Just planting a date-stamp flag on the VIA injunction against CN's crossing speed reduction on Ventures here, held today in Quebec Superior Court in Montreal which will ideally result in a published ruling in the next week or two...
Based on much of the content of the April hearings before the Quebec Superior Court in which VIA requested an interlocutory injunction, the judge's ruling thereon, and a subsequent ruling in the Quebec Court of Appeal in June that took only 40 minutes to hear, it looks like the issue will ultimately, and grindingly slowly land in the lap of Transport Canada. This outcome has been predicted by many voices though VIA has chosen to pursue the issue through the Courts since November, 2024 one month after CN issued the restrictions on VIA's Ventures.
Both judges' rulings upheld the inherent unsuitability of the Court to deal with not only specialized technical evidence and affidavits presented by both sides and their experts, but also the thousands, possibly millions of pages of machine-readable data emanating from the Ministerial Order demanding crossing protection technology data from CN by the Minister of Transport ministerial order.
The Superior Court was reluctant to render a decision after only two days of technically-based hearings, especially a time-sensitive one, that could later be contradicted by the transport regulator upon expert analysis of voluminous data still ping-ponging between CN and Transport Canada. Also noted was the fact that,
"the Minister, although advised by VIA of its concerns regarding the urgency of lifting the application of the directive due to the risks that it could create by cognitive overload for Venture locomotive engineers, did not deem it appropriate at this stage to issue an emergency ministerial injunction, fully within her powers. The legislative regime put in place by the legislator in matters of railway safety offers VIA a process which is fully capable of adequately responding to the protection of the interests which it seeks to protect by its request for an interlocutory injunction."
and...
"One of these considerations that seemed relevant to in this case is the fact that an administrative process, not only adequate but better placed than the Court to resolve the debate, is currently underway."
Come on, TC, you've had the CN data since December! Although the Court recognized this is truly an issue of rail safety, the substantial harms suffered by VIA to its ridership and reputation seem to take a back seat as TC continues dealing with CN and digesting its submitted data.
