Rail work stoppage shuts down some Ontario, Quebec commuter rail lines

A rail work stoppage has upset typical travel plans for nearly 30,000 daily commuters in Ontario and Quebec where several major transit lines have been suspended.

Southern Ontario's GO Transit has halted rail service on its Milton line and at Hamilton GO Centre, sidelining around 8,100 daily customers.

Exo Transit says its Candiac, Saint-Jérôme and Vaudreuil/Hudson lines, which serve around 21,000 daily riders in the Montreal area, are shut down.

The disruption comes after Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. locked out 9,300 engineers, conductors and yard workers after they failed to reach a deal on a new contract before a midnight deadline.

The impact to commuter rail is limited to routes running on CPKC-owned tracks because dispatchers at CN, which hosts a greater number of passenger trains, are not part of the bargaining process and would not take part in a work stoppage.

In the Vancouver area, TransLink says it's offering supplemental bus service for its suspended West Coast Express service.