VIA Rail has extended cancellations for all trips between Montreal and Toronto and Toronto and Ottawa until the end of Friday due to ongoing blockades in Belleville.
Services will continue to operate between Ottawa and Montreal, between Montreal and Quebec City, and west of Toronto in Southwestern Ontario.
The cancellations were originally set to go until the end of Thursday, but were extended Wednesday night.
The blockades began last week on a CN Rail line, in support of Wet’suwet’en First Nation’s hereditary chiefs and their supporters in their oppostion of the Coastal GasLink pipeline.
The elected bands along the route are in favour of the project, but the battle between the two sides has led to demonstrations across the country.
VIA Rail spokesperson Marie-Anna Murat told CP24 on Tuesday the company is emailing passengers with updates.
“We know that this unfortunate situation has an impact on our passengers travelling plans and we apologize for the inconvenience it is causing,” her statement said, adding passengers will receive refunds.
As of Tuesday night, about 24,000 travellers had been affected so far by the blockades.
Earlier in the day, CN halted trains in two parts of the country.