West Coast Express will resume its normal schedule this week, starting Monday, Aug. 26.
This announcement came from TransLink early Sunday afternoon, after the Canada Industrial Relations Board imposed binding arbitration a few days into job action impacting both Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Kansas City.
The unprecedented, dual work stoppage at CN and CPKC halted freight shipments and snarled commutes across the country starting on Thursday.
CPKC workers 鈥� members of the Teamsters union representing workers with both companies 鈥� went on strike at the same time a lockout came into effect early Thursday morning, with its yards still shuttered as of Saturday. CN lifted its lockout on Thursday, and freight service started again Friday morning.
According to the federal labour board's ruling that came down on Saturday, thousands of rail employees must return to work and freight trains must start rolling again no later than first thing Monday morning.
Since West Coast Express (WCE) 鈥� which picks up commuter every weekday morning in Mission, Maple Ridge, and Pitt Meadows, and transports them into Vancouver and back 鈥� operates on the rail owned CPKC, it could not operate without CPKC's dispatch and rail workers.
Therefore, rail service was disrupted late last week, replaced instead with buses transporting commuters from the three easterly WCE stops into the Coquitlam SkyTrain station in the mornings, and reversing services for the afternoon commute home.
While WCE service is set to resume Monday morning, TransLink warns commuters to expect delayed due to freight traffic backlog.
鈥� with files from Canadian Press
