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Link to an article about this incident:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/via-rain-passengers-stuck-1.7311176
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/via-rain-passengers-stuck-1.7311176
Looks like Amtrak's not the only one with problems.Link to an article about this incident:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/via-rain-passengers-stuck-1.7311176
I know of a few third world countries that do much better than this in recovering from failures of equipment. Typically they can always find a spare locomotive to rescue a train within an hour or two, the time it takes to send it from the closest trip shed. The network is dense enough that there is one such within an hour or two, and there are always spares sitting around.Prepare like you are traveling in a third-world country. The United States has been heading in this direction for the past 20 years. Apparently, Canada is following us.
Shameful handling of the situation. After hours of being cooped up in those cars with no air circulation, working toilets, no water, and no relief in sight...I'm surprised the passenger's didn't just demand to be let out, and if crew didn't comply, maybe call 911. I'm pretty sure the area fire departments would have figured out a way to rescue them, and been able to secure even some school buses to evacuate them to a shelter, as is occasionally done when there's a train wreck, or blizzard shutdown...This was different, though -- a lot more riders packed into coaches with nowhere to go and limited supplies on what was supposed to be a short-haul run. And it happened on what's supposedly a frequent-service corridor and not that far from a major population center. It seems like a major managerial failure, with the front-line employees left to figure it out and not succeeding. There should have been a red light flashing somewhere after an hour at most.
It was a Saturday, surely they could have found school buses and just taken everybody to their final destinations, although I guess finding drivers might have been a problem. It wasn't like the train was stuck in some remote part of the North Woods, it was in the heavily populated area between Montreal and Quebec City. A lot of it is rural, but there are a lot of towns with schools and presumably school buses.and been able to secure even some school buses to evacuate them to a shelter,
Even in that situation, fire and rescue squads have been trained in methods to safely evacuate passengers, using ladders, or other apparatus as necessary...It's hard to tell how accessible the train was. Certainly it was near populated areas, but it could have been up an embankment or in some other location where it would have been difficult to evacuate the passengers. But it still shouldn't have taken 10 hours to figure something out.
I've been evacuated from trains a few times, and nobody's never needed specially trained fire and recuse squads to do the job -- the conductors were enough to help people down from the bottom step to the ballast and over to the rescue train. They even took care of people in wheelchairs.Even in that situation, fire and rescue squads have been trained in methods to safely evacuate passengers, using ladders, or other apparatus as necessary...
Or they are able to improvise a solution, while work as a coordinated team to overcome the exact training shortcomings of there department.Even in that situation, fire and rescue squads have been trained in methods to safely evacuate passengers, using ladders, or other apparatus as necessary...
So the train that rescued them was the next Quebec-bound train, due there about 4 p.m., meaning it endured a 6-hour delay as well.From the article, the power outage was 90 minutes. Water ran out near the end. I don't need to recap the whole article, but the train was close enough to a road to get pizza and an ambulance. When they transferred passengers to a new train, they called the pompiers - firefighters. Seems everybody else was off for the weekend? And when the cat's away, the mice did not play, since it's a trap if you break too many rules. That's my guess, regarding the workers. Up until a guy in an orange vest tried to clear the aisles, physically, and took away a Texan's cell phone for filming. That will be a point for the political investigation. I suppose others were in contact with Siemens depending on whatever service contract VIA has on the equipment.
The Texan "is also questioning the decision by staff members to apparently hand out alcohol to passengers during the lengthy delay." Also, a novel definition of a "Bronx cheer" in this article:
https://montreal.citynews.ca/2024/09/01/delay-via-rail-train-quebec-city/
It would have been tempting to step off, if traveling alone or with others who could brave the wilds of "45 minutes from Quebec City."
If we take the above at face value, the train seems to have subsequently encountered three separate mechanical issues, followed by an earthquake which triggered a line closure. Talk about bad luck…The dead Siemens TS10, originally broke down at Fortier due to air line issues, was temporarily fixed by CN yardmaster from Joffre and released to continue with 15 mph restriction, then it broke down again at Laurier-Station, engine couldn’t be started with air line issues and blocking mainline at Laurier-Station. VIA 24 was expected to push dead 622 to Quebec City but that didn’t work out at all.
VIA sent out rescue crew on 308 at 12 am in the morning, made to Laurier-Station, coupled on to the dead set and headed west towards MMC, stranded at Saint-Eugène as CN closed tracks due to earthquake, that crew ran out of hours, another crew was called to take over and finally get back on move at 13:35.
I’m painfully aware that this is probably an unpopular opinion, but if you ask anyone familiar with situations where people find themselves forced together for extended periods and with insuffucient supplies, disuading the consumption of said scarce supplies becomes imperative to delay the point at which you run out of them (thus minimizing or - in the best case avoiding - the period where you find yourself without any supplies)."even five hours into the delay, passengers still had to pay for snacks. (CBC)"
Totally unacceptable!
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