West Coast Express stoppage has been a ‘game-changer’ for riders: councillor

Riders of the West Coast Express are still being forced to find another method of transportation following a nationwide labour dispute involving Canada’s two major rail lines.

CPKC owns the rail line the West Coast Express runs on, and it’s been out of service since Wednesday.

The union says workers from CPKC will remain off the job pending an order from the Canada Industrial Relations Board.

TransLink says trains can’t run without dispatchers and rail workers from CPKC.

“It’s been, to say the least, a huge game-changer for a lot of our residents,” Maple Ridge councillor Ahmed Yousef told Global News.

“While I do commend TransLink for stepping up and offering alternate bus services to get people to Skytrain stations, however, it is, you know — if nothing else, it highlights that we do have the demand here. And this is something that’s been ongoing with negotiations with TransLink about increasing service to our community, whereas now we can prove that we do have the ridership because that was the piece that was missing.”

Yousef said that once this shutdown is over and service resumes they will be able to make a case for additional service to Port Moody, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Maple Ridge and Mission.

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“We’ve seen significant uptick in congestion on the roads,” he added.

“It’s it’s not been a pleasant experience for anyone.”

3:21 More uncertainty for Canada’s rail network

Yousef said Maple Ridge has been underserved for over a decade, even with bus service connecting communities in the city.

“We’ve been advocating as a municipal government, for TransLink to provide more service to our community,” he said.

“Their point was, well, we need to prove our ridership. Again, I’m hoping that this situation will allow us to be able to prove out the case that we do have the ridership.”

Railway workers, their union and their employers are all waiting Saturday for a decision from the Canada Industrial Relations Board that will determine what’s next for the labour dispute.

Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) has served CN Rail with a 72-hour strike notice with the intent to strike as of 10 a.m. ET on Monday, Aug. 26.

Meanwhile, at CPKC, the union has challenged the government’s directive for binding arbitration, and as of Friday the rail company’s operations remained shut down.

2:36 Railway labour dispute deepens with 72-hour strike notice

In a statement on behalf of TRC, Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan said that the federal government is “rewarding CN and CPKC for their bad behaviour.”

“I say this for three reasons: First, the service disruptions experienced across the country today were engineered by the companies, not the workers. The sides could have kept negotiating and the trains could have kept running: CN and CPKC just decided otherwise.

“Second, the decision by CN and CPKC to lockout their workers should be seen for what it is. It’s a temper tantrum thrown by anti-worker American corporate executives who don’t like Canadian labour laws and who just want to play by their own rules.

“Third, binding arbitration is the wrong way to go because it will not address the root causes of this dispute,” McGowan said in the statement posted on Friday.