Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced more than $4.7 billion in federal investment to bring VIA Rail passenger-car manufacturing back to Canada for the first time in four decades.

The funding will allow VIA Rail to acquire and maintain 313 new passenger rail cars from Alstom Canada, with manufacturing and assembly planned in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and La Pocatière, Quebec.

The federal government says the project will support nearly 700 jobs in Ontario and Quebec and generate more than $1.6 billion in economic benefits.

The announcement is part of Carney’s broader Buy Canadian Policy, which aims to increase domestic procurement and strengthen Canadian supply chains.

The new fleet will include dining cars, panorama cars and sleepers, with improved accessibility and modern amenities. The trains will serve VIA Rail’s long-distance, regional and remote routes outside the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor.

The government says the investment will also strengthen Canada's rail-manufacturing sector and reduce reliance on foreign production at a time of heightened international trade uncertainty.

Combined with a recent federal investment in new VIA Rail locomotives and a Montreal assembly and maintenance facility, the government says total investment in renewing the railway’s long-distance, regional and remote fleet now exceeds $6.6 billion.