canadian workers, industries, and materials.
