Thousands of commuters in and around the island of Montreal might have to get creative with their routes into the city if a labour dispute involving Canada’s two main railway companies doesn’t progress by Thursday.
Both the Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) and the Canadian National Railway Company (CN) have issued lockout notices starting at 12:01 a.m. if they fail to reach a deal or binding arbitration with the Teamsters workers’ union. Workers have also threatened to strike.
This would affect operations on Exo commuter train lines 11 Vaudreuil-Hudson, 12 Saint-Jérôme and 14 Candiac, says the public transit authority.
It says service on lines 13 Mont-Saint-Hilaire and 15 Mascouche, which use the CN network, would continue as normal. CN rail traffic controllers are not affected by the labour dispute, said Exo spokesperson Eric Edström in a statement.
Exo will offer a free shuttle service that will cover part of the affected transit service as of Aug. 26, the company says on its website. They will not be equipped with bike racks.
In the meantime, commuters will have to use the bus network. Exo says it requisitioned additional buses to meet the potential increase in demand.
Starting Thursday, Exo staff will be at the affected train platforms to redirect commuters, if the work stoppage happens.
Users should plan their routes using the Exo trip planner and deselecting the “train” option given that applications like Google Maps will not show the shuttles.
Exo is encouraging commuters on the island of Montreal and in Laval to use the Société de transport de Montréal and Société de transport de Laval public transit networks as much as possible.