The derailed Via Rail passenger train lies on a field south of Gladstone, Man., on Tuesday morning. Five people were taken to the hospital following the accident. All were released. (RCMP/Twitter)

Crews clean up as investigators seek cause of Via passenger train derailment

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.

Twelve people–seven passengers and five crew members–were on the train, which was travelling at about 100 km/ when two locomotives and one car derailed.(RCMP/Twitter

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.

Train 692 was travelling between Gladstone and Portage la Prairie when it suddenly derailed. It was on a run from Churchill to Winnipeg, a trip that normally takes just under three days. (CBC News)

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.

A worker stands atop one of the derailed train cars as crews work to clean up the derailment. (Riley Laychuk/CBC)

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.

Last Thursday, 26 cars on a CN freight train went off the track near the British Columbia-Alberta border.

With files from CBC, CP, CTV

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