VIA Rail

[Canard]

I'd love to see something similar to the VLocity railcars that operate out of Melbourne - or an electrified equivalent - but until then I'll take the oldies.

Those are pretty sharp! There are all sorts of great options out there. When we were in Denmark, I fell in love with the IC3. I instantly recognized them from my childhood - VIA (and I think Amtrak) actually trailed one of these for a couple of months! It was going under the name Flex-something (Flexliner?) at the time.

I'm not the biggest fan of the styling, but something like the Class 802 trains that the UK operates might be a good "Chevy Volt" for us until we're ready to go for full electrification.  They're high-speed passenger sets which can run either by an onboard diesel engine (with a hydrostatic transmission!), or electricity from pantograph, where available.