VIA Rail services in the Gaspé Peninsula to partially resume on May 13th

- Motor coach service maintained between New-Carlisle and Gaspé -

Montreal, May 9, 2012 – VIA Rail Canada wishes to inform its passengers that services provided between Montreal, Matapédia and New-Carlisle will resume with the departure of train 16 from Montreal on Sunday, May 13th (first westbound train to Montreal May 14th).  The interruption in services over the last few months was caused by significant track maintenance work undertaken by the Société du chemin de fer de la Gaspésie (SCFG).

“Having recently received engineering reports indicating that the bridges and other structures between Matapédia and New-Carlisle are now safe, we are pleased to resume operations of our trains on this leg,” explained Marc Beaulieu, VIA’s Regional General Manager, East, and Chief Transportation Officer.  “Although this interruption in our services was beyond our control, we apologize to our customers for any inconvenience this situation may have caused.”

The Société du chemin de fer de la Gaspésie is pursuing its detailed inspections and load calculations on the portion of track between New-Carlisle and Gaspé.  The train there will continue to be replaced by motor coach service until VIA receives an inspection report indicating that the infrastructure can again be used safely by its trains.

« We are pleased with the collaborative work done to date with VIA’s engineers, and are committed to continuing to work toward a reopening of the rail line through to Gaspé as soon as possible,” said François Roussy, President of the SCFG.
For more information on train schedules or to book a trip, customers can visit VIA’s secure Web site at viarail.ca. Passengers can also reserve their tickets by calling 1-888-VIA-RAIL (1-888-842-7245) or 1-800-268-9503 (TTY for the hearing impaired).

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