Alfed Hitchcock, H.P. lovecraft, or Edgar Allen Poe couldn’t have come up with a more nightmarish scenario for the people involved, but this is not horror fiction. It’s all too real:

A woman has died and 10 other passengers are in hospital after a flu-like outbreak on board a Via Rail train. The train, travelling from Vancouver to Toronto, is now under quarantine near Timmins.

Marc Depatie of the Foleyet OPP said that the female passenger was picked up in Jasper, Alberta with a tour group and appears to be in her 60s. It’s not known if she was travelling with family.

There were 260 passengers and 30 crewmembers on board the train when it stopped in Foleyet. It’s now quarantined at a CN Rail station.

Emergency crews in full protective gear searched the affected cars. It’s believed, but not certain, that the outbreak is confined to only two cars. No one except emergency personnel is allowed on or off the trains. There is a doctor on board.

It certainly has all the elements of a horror story. People confined to a train after a deadly outbreak of an unknown disease, people in bio suits testing the passenger cars, the dreadful fear and uncertainty of those who are trapped there.

I hope this resolved and resolved quickly.