Storm turns Ottawa-Toronto Via Rail trip into a winter horror show

For passengers aboard a Toronto-bound Via Rail train Saturday, their journey was more like a Nightmare Before Christmas than the magic of Polar Express.

Already buffeted and delayed by the winter storm after leaving Ottawa at 3:30 p.m. Friday, Train 55 was brought to a halt on the tracks west of Cobourg Friday night when a falling tree shattered the window of the locomotive. What should have been a five-hour trip turned into a 24-hour ordeal, with no food, little water and putrid bathrooms.

(Later Saturday, Via would announce it was cancelling all trains between Toronto and Ottawa, and between Toronto and Montreal for Christmas Day.)

Among the passengers on Train 55 Friday were several diabetics and a mother nursing a newborn, which prompted some passengers to call 911 for help, said passenger Flower Lunn, who was travelling to Toronto for Christmas with her husband and nine-year-old daughter.