A man walks along an empty platform as a train stands idle at Toronto's Union Station after GO Transit and UP Express announced that trains are not running on the entire network due to a networkwide system failure on Tuesday October 3, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
MONTREAL – Questions remain around the root cause of the massive outage on CN Rail lines that delayed thousands of Toronto-area commuters for hours on Tuesday.
In a statement that evening, Canadian National Railway Co. said the reason for the digital disruption was still under investigation.
With its data unaffected, CN says there was no indication of a cyberattack, despite its website going dark Tuesday afternoon.
CN’s rail traffic control system was out of commission for several hours starting at around 1 p.m., forcing Go Transit trains to stop at the nearest station while commuters crowded Toronto’s Union Station during rush hour in hopes the system would resume.
The UP Express, which connects the downtown core to Toronto’s Pearson airport, also stalled, while more than 30 Via Rail arrivals and departures at Union Station were late – some by more than three hours.
CN apologized for what it called an internet connectivity and electronic data interchange issue, but noted none of its freight trains experienced delays.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2023.
Companies in this story: (TSX:CNR)
