Rail lockout upends commutes in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver

Thousands of commuters in three of Canada’s biggest cities are scouring for alternate ways to work due to a labor dispute involving two of the country’s largest railways.

Commuter trains in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver that use Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. tracks aren’t operating after the rail company locked out unionized workers early Thursday morning New York time. Those services typically carry 32,000 commuters a day from suburban communities.

In Toronto, Metrolinx transit agency advised commuters Thursday that there is no GO Train service at its Hamilton GO Centre station and on its Milton line that links the western suburb with Toronto. More than 8,000 people a day use those services to commute into Canada’s most populous city.

One Toronto commuter, Nima Shafaee, was caught off guard by the shutdown of the Milton line and was forced to take a bus to get to his trucking job. He said he’s glad he had options, but the train is more convenient.

“It’s just more comfortable, it’s less bumpy,” he said.

Montreal is also seeing disruptions with more than 21,000 estimated travelers from surrounding communities affected due to canceled service on three lines that share the Canadian Pacific network. Montreal plans to run replacement shuttle buses, according to the public transit agency Exo, but those won’t begin until Aug. 26.

Some 3,000 commuters in and around Vancouver are facing similar travel woes with the full suspension of train service on the West Coast Express that links downtown to suburban communities. The operator, TransLink, is advising riders that there are other travel options, including supplemental bus service.