VIA Rail Canada (1)

 

Train accident disrupts Via Rail service

Summary

The railway company, VIA Rail Canada, had to cancel 29 trains on July 10^th, 2014. Around 3,600 passengers were affected by this cancelation. The cause of such an inconvenient delay was caused by an accident of a CN freight train on the route between Toronto and Montreal. The accident happened in Brockville, Ontario, and blocked the roads Toronto to Ottawa and Toronto to Montreal for 2 days. During this disturbance on the railway, VIA Rail Canada engaged the bus facilities instead of trains. The passengers modestly expressed their opinion about the inconvenient delay. They treated this situation with dissatisfaction and outrage. For a compensation, they were given vouchers for future trips with VIA Rail Canada.

The authors of both articles were concerned about the accident. It seemed pretty clear that the authors worried about the passengers, who had to wait for optional transport. Also, the authors of one article mentions the content of the CN train, which included, “2 loaded automobile carriers, 5 carrying carbon powder, 12 unloaded fuel tanks and 6 empty platforms” (Shum and Kelly, 2014, para. 10).

Articles:

Train accident in Brockville disrupts Via Rail service in Montreal by Anne Leclair, July 10, 2014. Global Toronto website.

Cause of CN derailment being investigated, Via Rail says disruptions will continue into Friday by David Shum and Amanda Kelly, July 10, 2014. Global Toronto website.

My opinion

VIA Rail Canada experienced a pretty challenging situation. The railway company was not a participant of the accident, however, it had to pay for the inconvenience of the passengers, including their optional transport. From my point of view, VIA Rail Canada showed great management skills and fast service. Passengers got optional transport during the day of the accident. Even though, people were not satisfied with changes of the schedule and transport, they still got to their destination in time. One question which bothers me is: Was VIA Rail Canada able to make a lawsuit against CN Railway Company? I think, there is no doubt that VIA Rail Canada is innocent in this situation. Even still, VIA Rail Canada incurred losses and should be able to sue CN Company. I guess my next post is going to have to be about further development of this story.

Question

Do you think that VIA Rail Canada should be able to make a lawsuit against CN Railway Company? How much should they demand?

References

Leclair, A. (2014). Train accident in Brockville disrupts Via Rail service in Montreal. Retried from http://globalnews.ca/news/1444340/train-accident-in-brockville-disrupts-via-rail-service-in-montreal/

Shum, D. and Kelly, A. (2014). Cause of CN derailment being investigated, Via Rail says disruptions will continue into Friday. Retried from http://globalnews.ca/news/1442856/cn-train-derails-in-brockville-ont-via-rail-delays-expected/

Photo retried from http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1171120/thumbs/o-VIA-RAIL-STRIKE-2013-facebook.jpg