Via Rail says it is working with investigators from the Transportation Safety Board to find out why a passenger train derailed early Tuesday morning west of Winnipeg.
Twelve people–seven passengers and five crew–were on the train, which was on a run from Churchill, Man. to Winnipeg.
Two passengers and three crew members were taken to hospital for treatment and later released.
The other five passengers were taken by bus to Winnipeg.
The derailment occurred south of Gladstone, about 135 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.
“Everything was going all over the place, and it’s up and down and all around; you’re not sure what’s going on,” passenger Penny Flock told CBC News.
Flock, who boarded the train in Canora, Sask., said the train was already 16 hours late when she embarked.
Flock told CBC News that several hours into her trip she felt a sudden jolt that left seat cushions, stools and other items strewn about her car before the train came to a halt and the power went off.
“I couldn’t find my shoes,” she said.
Via Rail says the train–on the Hudson Bay line–derailed “due to an unexpected incident.”
TSB officials said it was travelling at approximately 100 km/h when two locomotives and one car derailed.
Via Rail says environmental crews are at the site and that a “minimal amount” of fuel leaked from one of the locomotives before it could be removed.
The trip from Churchill to Winnipeg normally lasts just under three days.
It was the second derailment on Canadian tracks in less than a week.
With files from CBC, CP, CTV
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