TORONTO — VIA Rail’s brand new fleet made its first official trip to Toronto earlier this week, complete with a christening by CEO Mario Péloquin.

The trains have been running between Québec City – Montréal – Ottawa since late last year, but just had their first commercial run service in Toronto, with train #41 travelling in from Ottawa.

The new fleet ushers in a new era of comfortable, barrier-free and eco-friendly travel in the Québec City-Windsor corridor, says VIA Rail.

New features for accessible and barrier-free travel include touchless automatic interior doors, large accessible washrooms, braille signage and wider aisles for easy circulation. The new trains also feature clean diesel technology engines, which are more fuel efficient, resulting in a significant contribution to improving air quality and reducing environmental impact.

Part of a $1.5 billion dollar investment made by the federal government and first announced in 2018, some 32 of the new state-of-the-art trains are rolling out and will be progressively introduced in the Québec City-Windsor up until 2025.

VIA Rail CEO Mario Péloquin christening the new fleet