Labour Day train delay isolated incident, Via Rail CEO tells MPs
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$0 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*No charge for 4 weeks then price increases to the regular rate of $19.00 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
Monthly Digital Subscription
$4.75/week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $19 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*Your next subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $16.99 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $23.99 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/09/2024 (414 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
OTTAWA – The head of Via Rail repeatedly told MPs a train delay over the Labour Day long weekend was an isolated incident, despite a similar event two years ago.
Mario Péloquin appeared in front of a parliamentary committee Thursday to answer to an incident between Montreal and Quebec City that stranded passengers for 10 hours as they ran out of food, water and working toilets.
MPs pressed Via Rail executives about why the incident occurred even though Via Rail made changes following similar disruptions during the 2022 holiday season.
“Although we know now that it was not a single failure but a series of events, unfortunately, the breakdown of two weeks ago reminds us of what happened in December 2022,” Péloquin said.
“While Via Rail successfully implemented the key learnings and recommendations from 2022, this most recent incident revealed significant shortcomings which we are addressing.”
“I want to reiterate that I am deeply sorry for what happened,” he said.
Péloquin said the delays in 2022 were caused by an ice storm that had caused a tree to fall on the railway, while the latest incident was due to two separate mechanical failures.
Ottawa has already told Via Rail to make changes and asked it to conduct an independent investigation into the incident.
Péloquin said the company has now implemented a new evacuation process, but it wouldn’t have done much good in the latest incident because the train was in an area where evacuation was unsafe.
Conservative MP Philip Lawrence read out a list of previous delays, and asked Péloquin whether he could “with a straight face say this was isolated.”
Péloquin said Via Rail has 20,000 departures a year and 80 per cent arrive on time or within 30 minutes, and that some of those incidents were caused by events outside of Via Rail’s control, such as suspicious packages.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.