Labour Day train delay isolated incident, Via Rail CEO tells MPs

The head of Via Rail says a train delay over the Labour Day long weekend was an isolated incident.

Mario Péloquin appeared in front of a parliamentary committee to answer to an incident that stranded passengers between Montreal and Quebec City 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.

Péloquin says 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 says 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.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.