Passengers on quarantined train arrive in Toronto; praise handling of emergency

By: THE CANADIAN PRESS

TORONTO - It was a long ride, but more than 200 Via Rail passengers on board a train involved in a health scare in Northern Ontario were in good spirits when they arrived in Toronto early Saturday amid much fanfare.

The train from Vancouver pulled into Union Station around 7:30 a.m. - about 11 hours behind schedule - after a series of unrelated illnesses saw it quarantined in Foleyet, a tiny hamlet about 100 kilometres southwest of Timmins.

Medical teams in biohazard suits descended on the train after an 86-year-old woman died in a washroom and six Australian tourists who boarded in Jasper, Alta. fell ill with respiratory and flu-like symptoms.

The woman's death is under investigation but an infectious disease is not suspected.

One woman was airlifted to hospital but her illness appeared to differ even from that of her fellow travellers, Via Rail spokeswoman Catherine Kaloutsky said.

All illnesses were eventually deemed to be "nothing serious" and not infectious, she said, noting the group had been ill before they even got on the train.

"It was the combination of all of them together that really brought the medical attention to that train," she said.

"That being said, we're very, very pleased with how well things worked."

In fact, that was the consensus among most of the 264 passengers and 30 crew members, the bulk of whom debarked in Toronto.

"I'm amazed at how well the staff did. They really, really did take care of us. We had all these extra hours but they made sure we were comfortable," Cecilia Damico said as she waited by the luggage carousel.

While some passengers who were further away from the incident felt they weren't kept as well informed of what was happening as they would have liked, Damico dined with some of the ill passengers and said she was quite pleased with how the incident was handled.

The passengers said they passed the time by playing cards, doing crossword puzzles, getting to know their neighbours and drinking free champagne offered by the crew.