313 new cars will be manufactured in Canada for the first time in four decades.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Carney will invest more than C$4.7 billion (US$3.3 billion) to produce hundreds of passenger rail cars in the country that until now were manufactured in the United States.
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The plan will allow VIA Rail, the publicly owned passenger rail transportation company, to acquire and maintain 313 new rail cars that will be manufactured in Canada for the first time in four decades.
Carney presented the project in Thunder Bay as the largest investment in VIA Rail’s history and as part of his government’s strategy to reduce economic dependence on foreign countries and promote domestic production through the “Buy Canadian” policy.
The new cars will be supplied by Alstom Canada and will be manufactured and assembled in Thunder Bay and La Pocatière, while design and engineering work will be carried out in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville.
Canada should bring back the old Via Rail train system.
This was Via Rail back in 1979 today it’s only a 3rd of what it used to be y’all need to bring it back!! https://t.co/Qi7S6INyGe pic.twitter.com/6XIfdZH6lK
— Extraterrestrial
(@Mawilette) September 3, 2026
The contract will support nearly 700 jobs in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec and generate more than C$1.6 billion in economic activity. Alstom will also draw on its network of more than 900 Canadian suppliers and will be required to maximize the use of steel produced in the country.
The announcement comes as Ottawa seeks to strengthen Canada’s industrial capacity and reduce its dependence on the United States and other partners amid growing international trade uncertainty.
The 313 cars will replace aging VIA Rail equipment, some of which is more than 70 years old, and will serve the eight long-distance and regional routes and routes serving remote communities located outside the Quebec-Windsor corridor.
The investment follows the C$1.9 billion announced in July to produce 45 new locomotives and build an assembly and maintenance plant in Montreal. In total, Ottawa will allocate more than C$6.6 billion to renew VIA Rail’s fleet for long-distance, regional, and remote-community service.
teleSUR/ JF
Source: EFE
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Wonder if they plan to build more passenger track because IIRC everything in Canada is freight.
I’m not a train economist but it seems like CA$15 million per car seems high, when there’s virtually no dedicated track to run on.
Hold on… I’m an American… Won’t that create local jobs?
Yes, jobs local to Canada. Nice work Carney!
But won’t that improve your economy? I’m an American, I’m no economics masuse or rocket poetry inspector.
