Vancouver train derails causing commuter chaos
Linda Nguyen
Canwest News Service
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
A Canadian Pacific Railway freight train derailed in Vancouver early Tuesday, adding to commuter chaos already exacerbated by a heavy snowstorm.
Three cars from a westbound grain train coming from the Prairies jumped the tracks just outside downtown Vancouver around 2 a.m. local time, spilling grain onto the tracks, said CPR spokeswoman Breanne Feigil.
Nine other cars from the train remained on the track and a conductor and an engineer on board escaped without injuries, she said.
Rail work crews worked through the night to figure out how to clean up the spilled grain.
"Crews on scene are assessing the situation and the cause is still under investigation," Feigil said. "We have an indication that two of the cars are leaking but there are no environmental issues regarding the grain."
Feigil said it was too early to speculate if the winter storm that continued to pound Vancouver was the cause of the derailment.
Meanwhile, thousands of commuters of the Westcoast Express, a commuter train that travels into the city via the suburbs, were dealing with delays.
All Westcoast Express and Via Rail trains were cancelled because of the derailment, TransLink spokesman Drew Snider said Tuesday. Translink owns the Westcoast Express commuter trains, as well as the SkyTrain light rail system.
Buses have been sent to carry the passengers who usually rely on the Westcoast Express to the Coquitlam SkyTrain station so they could continue their journey downtown.
"This derailment just added to an already burgeoning problem with the snow that had caused road conditions to be difficult to begin with," he said. "A lot of people take public transit and buses are slowly getting through."
Snider said that SkyTrains were operating at full capacity Tuesday because of the higher number of people who decided to leave the car at home because of the slippery road conditions.
He warned that commuters should take extra time and bundle up because transit through the city would be slow.
"There's going to be delays," Snider said. "People should expect to be out in the cold for a while."
It was unclear whether the tracks would be cleared for the afternoon commute, he added.
Seventy million people ride TransLink SkyTrains, buses, and Westcoast Express trains every year.
Several schools in the Vancouver area were also closed due to the weather Tuesday, as well as all public schools in West Vancouver, North Vancouver, Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, Port Moody, Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam.
Simon Fraser University, which sits above Burnaby mountain, was also been closed.
Snider said this was kind of a "good news, bad news" situation because the closure enabled TransLink to use large buses usually designated for the school students to transport passengers affected by the derailment.
The British Columbia Institute of Technology, Vancouver Community College and Douglas College were also closed.
Downtown Vancouver was hit with six centimetres of snow overnight, while some areas of the Lower Mainland got as much as 20 centimetres, according to Environment Canada.
Five more centimetres were expected to fall on the city Tuesday, turning into rain later in the day, with 15 centimetres forecast for the Fraser Valley.
A number of flights were also delayed at the Vancouver International Airport due to the poor weather conditions.
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=11c53303-db2f-4e92-a2a2-084b8bac9ad3
Prev
Linear Mode
