For the third straight day, service on Exo’s Line 4 Candiac is suspended as anti-pipeline demonstrations in Kahnawake continue.
The suburban rail service made the call on Wednesday, just 40 minutes before its first train of the morning was scheduled to depart for downtown Montreal.
The suspension leaves thousands of South Shore commuters in the lurch yet again, with Exo launching shuttle buses to take passengers from the Candiac, Delson, Saint-Constant and Sainte-Catherine stations across the Saint-Lawrence River to the Mansfield bus terminal in downtown Montreal.
Once again, passengers at the LaSalle and du Canal stations on the island of Montreal will be able to board Société de transport de Montréal (STM) buses for free using their train tickets and transfer to the Metro network from there.
Passengers at the Montreal-West and Vendome stations can board trains from Exo’s Line 1 Vaudreuil-Hudson and Line 2 Saint-Jérôme to get downtown.
The demonstrations in Kahnawake are in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en Nation in northwestern British Columbia, whose hereditary chiefs have been clashing with RCMP there over the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline.
Similar protests elsewhere in the country have halted other passenger and freight services. Via Rail services between Toronto and Montreal, as well as between Toronto and Ottawa, have been suspended, with the Crown corporation cancelling 34 departures before dawn on Wednesday.
The Kanienkehaka protesting on the South Shore say they will not leave until the situation in British Columbia is resolved. Exo says it does not know how long service will be disrupted on the line.