The PV&T, like every other conventional railroad, started providing passenger service in the traditional way of having coaches hauled behind locomotives. This served the railroad well for many years, but when electrification started, the idea of using electric MU cars to provide commuter and suburban passenger service became too appealing to ignore.
After the PV&T electrification reached Montréal and Portland, the railroad started replacing passenger and express cars with electric motorcars; From 1920 until 1941, the PV&T purchased about 220 motors and 200 trailers to handle almost all of its passenger operations.
The electric cars were initially numbered from 100P through 1249P and the trailers were numbered from 2001P through 2369P. As commuter services and long-distance services declined, these cars were withdrawn from revenue service until all the commuter services had been shutdown or taken over by regional transit authorities (ditto for the interurban services, except by Amtrak & Via Rail Canada.)
Most of the retired cars ended up at the scrappers, except a few that were converted to MOW equipment or were purchased by one trolley museum or another, but significant numbers of the 12P & 10P classes still exist; the 12P’s as MOW vehicles, the 10P’s as (powered) coaches on the Chemin de fer Charlevoix’s tourist & ski trains.
The remaining cars are:
| No. | Class | Builder | Built | Type | Original No. | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 600P | 6PC | Pullman | 1928 | Coach | M960, ex-600P | Musée ferrovaire de Parsons Vale |
| E60-E63 | 10PC | Budd | 1957 | Coach | 1200P-1203P | converted to picture window tourist coaches and assigned to CdfC |
| E64 | 10PC | Budd | 1957 | Coach | 1207P | stored |
| E65-E71 | 10PC | Budd | 1957 | Coach | 1218P-1222P | converted to picture window tourist coaches and assigned to CdfC |
| E72,E73 | 10PC | Budd | 1958 | Coach | 1230P,1231P | not operational; kept as parts units |
| E74 | 10PC | Budd | 1958 | Coach | 1232P | converted to a picture window tourist coach and assigned to CdfC |
| E76,E77 | 10PCB | Budd | 1959 | Baggage-Coach | 1238P,1242P | stored |
| E80-E82 | 10PC | Budd | 1959 | Coach | 1245P-1247P | stored |
| E300 | 13PCB | St Louis | 1910 | Combination | PVRT 300 | Musée ferrovaire de Parsons Vale |
| M955 | 1PC | Niles | 1912 | Line car | 102P | |
| M970 | 11PC | Brill | 1932 | Line car | 1320P | “Cathedral Cars” |
| M971 | 11PC | Brill | 1932 | Line car | 1317P | |
| M972 | 11PI | Brill | 1932 | Inspection car | 1316P | |
| M973 | 11PCB | Brill | 1932 | Line car | 1304P | |
| M981-M984 | 12PCB | Ottawa | 1930 | Line car | TR&S 60,62,64,65 | Converted to line cars for the LT&L’s North Shore electrification |
| M985 | 12PCB | Ottawa | 1930 | Baggage-Coach | TR&S 61 | used for storage, then to Musée ferrovaire de Parsons Vale 1989 |
| M986 | 12PCB | Ottawa | 1930 | Tool car | TR&S 66 | |
| X100 | 6THC | St Louis | 1928 | Heater car | 661P | rebuilt 1967 from wrecked 6TB 718P |
| X101 | 6TD | Pullman | 1928 | Dining car | 644P | official train |
| X103 | 5TI | Pullman | 1925 | Inspection | 502P | official train |
| X106 | 9TO | Budd | 1956 | Office car | 1156P | official train |
| X113 | 6TS | Pullman | 1928 | Sleeper | 613P | rebuilt from 6PC 613P, official train |
| X121 | 10TVD | Budd | 1958 | Vista-dome | 1233P | official train |
| X122 | 6TB | Pullman | 1928 | Baggage | M1102, exx-722P | |
| X198 | 6TS | St Louis | 1928 | Sleeper | 698P | rebuilt from 6PC 698P, official train |
| X688 | 14THE | P&W | 1954 | HEP car | AMTK 456 | originally an E9B |
The classification scheme that the PV&T uses for interurban motor and trailer cars is
- the order number
- either P for a powered car or T for a trailer
- a classification code
- (optionally) a numeric suffix for orders that were broken up between different carbuilders.
Thus, class 12PCB is a Powered Coach-Baggage car from order 12.
And there are multiple numbering schemes for passenger equipment; originally, the numbering scheme was a number plus the letter P (confusingly like the classification system for MU cars), but, but sometime between the formation of Amtrak & VIA this switched to the letter E or X plus a number (mirroring the M+number scheme that MOW equipment uses.)