One person sustained minor injuries after a derailed CN train car collided with a Toronto-bound Via Rail train Friday.
CN says six cars at the end of one of its trains derailed between Gananoque and Lansdowne, Ont. about 40 kilometres east of Kingston, around 2:15 p.m.
Five cars were empty and the other was carrying lube oil, according Jim Feeny, CN's director of public and government affairs.
One of the empty derailed cars struck and punctured Via train #47, which left Ottawa around 12:30 p.m. for Toronto and was travelling on the adjacent rail line, he said.
There were 300 passengers on the Via train. One person is confirmed to have sustained minor injuries in the collision.
There are no signs that the car carrying lube oil is leaking, says Feeny.
CN is working with Via to move the latter corporation’s train to a nearby crossing where passengers will be able to get off.
Passenger Mena Rabaa witnessed the collision and recounted the experience to CTV Ottawa.
"I was actually saying to my friends that we looked really really close to it. As we were just about to pass it, we bumped it into one of the derailed cars that was sticking out a little bit more and we looked out the window and saw a little bit of smoke and stuff. We definitely felt the impact,” Rabaa said.
Rabaa was headed to the One Direction concert in Toronto.
Via has cancelled train service on the Toronto-Ottawa and Toronto-Montreal train lines for the night. Service was to resume Saturday, Aug. 2.
Passengers scheduled to travel on the affected trains will be bussed to their destinations.
Travel credits will be offered to affected passengers, and extra charged paid for business class tickets will be reimbursed, Via said in a news release.
Customers can also cancel or modify their reservations free of charge by visiting viarail.ca.
CN says it will conduct a full investigation of the incident.
In July, a derailment forced the cancellation of Via trains on the same routes for two days.
-- with files from CTV Ottawa
