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Riders who use the Exo commuter rail service had to find another way to get to work Friday, with the Vaudreuil-Hudson, St-Jérôme and Candiac lines suspended because of the labour disruption at CN and CPKC.
The lockouts, imposed at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, shut down the three Exo lines that use CPKC railways.
Federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon has asked the Canada Industrial Relations Board to impose final, binding arbitration to end the work stoppage at Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd.
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But trains still won’t move on Friday, as the Teamsters union signalled that picket lines will stay in place.
Delays could be a few hours to a few days, Exo said in a statement late Thursday night. Updates will be posted to its website, exo.quebec. The Mont-St-Hilaire and Mascouche lines are unaffected.
CN said Thursday evening it had ended its lockout and initiated a recovery plan, while CPKC said it was preparing to restart operations.
CPKC said in a statement the CIRB called an urgent meeting Thursday evening about getting service resumed, but said the Teamsters union refused to discuss resuming service and wants to make submissions to challenge the constitutionality of MacKinnon’s direction.
CN and CPKC locked out workers after they failed to reach a deal on a new contract before a midnight deadline Thursday, the first simultaneous shutdown on Canada’s two largest railways.
Exo spokeswoman Catherine Maurice said Thursday the time frame for resumption of services remains unknown.
“We are awaiting instructions from the CPKC, the owner of the railway lines on which we are unable to operate trains, before deciding on the terms and timing of the resumption of commuter train service,” Maurice said in an emailed statement Thursday.
About 21,000 rides per day are taken on the three affected lines.
Postmedia News and The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
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