Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a $4.7 billion contract to build 313 new passenger cars for Via Rail on Thursday.

Carney made the announcement at the Alstom plant in Thunder Bay, Ont., where the cars will be built.

“Our rail cars on our long-distance and remote routes are more than 70 years old. They were built when the NHL had six teams. Goalies wouldn’t wear masks. The Leafs would win the (Stanley) Cup,” Carney said.

“Those old cars have served our country well, but they’re long overdue for retirement. It’s time to build new ones, to build them here at home.”

Carney emphasized the fact that the new cars are being built in Canada.

“For the first time in four decades, those cars will be produced and assembled and maintained in our country. Cars that used to be built in the United States will be built right here in Thunder Bay at Alstom, by the best workers in the world,” Carney said.

Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon called the investment the single largest in Via Rail’s history and said the project will lead to 700 new jobs.

“This is a truly Canadian project. Canadian supply chains, workers, and it’s a renewed investment in that passenger rail service that connects us all,” MacKinnon told The Canadian Press following the announcement.

He said the first new car should be delivered in 2031.

Via Rail last imported passenger cars in August 2025 through a 2018 contract with Siemens Canada to replace locomotives and cars in the Windsor-Quebec City fleet, the company told The Canadian Press.

The cars and locomotives were manufactured at Siemens’ facility in Sacramento, California.

A spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s Office said the average age of passenger cars along Via’s long distance and remote routes is 77 years.

In July, the government announced plans to spend $1.6 billion to replace 45 of Via Rail’s aging locomotives and another $357 million to build a new assembly plant and maintenance facility.

Those new trains are also expected to be delivered in 2031.

At the time, the federal government said the new locomotives would improve Via Rail’s reliability and on-time performance, which Canada’s auditor general found had dropped to a dismal 30 per cent in the first three months of 2025.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 3, 2026.

— With files from Nick Murray in Ottawa.