(The following appeared at CBC.ca. on March 30, 2010.)
MONTREAL — Via Rail passenger service in the Toronto-Ottawa and Toronto-Montreal corridors was expected to resume Wednesday morning after it was suspended Tuesday afternoon on account of a CN freight train derailment near Oshawa.
Via did not expect any trains to be cancelled Wednesday morning but said some trains might face minor delays because of rail congestion around the derailment site east of Toronto, said a statement posted on the Via website shortly before 9 p.m. ET Tuesday.
No one was injured in the freight train derailment, which happened around 3 p.m. when three non-operating locomotives derailed and nine freight cars went off the tracks near Pickering station, which is part of the GO Transit commuter train network, said CN spokesman Mark Hallman.
GO and Via service was affected.
The wreckage blocked all three of CN Rail’s main tracks and temporarily shut down GO service on the Lakeshore East line. GO service had resumed as of 5:40 p.m., but trains were not able to stop at the Pickering station.
Via trains were unable to travel for the rest of the afternoon and evening in either direction between Toronto and Ottawa or Montreal.
Rail passengers with tickets were put on buses but faced delays of up to two to three hours, mainly because of rush-hour traffic, said Via spokeswoman Catherine Kaloutsky at the time.
Alternatively, travellers were told they could opt for a refund or exchange their ticket for travel on a different day at no extra cost.
CN reported that some diesel fuel leaked from a locomotive during the incident. The rail cars had been carrying plastics, lumber and potash as well as a methylene product used in the manufacture of polyurethane. However, that chemical did not leak.
The cause of the derailment remained under investigation.