(The following story by Karen Howlett and Kate Hammer appeared on the Globe and Mail website on May 10.)
FOLEYET, Ont. — The Canadian was rolling through Northern Ontario early Friday morning when a passenger began to have trouble breathing. A crew member gave her oxygen, but by the time a retired doctor from Britain sitting in the same car went to her side, she was already unconscious.
Within minutes, the 86-year-old woman — who, originally thought to be in her 60s, boarded the Via Rail train two days earlier in Jasper, Alta., and was in good spirits the night before — was dead, leaving passengers and crew members in shock.
It was the beginning of a dramatic day in which six more passengers fell ill, seemingly all at once, and the train, with its 264 passengers and 30 crew, was placed under quarantine.
Health officials from across Canada were in a high state of anxiety amid fears of an outbreak of an infectious disease, and, along with emergency services, broke into their planned responses.
David Butler-Jones, Canada’s chief public health officer, headed to an emergency operations centre in Ottawa to communicate with counterparts at provincial and local health authorities from British Columbia to Ontario — every province through which the train travelled on its journey from Vancouver to its final destination, Toronto.
By late Friday afternoon, it became apparent that there was no infectious disease. Neither did there appear to be any connection between the sudden death of one woman, the airlifting of another to a nearby hospital and the five tourists from Australia with flu-like symptoms who were placed in isolation on the train to contain the potential spread of disease.
David Williams, Ontario’s acting chief medical officer of health, described the fate of the seven passengers as a series of unfortunate and unrelated health events.
“There is no evidence to support an outbreak of infectious disease on the train,” a visibly relieved Dr. Williams declared at a news conference in Toronto.
Saturday morning, the train had arrived at Toronto’s Union Station, where passengers said they were a little weary but in good spirits.
“I’m amazed at how well the staff did. They really, really did take care of us. We had all these extra hours but they made sure we were comfortable,” Cecilia Damico said as she waited by the luggage carousel.
Ms. Damico said there were times it felt the delay “was never going to end” but that she was pleased with how well the crew kept passengers informed and occupied.
“We were doing crossword puzzles and reading and they gave everybody champagne,” she said.
“The crew was marvellous, they really were. They made sure that everybody was comfortable.”
Still, some passengers who were further away from the incident — the train was about 30 cars long — felt they weren’t kept as well informed of what was happening as they would have liked.
“We didn’t really know what was going on and we were stopped for eight hours,” said Elise Pettit, 19.
“They told us it was a medical emergency and we heard through word of mouth that someone passed away.”
Marco Morosoli, a Swiss native who’s been travelling throughout North America by train, said he remained in the dark for about the first four hours of the delay.
“It was upsetting and exhausting,” said Lil Jamieson of Kelowna, B.C. “We’re all day sitting there just looking out at the media and the ambulances.”
The drama began around 8:30 (ET) Friday morning, when the unidentified woman took ill as the train was approaching Foleyet, a sleepy hamlet 100 kilometres from Timmins. Shortly after, crew members notified the Sudbury District Health Unit of an unusual event on the Canadian — one woman dead and six others ill.
People in Foleyet realized something unusual was happening when they saw that the train was stopped at the station around 9 a.m., said local resident Fernande Dallaire. OPP cruisers, some with sirens turned on, arrived and cordoned off the local rail yard, she said. Residents saw four or five ambulances show up. A medical helicopter landed nearby and airlifted a female passenger away. Medical personnel donned masks and white protective suits before heading to the train, Mrs. Dallaire said.
“We haven’t seen this much action in the last 10, maybe 20 years. We’re just swamped here with emergency vehicles of all kinds. We’re just a little town of 200, 250 people and you get all this action,” said John Boudreau, another local resident.
A travelling companion of the woman who died was airlifted to a hospital in Timmins after she began suffering from shortness of breath. She does not show any sign of a communicable disease and is now in stable condition, Dr. Williams said.
The visitors from Australia have a variety of respiratory illnesses and did not feel well when they boarded the train in Jasper, Dr. Williams said. One of them had seen a doctor before boarding the train, he added. A helicopter in Foleyet was used to transport swabs from the five Australians to a laboratory in Timmins.
The rest of the passengers could not leave the train while it was under quarantine. At least one passenger donned a surgical mask, but most remained calm and stared out the windows at the landscape, the tall jack pines and birch trees that encircle the cluster of modest aluminum-sided homes of the isolated community.
“We’re okay,” David Bond, a tourist from England who was en route to Toronto, shouted to reporters from the stranded train. “We’re not worried.”
Mr. Bond carried a glass of wine in one hand. He said he and his fellow passengers were enjoying the free wine that Via Rail staff had offered them while the train was delayed.
Cellphone service doesn’t reach the community, but news of the quarantined train spread quickly to the 385 residents.
Koren Gabriel, one of the residents, said that by lunchtime nearly the entire population of Foleyet had gathered at Northern Lights, the only restaurant for nearly 100 kilometres.
“Choppers and trucks and ambulances coming here? No one ever comes here,” she said.
By the evening, things began returning to normal when the train finally left the station. It was scheduled to arrive in Toronto early Saturday morning.
Public officials expressed cautious satisfaction at the apparent readiness of plans that have been honed in anticipation of a possible global influenza pandemic, and in light of the experience with SARS, the respiratory disease whose 2003 outbreak killed 44 people in Canada.
“There was a high degree of awareness and suspicion, which I think post-SARS we might call the new normal,” said Perry Kendall, provincial health officer for British Columbia, “and there was evidence of a really good communication network.
“It was interesting to see the precautions that were taken in today’s new and informed reality,” OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino told The Globe and Mail. “I’m impressed the way everyone responded to what was a serious event.”
(With reports from The Canadian Press.)