Via Rail Strike

[kevin_standlee]

Several people have helpfully contacted me to tell me of the pending strike on Via Rail Canada. Although Via, Canada's national passenger railway operator, is preemptively canceling trains, it is unclear what effect this would have on the Amtrak service on the Adirondack between Rouses Point NY and Montreal. That train does not carry passengers between stops in Canada, and I don't know if it is operated by Via Rail engineers or not. Amtrak's web site has nothing about the situation yet, and I don't have time to call and bug Amtrak about it yet. At the moment, I'm hoping that (a) the strike, if it happens, is short and resolved by next week and (b) that my train isn't affected due to being operated by Amtrak rather than Via.

Comments

[kgkofmel.livejournal.com]

Well, the first question would be whether the Amtrak crews are unionized.

Because if there is a strike in Canada, they might refuse to "cross the lines".

I've also never been 100% clear on whether Amtrak trains in the Canadian portion of their runs are operating with VIA or Amtrak crews.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Amtrak's crews are represented by the same union as Via's. Whether that means the strike would cover them isn't clear at this time. When I get a few minutes, I'm going to call Amtrak so that the agent can tell me, "I know nothing" (at least, that what I bet the response will be).

[kgkofmel.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't expect the strike to affect Amtrak crews in the US, merely when working the portions of the routes in Canada.

I'd be very surprised if a crew from the same union would work a Canadian portion of a run while the Canadian crews were on strike. Runs including point-to-point in Canada I would expect not (like the Chicago to Toronto train). A run terminating in Canada (like yours) might be a different/special case, but I'd still be surprised.

Screws my travel plans too, as we are binding this with a visit to family, flying in and out of Ottawa, with the Montreal trip inside the bookend flights. It *was* going to be by train. Now, we're not sure. Though we still have several days to worry about how we're going to get from Ottawa to Montreal and back.