CP Rail strike puts Montreal commuter trains on ice

About 19,000 commuters in the Montreal area werescrambling to find a way to get to work or school.

As part of theCPRail strikethat began yesterday, there was no AMT commuter-train service today on theVaudreuil-Hudson,St-JrmeandCandiaclines.

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The Agence mtropolitaine de transport (the commuter train transit authority known as the AMT) has a contract with CPRail for those three commuters lines.Canadian National engineers drive the trains running on the other AMT lines.

To help ease the burden on commuters, the AMT said it would run 60 buses along those lines to help ensure commuters get to work on Monday.

Details of the alternative transit plan can be found on the AMT's website.

But the transit authority said it would take 700 buses to provide the same level of service the commuter trains fulfill.

Some people will need to take their car this morning or go with other workers in their car, AMT president Nicolas Girard told CBC Montreals Daybreak.

I think the situation right now is unfair, is unacceptable and I think our customers are being held hostage.

One woman told CBC she left an hour earlier than usual to getto work on time by bus.

The AMT was denied an injunction on Friday to keep its commuter trains running.Girard said the AMT would try for another injunction again Monday.

Back-to-work legislation expected

The federal government was set to introduce legislation todayto end the CP Rail strike.

The strike began after contract talks failed to reach an agreement before a midnight Saturday night deadline.

The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference union represents 3,300 locomotive engineers and other train workers at the railway.

In a statement issued Sunday morning, the company said it would deploy management personnel to operate a reduced freight service on its Canadian network.

Quebec Transport MinisterRobert Potisaid Monday legislation forcing the employees back to work should be introduced "as soon as possible."

Poti saidemployees workingon commuter trains shouldn't be allowed to strike.

"Why can we not consider that service an essential service? And it is," he told Daybreak.

"We dont use these trains for fun."