A CN freight train derailment near Kingston, Ont. early Monday resulted in no injuries, but has inconvenienced thousands of commuters.
The derailment took place at approximately 6:15 a.m., about 450 metres from a Via Rail station in Kingston, when 32 of 142 cars went off the tracks.
"There were no injuries to CN staff or to anyone else," said Jim Feeney, spokesperson for CN, "and there were no dangerous commodities involved in the derailment either."
Commuters travelling through the Toronto-Montreal-Ottawa corridor are being transferred on chartered motor coaches, but still face delays of up to two hours.
Up to 10 trips between Toronto and Ottawa and 12 trips between Toronto and Montreal have been affected, involving roughly 3,000 passengers.
Via Rail asks commuters to arrive at stations well before their scheduled departure times.
Normal service will likely resume Tuesday morning, VIA Rail's Catherine Kaloutsky told The Canadian Press.
But VIA Rail is asking any passengers able to delay travel plans to cancel their reservation.
Kaloutsky told CP passengers can reschedule their tickets at the same price, with no additional service fee.
Passengers who choose to travel by bus will get a 50 per cent off credit, which they can use on their next journey.
"What we are trying to do as much as possible is to eliminate or minimize the amount of disruption and delay to the passengers," said Kaloutsky.
Officials said 18 of the derailed cars were empty and 14 were carrying wheat, plywood, molasses, oil and other products.
Kingston Police Const. Michael Menor said of the freight cars was "almost sticking straight up in the air."
He added that there was a small diesel leak from one car but there was no fire.
Although a light industrial oil seeped from the train, it was quickly contained and removed.
VIA Rail said it would assess the damage with local and provincial environment officials.
Meanwhile, the Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of Monday's derailment.
With files from The Canadian Press
