MP vows hearing on Sunwing, VIA Rail travel chaos: ‘Canadians deserve answers’ – National | 24CA News
The chair of the federal transportation and infrastructure committee says he’ll name a gathering of the group to debate vacation journey chaos involving two Canadian corporations.
“I will be convening a meeting of the transport committee and will be calling on VIA Rail and Sunwing to appear,” Peter Schiefke, who’s a Liberal MP, mentioned in a tweet on Tuesday.
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“Canadians deserve answers for the unacceptable delays and cancellations seen over the holiday season.”
It wasn’t instantly clear when a gathering could be held.
Customers of Sunwing Airlines and VIA Rail each skilled important disruptions simply because the Christmas holidays set in because of a winter storm that impacted operations in Ontario and Quebec.
Shortly after the most important winter storm performed out, tales of Sunwing travellers stranded in tropical locations started to emerge.
Some Canadians described being shuffled between lodges in Mexico, generally arriving to search out there have been no rooms booked for them, saying Sunwing officers handed alongside inaccurate and incomplete details about once they would possibly be capable to head residence.
Meanwhile, VIA Rail left passengers within the lurch as the large winter storm prompted cancellations and delays all through the Christmas weekend.
Passengers already on board of a VIA Rail prepare grew to become caught in a single day close to Kingston, Ont., after a prepare derailed, forcing them to spend almost 21 hours on the prepare with minimal meals and water.
“VIA Rail, of course, is providing a full refund and a travel credit to all the passengers who were on board trains that were delayed through the night,” a spokesperson informed Global News on Dec. 28, 2022.
“From power outages to trees on the tracks and even a tree falling on a locomotive, conditions on the infrastructure maintained by CN made it impossible to move some of our trains.”
Sunwing had promised to have most, “if not all,” of its prospects again residence by Monday, it mentioned on Dec. 30. The airline mentioned on Tuesday in a sequence of tweets that it has accomplished all of its scheduled restoration flights to convey residence passengers stranded in Mexico.
“Our teams have worked around the clock to return customers home, while providing those in destination with hotel rooms, food, beverages and airport transfers, regardless of the reason for the delay. All scheduled recovery flights are complete and those still in destination are rescheduling previously missed return flights, or on longer vacations and are scheduled to return at a later date per their original departure date,” Sunwing mentioned.
“Any further scheduling changes are unrelated to the holiday disruptions. We sincerely thank our customers for their patience and understanding as our teams worked tirelessly to restore regular operations.”
Transport Canada has been “in close contact” with Sunwing, and the federal authorities will guarantee “all passengers are accommodated,” a spokesperson with the minister of transport’s workplace informed Global News.
“We understand how frustrating these delays and cancellations have been for travellers this holiday season. What many travellers have experienced is completely unacceptable. Canadians rightly expect their airlines to keep them informed and to manage disruptions accordingly,” they mentioned.
“We will also continue to work with airlines and airports to ensure that Canadians can travel safely and securely during the holiday season. Canadians can be assured that we are doing everything we can to support them during this difficult time.”
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Sunwing journey chaos not because of staffing, union says — ‘Pilots are available to fly’
The mandate of the federal transportation and infrastructure committee is to look at the work of Transport Canada, Infrastructure Canada and their portfolio companies and companions.
The committee can research any facet of the administration and operations of those organizations, in addition to any laws, packages or coverage areas administered by the transportation and infrastructure ministers.
— with recordsdata from Global News’ Rachel Gilmore
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
