VIA Rail Canada says it sorry for a pre-Christmas incident that left passengers stranded on a train for 18 hours, and it’s promising to do better. The company issued the following statement today regarding the travel delays and train cancellations which occurred from December 23 to December 26: “A severe winter storm along with the derailment of a freight train disrupted VIA Rail’s operations from December 23 to 26. Unfortunately, a number of trains, particularly along the Québec City–Windsor corridor and elsewhere in Eastern Canada, were cancelled or delayed for extended periods. We appreciate that passengers were looking forward to Read more
Ottawa
A prominent Liberal in the Justin Trudeau government says he wants to hear from Sunwing and VIA Rail about the travel chaos that many Canadians endured over the holidays. MP Peter Schiefke, the Member of Parliament for Vaudreuil-Soulanges in Quebec and chair of the federal government’s transportation and infrastructure committee, tweeted on Tuesday that both companies need to be held accountable for a disastrous holiday season. Sunwing cancelled flights between Canada and Mexico a couple days before Christmas, leaving hundreds of Canadians stranded during the holidays. Passengers on a VIA Rail train headed from Ottawa to Toronto were forced to Read more
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says Canadian airlines are “breaking their word” with the public and that the Trudeau government isn’t doing enough to help Canadian travellers left stranded at airports across the country. Speaking with journalists in Ottawa on Friday, Poilievre laid the blame for the chaos endured by thousands of Canadian passengers over the last week at the foot of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, arguing airports and airlines are federally regulated and therefore a responsibility of the federal government, Global News reports. “This is a federal problem,” Poilievre said. The lead-up to Christmas was a disaster for many Canadian Read more
A major snowstorm in southern British Columbia is having “an uprecedented impact” on flights at Vancouver International Airport, officials said today. “The winter storm and severe snowfall has had an unprecedented impact on flights and operations at YVR, with mass cancellations. Travel continues to be significantly impacted this morning & we anticipate cancellations to continue through the day and the week ahead,” airport officials said on their @flyyvr Twitter feed. FlightAware.com reports 146 cancelled flights as of 1:45 p.m. Pacific Standard Time today, or roughly 33% of all daily flights. “We recognize the affect these cancellations have on our community. Read more
Ireland tourism is on the rise. Ditto for Puerto Rico. But the most interesting news of the day comes from China. If you’re like me (I’m not saying that’s a good thing), your biggest pet peeve on an airline is when someone sitting in front of you reclines their seat. I don’t mind if it’s a night flight; that’s to be expected. And I would do the same thing. But unless you’ve just flown in from Australia, I don’t see the need to recline your seat on a day flight and cram the space of the person sitting behind you. Read more
