A union spokesman says locomotive engineers at Via Rail are officially on strike, effectively shutting down the bulk of national passenger rail service across Canada.
Contract talks between Via and the union representing its 340 engineers reached an impasse overnight and the union had said that barring significant movement at the negotiating table, a national rail strike would begin.
The rail company had also said that barring a last minute resolution, it would cancel all rail service across the country.
Via had already cancelled some departures this week in anticipation of a walkout and were transporting other passengers by bus today.
Via carries nearly 12-thousand passengers a day on its routes across Canada.
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I haven’t been following this one. What’s the issue which is holding things up?
Man… it’s hard to imagine they’re making any kind of profit carrying less than 12K per day…
I think it has to do with running crews (it usually does). Maybe someone else can expand on the answer to the question.
The newspaper today said the main issues were: