国际英语新闻：Canadian passenger train with about 120 aboard derails

OTTAWA, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- A passenger train with about 120 people on board has derailed in Quebec province, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported Thursday.

Seven passengers suffered minor injuries, and at least one person was sent to a local hospital while others were treated for shock.

The VIA train went off the track at 4:45 a.m. very close to a house at Saint-Charles-de-Bellechasse in Quebec City's south shore region, on the south side of the St. Lawrence River,VIA spokeswoman Ashley Doyle was quoted as saying.

It's not yet clear what caused the accident, but one train car hit the back porch of the house, local police said.

Passengers were being transported on buses to Montreal while Canada's Transportation and Safety Board is investigating.

Established in 1977, VIA Rail Canada operates the national passenger rail service on behalf of the Government of Canada.

VIA operates up to 503 trains weekly on 12,500 kilometers of track, and serves 450 communities across the country, from coast to coast and north to Hudson Bay. VIA carried close to 4.2 million customers in 2007.

VIA's fleet includes 396 passenger cars and 78 active locomotives. In addition to 159 railway stations, VIA operates four modern maintenance facilities, and employs some 3,000 people.

On February 11, nearly five dozen cars of a freight train carrying potash derailed in Canada's central province of Manitoba without any casualty.

The train of Canadian National Railway Company (CNR), headed to a destination in the United States, came off the tracks 16 kilometers west of Rivers, about 265 kilometers west of Winnipeg, capital of Manitoba, at about 9:30 a.m. local time.