John Colomb and his family trekked along rail track for over 2 days after train home was cancelled
CBC Indigenous: A family from a First Nation community in northern Manitoba walked roughly 100 kilometres in 35 C heat for two and a half days after their train home was cancelled last week, in part to peacefully protest what they say is forgotten and frequently interrupted rail service.
John Colomb, 54, his wife Sheila Colomb, 57, and their 18-year-old nephew were among 70 people who had lined up in The Pas, Man. — a town about 600 kilometres north of Winnipeg — early Thursday morning, waiting to board the train to Pukatawagan.
For people living in Pukatawagan, the train — running twice a week — is the only way to commute in and out of the community.
But just before they were let inside the station, the train was cancelled after one of its operators called in sick that morning.
“I felt very emotionaI,” Colomb told CBC News on Monday. “It’s pretty hard to be treated like you’re worth nothing.”
“I sat there thinking somebody needs to do something, we can’t just sit back,” he said. “That’s when I said I’ll do something … I’m gonna walk home.”
Colomb and his family got a ride from the train station in The Pas north to Sherridon, where Highway 392 ends. From there, they started walking roughly 100 kilometres along the railway tracks to Pukatawagan on Friday evening.
“It is a long two and half days to walk on a railroad with plus-35 C sun burning down on you, with a 100-pound bag on your back — carrying your water, your food, your blankets,” he said.
The supplies they had carried ran out on Saturday and they started to dehydrate quickly, vomiting soon after due to the lack of water in their bodies, Colomb said.
His concerns grew especially around his wife’s health, as she took on the walk despite her high blood pressure. If something were to happen, they had only a satellite radio to call for help.
But along the way, passing rail workers gave them food and water.
“If they weren’t out there, something drastic would have happened to the three of us,” he said.
A group of three women walked from Pukatawagan and met Colomb’s family on Saturday evening. Together, they finished the last stretch of the walk on Sunday, reaching the stop where they were originally supposed to arrive by train.
‘It should not have happened’
Mike Spence, chairman of the Arctic Gateway Group, said it is “very unfortunate” that Thursday’s train cancellation led Colomb and his family to walk back home.
“It is a concern,” he said. “It should not have happened.”
Arctic owns the railway from The Pas to Churchill while the Keewatin Railway Company owns the spur line that runs between Sherritt Junction and Lynn Lake, passing through Pukatawagan. But it is Arctic’s operating company, Hudson Bay Railway, that has the contract to provide train crews for Keewatin’s line.
The cancellation came in the midst of what Spence said was a “summer staffing issue” that prevented HBR from finding a replacement for the employee who called in sick.
“It’s one of these things [that] are uncontrollable at times, and we’re working towards improving,” Spence said.
But Colomb said last week’s train cancellation was not an isolated incident, but part of a trend of unreliable service in northern Manitoba.
“It’s not uncommon for us not to have a train for a whole week,” Colomb said. “They just forget about us. They forget that the train is our lifeline.”
Supplies needed to “run the community,” he said, including groceries, gasoline, and construction materials, are delivered through the railway. So when trains are cancelled, it doesn’t only prevent residents from returning or leaving Pukatawagan, but it also affects the well-being of the whole community.
“It’s getting pretty hard when the groceries aren’t coming into the community,” Colomb said. “Children, they go hungry when that train doesn’t come in.”
“It’s like being held hostage in our own country here, where reconciliation is the big talk nowadays,” he said.
‘We’re forgotten people,’ says chief
Pukatawagan residents have been experiencing regular service delays and interruptions on northern Manitoba’s railways, Mathias Colomb Cree Nation Chief Gordie Bear said following last week’s train cancellation.
“When we have a spring washout, we lose a week [of train service]. When a culvert breaks, we lose a week. When a bridge burns, we lose a week,” Bear told CBC News in an interview Sunday.
Mathias Colomb Cree Nation had paid out of pocket to fly some of its residents home in previous circumstances when the train was cancelled, but Bear said the community could spend just so much money on airfare.
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“We’re forgotten people,” Bear said. “There’s not enough trains running, and when the trains do run, they’re often cancelled.”
Tony Mayham, chief executive officer at the Keewatin Railway Company — which operates the train carts — said mechanical issues in an aging fleet, and a shortage of employees trained to operate trains, have led to the cancellation of up to 15 per cent of trains running from The Pas to Pukatawagan last year.
“It’s very hard for us to mitigate the circumstances where equipment breakdowns and or personnel are not available to operate the passenger service,” Mayham said.
“Things are happening basically out of our control and there’s nothing that we can do about it.”
Bear said it is important to address staffing shortages by recruiting and training Mathias Colomb residents to operate the railway.
Spence said the Arctic Gateway Group is working on hiring and training workers who live within the area where the railway operates.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Santiago Arias Orozco, Reporter
Santiago Arias Orozco is a journalist with CBC Manitoba currently based in Winnipeg. He previously worked for CBC Toronto and the Toronto Star. You can reach him at santiago.arias.orozco@cbc.ca.
With files from Karen Pauls and Gavin Axelrod