No water, no toilets, no information: Passenger slams 'inadequate' Via Rail apology

A Toronto woman says she's still waiting for answers from Via Rail nearly three weeks after a trip to accompany her sister from Ottawa turned into a nightmare before Christmas.

Chantalle and Christianne Clarkin boarded Train 55 at Ottawa's Via Rail station on Tremblay Road during the afternoon of Dec. 23. Chantalle was accompanying Christianne, who has a physical disability and uses a walker, to Toronto where they planned to spend the holidays together.

As the train pulled away from the station around 3:30 p.m., the mood among passengers was "quite festive" despite a gathering winter storm packing high winds and a messy mix of precipitation, Chantalle Clarkin said.

"I think everyone was excited about travelling for the holidays," she told CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning on Wednesday. "There was quite a good spirit in the train car that I was in, even as the delays were happening."

The jolly mood lasted until just past Cobourg, Ont., when Clarkin heard a noise and felt the train come to a sudden stop. Because it was dark outside, most passengers couldn't see what had caused the interruption. 

"A lot of us were left not knowing, feeling very confused about what was happening, but hours and hours and hours were passing," Clarkin said.

Washrooms out of order

One by one, the washrooms aboard the train stopped working until there was only one functioning toilet. Passengers asked for cleaning supplies so they could at least keep it hygienic, and one woman even resorted to using her own wet wipes, Clarkin said.

We were out of food, we were out of water, and really the basic human needs were no longer being met by early that morning.- Chantalle Clarkin

None of the train's accessible washrooms were available, making the experience extra unpleasant for Christianne, she said.

Announcements over the train's intercom were "very few and far between, and often inaccurate," Clarkin said, and as the night wore on it became more and more difficult to find a Via employee.

"Really, there was no information shared by Via Rail staff to tell us what was going on for most of the night," she said. "You had to piece things together kind of on your own."

Passengers angry, confused, scared

As Christmas Eve dawned, passengers finally saw the fallen tree that had stopped the train in its tracks. By that time, the train's supply of drinking water had run dry.

"There were some groups on that train who were becoming quite angry and confused and understandably quite scared," said Clarkin, a research scientist in mental health.

"We were out of food, we were out of water, and really the basic human needs were no longer being met by early that morning."

She said one woman who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder was having an especially difficult time, and one man simply grabbed his luggage and climbed off the train to walk approximately eight kilometres back to Cobourg.

"People were feeling the emotional wear and tear of just not knowing what was happening, fearing the worst and not having any guidance, leadership or updates from Via Rail," Clarkin said.

Via offers apology, refunds

Hours later, when another train finally pulled up alongside them to transport the passengers to Oshawa, Ont., they had to wait for firefighters to bring special equipment to transfer Christianne, who has limited mobility, to the rescue train.

(Clarkin said Via provided no explanation as to why the passengers weren't taken all the way to Union Station in Toronto, their original destination).

Twenty-five hours after setting out from Ottawa, the sisters finally arrived in Toronto, a journey that normally takes less than five hours by train.

• Via Rail offers apologies, compensation after holiday travel chaos 
• Via Rail trains between Toronto and Montreal back in service after major storm

CBC asked Via Rail on Wednesday for more information about the incident, but has not received a reply. On Tuesday, Via issued a statement offering a travel credit to all passengers affected on top of their full refund.

In the statement, attributed to Via Rail president and CEO Martin Landry, the company said: "We appreciate that passengers were looking forward to holiday celebrations and family get-togethers, and we regret that for many, those plans were disrupted. We didn't meet your expectations and for that we apologize.

"Beyond not having met the expectations of our customers, we have not lived up to our own standards. Despite weather events and a freight train derailment beyond our control, it is clear that lessons will be learned, and changes will be made."

Clarkin, whose return trip to Toronto was free because she was accompanying a passenger with a disability, called the statement "woefully inadequate."

"I think it fails to account for the emotional stresses, the strains, it fails to name how these decisions were made," she said. "I'm just really, really ashamed at how Via Rail managed this situation that didn't have to be managed this way."