The Transportation Safety Board of Canada said it deployed an investigator to the fatal train derailment near Ponton, Man. Monday.
On Saturday around 6:15 p.m. two crew members became trapped in the front locomotive after the train went off the track.
RCMP said a 38-year-old man is dead, and a 59-year-old man was seriously injured. Both men are from The Pas.
Thompson Fire and Emergency Services told CTV News the derailment happened on a bridge.
Arctic Gateway Group is the new owner of Hudson Bay Railway.
On Monday Murad Al-Katib, CEO of AGT Food and Ingredients, one of the railway ownership group’s partners, told CTV News he met with the family of the man who died. The company said it’s cooperating with authorities.
He said the 38-year-old man was a conductor and the 59-year-old man is an engineer. He said they were the only two people on the train.
Mayor of The Pas, Jim Scott, has also been in contact with family of the man who died.
“It was shocking because we are a small community of about 5300, 5400 people, so everybody knows everybody. It was literally heart-wrenching,” said Scott in a phone interview with CTV News.
“They’re very much a generational railroad family. The fellow who passed, his stepfather over 40 years with the railroad, his grandfather was a lifetime worker on the railroad,” he said.
“They have more questions than answers and they don’t understand how this could have happened.”
Scott said The Pas is a big railway town and the site of the Hudson Bay Railway rail yard.
Transport Canada and RCMP are investigating.
“Out of respect for the family and friends of the employees involved in the Hudson Bay Railway derailment, Transport Canada is not releasing any photos taken at the derailment site,” Transport Canada said in statement to CTV News.
Scott said the recent jubilation in town over the railway’s sale and a $117 million investment from the federal government isn't there right now, but he said it will come back in time.
“That rail line is not just going to be prepared, it’s going to be fixed properly and a lot of people that were laid off are going to go back to work. That’s the good news of it, but that doesn’t matter right now, it just doesn’t matter right now,” said Scott.
RCMP and team with Hudson Bay Railway on scene near fatal Manitoba train derailment west of Ponton. It happened around 6:15 pm Saturday. 38 y/o man died. 59 y/o man seriously injured. Both crew members from The Pas. @ctvwinnipeg pic.twitter.com/WzLCZdTkD2
— Beth Macdonell (@BethCTV) September 18, 2018