VIA Rail Suspends Operations

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VIA Rail train services in Canada has been cancelled.

This comes after earlier in the day CN announced that they had been forced to initiate a disciplined and progressive shutdown of its operations in Eastern Canada. This will include stopping and safely securing all trans-continental trains across its Canadian network and may imminently lead to temporary layoffs within the company’s Eastern Canadian operational staff.

CN says that they sought and obtained court orders and requested the assistance of enforcement agencies for the blockades in Ontario, Manitoba, and British Columbia.

“While the illegal blockades have come to an end in Manitoba and may be ending imminently in British Columbia, the orders of the court in Ontario have yet to be enforced and continue to be ignored. The Company has tried to adjust its operations to serve customers in the face of these challenges, it is now left with the only remaining responsible option: progressively shutting down its Eastern Canadian operations until the illegal blockades end,” read a statement from CN.

VIA Rail has issued the follow statement:

Following an advisory from the infrastructure owner that they are unable to support our operations across their network, VIA Rail has no other option but to cancel its services, effective immediately and until further notice.

VIA Rail is providing full refunds for all cancelled trips, which are being processed automatically. You do not need to contact VIA Rail to confirm the refund, but note that due to the volume of transactions it may take up to 15 days to receive.

In order to allow be able to help as many customers as possible, we respectfully request that you contact our VIA Customer Center only in cases of immediate urgency, at 1-888-VIA-RAIL (1-888 842-7245), TTY 800-268-9503 (deaf or hard of hearing).

We understand the impact this unfortunate situation has on our passengers and regret the significant inconvenience this is causing to their travel.