Power outages and track obstructions — including fallen power lines — forced the cancellation of various Via Rail trains travelling between Montreal and Toronto on Wednesday, the company said.

Riders may continue to experience major delays Thursday “due to the residual impacts on the infrastructure,” Via Rail told the Star in an email.

Eight trains were cancelled on Wednesday, according to its website.

“Due to the impacts of yesterday’s ice storm, expect significant delays on Via Rail trains between Toronto-Ottawa-Montréal. Passengers can cancel their trip autonomously at no cost,” reads a notice on the VIA site on Thursday.

While VIA did provide some updates on Twitter, several riders voiced their frustrations, with some saying Wednesday night that they were running late to or missing a flight, others saying they would have liked to be informed of delays before boarding the train, and some on Thursday saying they were unsure if their train would be departing at all.

Writing to the Star, Via Rail noted that its website featured a weather advisory on Tuesday evening, before the brunt of the storm, “warning passengers of imminent delays due to the impending ice storm.”

“Regarding the passengers who tweeted about missing their flight, they were unfortunately on a train that was stopped due to power lines coming down on the tracks in front of their train,” the email reads. “It was unsafe to allow them to leave the train, and our crews on board were in constant communication with the passengers to explain the situation and provide updates.

This rider tweeted at VIA Wednesday just after 11 p.m. that they had been “stuck on one of your trains for hours now” and were “exhausted, hungry due to our fasts.”

Another rider said they had been stuck on the train for more than two hours at Coteau.

One user on Wednesday thanked the staff for their “hard work and professionalism helping myself and all the other passengers stuck on train 645 get to our destinations safely tonight.”

Another user said they had been on the train at Oshawa for 90 minutes with “no update as to when we’re moving or what’s happening.”

Another rider said they arrived at Union Station just as the company emailed that the train had been cancelled, about a half-hour before it was expected to depart.

“We apologize for the inconvenience and passengers impacted by these cancellations will receive a full refund and 50% travel credit,” the website reads.

“We understand that this was a stressful situation for passengers, and we regret the inconvenience it caused,” VIA told the Star.

The company added that it will continue to provide updates on Twitter and its website.

On Wednesday, a late winter storm hit much of Ontario and Quebec. More than 120,000 Hydro One customers in Ontario lost power late Wednesday while the same was true for more than 676,000 people using Quebec’s power utility.

In Markham, one man died while chopping a tree that fell during the storm, police said.

In Ottawa, five trains got stuck on the track of the city’s light trail transit system.

In December, a massive winter storm saw hundreds of Via Rail passengers stranded overnight on trains, some stuck for nearly 18 hours after a tree fell on a passenger train.

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