A commute back home for one mother turned into a nightmare over the weekend as her train was delayed so long, she ran out of formula to feed her infant and wasn't allowed off the train.
VIA Rail train #78, travelling from Windsor to Toronto, stopped in Thamesville for over six hours Sunday night due to an apparent engine problem.
Mary Gagnier was visiting family in Windsor with her 6-month-old son over the weekend and had the unfortunate experience of being on the train.
"I was in tears," Gagnier said. "I had run out of formula so I was in a situation where I could not stay on that train anymore. It was pretty scary. I was pretty stressed out about it. I was with a 6-month-old who wouldn't sleep due to all the activity on the train, so not the best experience for sure."
Gagnier said one of the worst parts was that the delays kept piling up.
"We kept getting emails from via saying a two hour delay, a three hour delay, a four hour delay, a five and half hour delay," she said.
According to Gagnier, passengers were informed the tank, which contains water to cool the engine, was empty. After firefighters arrived to fill it up they discovered a leak and after attempting to fix it, Gagnier said passengers were informed it was too big to be fixed and a train from London had to be sent to tow the train to Toronto.
Gagnier added the doors on the train were locked and people were not allowed to leave, regardless of their situation.
"There were people smoking in between the rail cars," Gagnier said. "There was another mom on the train with a 1-year-old and she was very upset. I went and talked to her and she said 'can you believe they're smoking? I need to get my kid off the train.' Someone else in the car threatened to call the police to try and let us off."
Gagnier said the train started moving again at around 1am and she got off at the next stop in Glencoe where her husband had driven all the way from Niagara Falls to pick her up.
The mother's train ride from hell didn't stop after she got off the train though. She said all the passengers were told they would get a 100% refund, but when she called to claim it, she was only offered a credit to use within a year.
"I laughed at them and said 'absolutely not because I'm not getting on your train ever again,'" Gagnier said. "I demanded a refund and said I wanted more. My husband had to travel three hours to come get me on a tank of gas, in our car, with our 2-and-a-half-year-old and I didn't get home until four in the morning. I should be given more for this."
Gagnier said she was told to email Via Rail if she felt treated "unfairly." Needless to say, that is exactly what she plans on doing.
While in the train Gagnier said the staff were incredibly nice and tried to do what they could to make the experience less miserable for the passengers. Aside from the smoking, the passengers themselves were being courteous to each other according to her.
"One passenger came up to me and said 'here I want you to have my apple because you're a mom and you need your strength,'" Gagnier said.
Another problem she noticed was the lack of food and drink provided to the people during the delay.
"They just came around and gave everyone a cup of water and some cookies," Gagnier said. "I saw some people getting really irate and I think they got free sandwiches. I think I saw them giving alcohol to people at some point because there was quite a few drunk people on the train."
Blackburn News was able to contact Via Rail for comment. According to media relations, the company is offering a full refund of the ticket price, plus an additional 100% credit to be used within six months.
Company representatives clearly weren't pleased about the smoking as they issued the following statement.
"Unfortunately, one of our staff authorized some passengers to smoke onboard in the vestibule between cars, neglecting our non-smoking policy and the comfort of all other passengers. We view this as a serious violation and are taking all necessary measures to ensure it does not occur in the future."
A representative said the location where the train was stopped was deemed too unsafe to let passengers off. They added all food and drink were offered to passengers until supplies ran out.