A Via Rail Canada train carrying 117 passengers and crew struck an empty Canadian National Railway Co. tank car that was part of a freight train encroaching on the main track near Kingston on Thursday night.
Marie-Anna Murat, a spokeswoman for Via Rail, said there were no injuries in the collision, which caused a 3.5-hour delay for the passengers, who were transferred to another train. One train between Toronto and Kingston was cancelled on Friday morning and other trains were delayed as a result, Ms. Murat said.
Alex Fournier, a spokesman for the Transportation Safety Board, said early reports from those involved in the collision say the Via train was travelling at 100 kilometres an hour when it struck the freight train.
Via Rail and the TSB said they are investigating the collision.
“The Via train sideswiped an empty tank car that was derailed upright, and leaning into the Via train’s path,” said Jonathan Abecassis, a CN spokesman. “There were no fires, injuries, or spills.”
The number of railway collisions, derailments and other mishaps has increased every year since 2015, according to the TSB, outpacing the rise in freight volumes in some years. In 2018, there were 1,172 “accidents,” as the TSB calls any mishap that involves damage, serious injury or death. Five per cent of this total involved passenger trains while the rest were freight trains or rail cars. There were five main-track collisions in 2018, an increase from three in 2017.
Via Rail, a government-owned Crown corporation, pays freight railways, mainly CN, for the rights to use their tracks.