Passengers forced to find alternate travel plans after Via Rail cancels trains

A decision by Via Rail to cancel most of its passenger rail services has left some scrambling to find alternate travel plans for the long weekend.

"It's a bit chaos, everyone just running around," said Kazi Haque, describing his morning at the Via Rail counter inside Toronto's Union Station.

He had booked his Via Rail ticket to London, Ont., a week ago, and he said he was not notified about the service cancellation on Thursday. 

"One of my colleagues noticed [the cancellation] and he sent me an email," Haque said.

In the end, Haque was able to board a Greyhound bus to London, Ont., after a friend suggested the option.

Via Rail announced Thursday afternoon it would be temporarily shutting down most of its passenger services across Canada, expanding an earlier work stoppage that restricted train cancellations to the Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal corridor.

"Via Rail has no other option but to cancel all of its services on the network, with the exception of Sudbury-White River (CP Rail) and Churchill-The Pas (Hudson Bay Railway), until further notice," the rail operator said in a statement.

It added all affected passengers would be automatically refunded for the cancelled trips.

Valentine's Day, long weekend plans

News of Via Rail cancelling its rail passenger services came just before Valentine's Day and the Family Day long weekend in Ontario.

Samantha Jackson was waiting inside the Greyhound bus station in London, Ont., for her boyfriend on Friday morning, who was affected by the cancellations.

"We anticipated that Via Rail might cancel because a lot of trains had been cancelled already," she said, noting her boyfriend was taking classes in Ottawa and had planned on visiting her.

As of Friday morning, all of the remaining trips for the day from London, Ont. to Toronto were sold out, and most trips on Saturday were also booked full.

CBC News reached out to Greyhound about whether it would add extra buses for affected Via Rail passengers out of London, Ont., but did not receive a response.

Western University has arranged buses for its students, many of whom were relying on Via Rail ahead of next week's reading week. 

There will be buses departing Alumni Hall on Saturday, Feb. 15 at 10:30 a.m. for the Devonshire Mall in Windsor and the Aldershot GO station. 

Meanwhile, Jackson said she's just glad things worked out because she had planned a dinner with her boyfriend to celebrate Valentine's Day.

"It's nice that we have more than one mode of transportation to get back that we're not just relying on the train," she said.

"It is a little bit of a hassle, but I support the protestors so I think it's worth it."