Via expects slow return to normal operations

Via Rail says it expects to gradually resume passenger service early this week following weeks of interruptions by blockades.

The blockades were set up by protesters in support of members of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation in British Columbia fighting the progress of a natural gas pipeline.

Via announced Friday afternoon that the popular Toronto-Montreal and Toronto-Ottawa routes were to resume partial service Tuesday, and the national routes between Toronto and Vancouver will have two departures: one departing Toronto on Wednesday, the other leaving Vancouver on Friday.

It’s expected additional departures will be confirmed in the coming days, Via Rail said.

Shorter regional routes will also reopen, but one closed route — in northern B.C. and Jasper, Alta. — is expected to remain out of service until at least next Friday.

The routes were closed in the face of blockades set up on tracks owned by CN Rail and used by Via.

The longest-standing barricade, set up by members of the Mohawk First Nation on its territory in Tyendinaga, near Belleville, Ont., was taken down last Monday, when Ontario Provincial Police served a court injunction obtained by the rail operators. Ten protesters were arrested. Smaller blockades across Canada, including one in Kahnawake, Que., south of Montreal, which blocked commuter trains, have been stopped following injunctions.

As of Friday, Via Rail said 940 trains had been cancelled because of the blockades, affecting more than 164,000 passengers.

About 1,000 workers were laid off at the height of the protests.

“We continue to work with the infrastructure owner, CN Rail, on making sure that normal service can resume on all routes and that passengers can be welcomed back on board our trains as quickly as possible,” Via Rail said in a statement.

“This transition will take time and have an impact on the reservation system,” the company added.

Passengers were advised to contact the company at its website, viarail.ca, for more information on routes and reservations. Postmedia News