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Some GO trains, VIA Rail trains back up and running after CN Rail outage

Some GO trains and VIA Rail trains in Ontario are moving again after a power outage at the CN Rail traffic control centre in Toronto.

Service 'slowly coming back' after earlier system-wide outage halted all trains

CBC News ·
A display board at Union Station in downtown Toronto alerts passengers to a problem with commuter trains. (Emma Kimmerly/CBC)

Some commuter trains in southern Ontario and some VIA Rail trains are moving again after a power outage at the CN Rail traffic control centre in Toronto.

Trains were stopped for more than an hour.

Anne Marie Aikins, spokesperson for Metrolinx, said it will take for service to resume.

"We are getting power back up but it's going to take us some time. Some trains are going to have to be manually flagged to through the station," she said. "It's slowly coming back."

Passengers on a train on the Lakeshore West line pass the time while it is stopped. (Serenity Palia/CBC)
Earlier, GO Transit said it experienced a "system wide shut down" that affected all seven of train lines.

All GO trains were stopped, including those at Union Station. 

VIA Rail said nine of its trains were stopped on routes between Belleville and Windsor, Ont.

​GO Transit said the power outage caused signal problems that was also affecting the Union Pearson Express, which links Union Station to Toronto's Pearson International Airport.

GO Transit has buses shuttling passengers near the UP Express line route.

Aikins said CN Rail had to reboot its computer system.

"They have restored the power but it's like a massive computer system now has to reboot to bring signals back online," she said Friday.

On its website under service updates for its trains, GO Transit said: "An earlier power outage at the CN Rail Traffic Control Centre has caused signal failure across the GO System.

"As a result, trains will be holding at their location until signals are back up and running and we are able to resume radio communication. Passengers may use their GO fares at TTC staffed entrances."

Some passengers complained about the lack of communication.

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