Evidence of meeting #129 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was passengers.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Passenger, As an Individual
I would say that it was about an hour. The bathrooms were never closed, so even if they were stinky, people kept going there. I guess they really needed to go there.
Conservative
Philip Lawrence Conservative Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON
Yes. Perfect.
Ms. Murray, you mentioned a couple things that directly contradicted, at least to my understanding, the CEO of Via, who was here a couple of weeks ago. He said a number of times that this was an “isolated incident”. Would you agree with that?
Director, Atlantic Region, Unifor
I have worked with the railway for a very long time. These super-long delays I wouldn't call isolated. I would say they were less rare than other delays.
I would never call this an isolated one-off. This happens more than it should, in my opinion.
Conservative
Philip Lawrence Conservative Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON
Thank you very much.
You said something that I had thought about. I was a little surprised when the CEO seemed to indicate that it would have been difficult or impossible to put enough food on a train for a prolonged delay. I'm just wondering if you, with your considerable experience, would agree with that analysis, or whether it would be possible to just have granola bars or something a little more nutritious than pretzels.
Director, Atlantic Region, Unifor
Let's be honest: There is probably not enough space for there to be full meals put on the train, but, like you said, we could have granola bars or something with sustenance, so that, if you are delayed—because this is not the first time—you are prepared in the event that there are going to be long delays. Pretzels are not going to hold you over.
At the end of the day, for somebody to be walking through a car and saying, “This is the last bit of water we have on this train,” I think is quite revealing. If there isn't room, we need to make room. We have to find a way. There has to be a way. We're transporting humans here, and there has to be a way to provide them with the necessities that they need when there are significant delays such as these.
Conservative
Philip Lawrence Conservative Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON
On your comment, “We are transporting humans here,” I think that's very fitting.
I would like to thank both of you for being here today.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Schiefke
Thank you very much, Mr. Lawrence.
Go ahead, Mr. Iacono. You have six minutes.
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Coderre, thank you again for being here today.
In your opening remarks, you mentioned that the train stopped on three occasions. During these three occasions, you also mentioned that you heard some notices. To get a better understanding of that, how often did the notices come? In your first hour, when did you hear the first notice of what was happening?
Passenger, As an Individual
I would say that about five minutes after it stopped we got a notice.
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
Can you give us a better understanding of when the next notices were? How frequent were they?
Passenger, As an Individual
Early on, they were about every 30 minutes or so.
Liberal
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
In the next half hour, you said the train stopped again. How many notices did you get?
Liberal
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
At any time during those notices, were you given any indication of safety measures, any indication as to being able to get off the train or any indicators that, if you needed help, you could call somebody? What were the messages that you were getting?
Passenger, As an Individual
The first message was about the cause of the train stopping. Then most of the other messages were either, “We have no updates,” or eventually it became, “We have no plans yet.”
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
You mentioned that the staff on board were great, were helpful. Did you notice any incidents or any wrongdoing among the staff in car 2?
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
How about the other passengers? What was the reaction with respect to the situation?
Passenger, As an Individual
The other passengers seemed to be on edge. It sounded like they were pretty stressed about their obligations and when they would get there. Some of them were trying to figure out a way to get off the train to get an Uber. They were looking at the emergency exits and thinking of calling 911.
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
Did you ever feel in danger at any point in time when you were stuck?