Kingston Derailment Causes Temporary Shutdown Of Major VIA Corridor
Posted March 12, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A freight derailment in Kingston has caused a major disruption to VIA service.
The railway’s Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal corridor has been shut down following the incident, which occurred at about 6:30am Monday. There were no injuries when the 32-car freight train slipped off the tracks but there was a small diesel fuel leak from one of the cars.
Vacuum trucks were brought to the site for the clean-up, while environmental experts assessed the damage.
Passengers are being bused to their destinations, and VIA says regular rail travel along that corridor won’t be back until Tuesday.
“I can tell you just from our experience with the 32 cars, that is a significant derailment size and the cleanup is going to take a little bit of time,” said VIA spokesperson Catherine Kaloutsky.
“We are continually in contact with CN, and of course they’re doing their best to try and get the derailment cleared up and the track clean as soon as they possibly can.”
According to Kaloutsky, passengers able to delay their train trip for a day or two will have their tickets honoured later in the week for no additional charge. Those who had no choice but to travel Monday were forced to take the bus, and Kaloutsky advised that the trips would take approximately two hours longer than scheduled as a result.
Meanwhile, authorities are continuing to probe the circumstances of Sunday’s collision between a car and a VIA train near Guelph that left a girl dead.
Srinayana Chalapati was killed after the Toyota Corolla she was riding in apparently drove through a level crossing right into the path of the oncoming passenger train at about 12:20pm Sunday.
The train clipped the back of the driver’s side, tearing off part of the vehicle’s roof and pulverizing its back end. The impact sent the car flying about 45 metres from the tracks – it finally came to a rest in a ditch.
Emergency officials pronounced the nine-year-old dead at the scene. The two other women, now identified as Sridevi Chalapati and Prabhavati Buraapalli, were airlifted to Hamilton General Hospital with critical injuries.
Police contend the lights at the level crossing near Speedvale Ave. West and 3rd Township Rd. were in fact operational, but added that the crossing wasn’t the type that had barrier arms to prevent traffic from going onto the tracks.
Conditions were clear and sunny at the time of the accident.
“There had been reports … that the signal lights were working, but again that will come from the investigators once they’ve completed their investigation,” promises Sgt. Joe Piccione of the OPP.
None of the 124 passengers on the Toronto-Sarnia train were hurt, but several were shaken up.
“I was just on the train sleeping, dozing off and then all I see is us just kind of nick a car and it went spinning around, flying,” said passenger Reed Neagle.
“It was pretty crazy, actually.”
VIA Rail arranged for the passengers to be bused or cabbed to their destinations, and they didn’t report any subsequent delays to service.
Kingston VIA Derailment
Those who are able to delay their travel plans until later this week are asked to call Via Rail and cancel their reservation.
Passengers will be allowed to reschedule their tickets at the same price and all service fees will be waived, she said.
Those who opt to continue their travels by bus will be given a 50 per cent off credit that can be put towards their next trip.
