CALGARY — Wednesday’s derailment of a Canadian Pacific train in Bassano, Alberta, had an unexpected transportation impact— disruption of flight operations in Western Canada, particularly by Canadian airline WestJet.
The CBC reports that flights from Calgary International Airport on Thursday were disrupted when a portion of the air navigation system was knocked out by loss of a fiber telecommunications line as a result of the derailment some 85 miles from Calgary. WestJet was forced to cancel three flights, experienced delays of more than 100 others, and had issues with check-in and baggage-check systems.
By midday, Nav Canada, operator of the air navigation system, said services were returning as telecommunications provider Zayo restored service. Zayo said two fiber lines had been disrupted, including an outage caused by the derailment. Zayo said in a statement it had “rerouted a significant volume of traffic via other routes so that our customers can begin resuming normal operations.”
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada announced it was sending an investigator to the site of the Bassano derailment, one of two involving CP grain trains on Wednesday [see “Two Canadian Pacific trains derail …,” Trains News Wire, July 14, 2022]. The Alberta incident involved 43 cars of grain, the Calgary Herald reports.
Share this article
