VIA Rail Canada Issues Mea Culpa
Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor
“Despite weather events and a freight train derailment beyond our control, it is clear that lessons will be learned, and changes will be made,” Martin R. Landry, interim President and CEO of VIA Rail Canada said in a Jan. 10 statement.
“We didn’t meet your expectations and for that we apologize,” Martin R. Landry, interim President and CEO of VIA Rail Canada said in a Jan. 10 statement to riders regarding travel disruptions between Dec. 23 and Dec. 26 that he attributed to a “severe winter storm along with the derailment of a freight train” on host freight railroad CN.
Landry said “a number of [intercity passenger] trains, particularly along the Québec City–Windsor corridor and elsewhere in Eastern Canada, were cancelled or delayed for extended periods.”
According to a news report by Canada’s CTV News, “Frustrated passengers reported being stuck on stalled trains for more than 18 hours, with minimal updates or access to food, while those at train stations waited for clear information about whether they’d be able to get to their destinations.”
“We appreciate that passengers were looking forward to holiday celebrations and family get-togethers, and we regret that for many, those plans were disrupted,” Landry said in his statement. “We didn’t meet your expectations and for that we apologize.
“The daily mission of our 3,200 employees is to put passengers first, and we are committed to providing Canadians with a train service that meets their expectations. While we take pride in the fact that the safety and well-being of our passengers and our staff was always our priority and front and center in our decision-making, we also believe that we should have done better in dealing with the situation. We are truly sorry for letting our passengers down.
“We know, we should have been more forthcoming in sharing information about trains that were delayed and in communicating updates. We also know we should have adopted a different approach in supporting passengers on trains that were delayed for lengthy periods.”
In addition to offering a full refund to riders, along with travel credits for those “whose trains were completely immobilized,” VIA Rail will be “reviewing our performance over the four-day period with the help of outside experts,” Landry said. “We will be looking at a wide range of issues including our planning for the storm, our operational response, protocol around customer care and our overall communications as well as how we can better accommodate our passengers in order to get them to their destination.
“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. We truly hope the passengers who were affected by these disruptions will travel with us again soon so we can show them what VIA Rail is all about: Offering a safe, accessible, comfortable, and sustainable travel experience and a remarkable service for which we are known and loved.”
According to CTV News, Landry’s statement follows VIA Rail Canada “being called to testify before a parliamentary committee—alongside airlines and other transportation officials—to explain what happened [during the holiday period], and to seek assurances that further travel issues would be handled differently.”
