A Via Rail train en route to Montreal from Halifax derailed near Quebec City on Thursday morning, slamming into a house, and injuring a small number of passengers.
Two locomotives and seven wagons left the tracks around 4:45 a.m. in Saint-Charles-de-Bellechasse, across the river from the provincial capital.
A local firefighter said power wires fell onto the train before the 120 passengers and 10 crew members were taken from the cars.
Via Rail said seven people were treated with minor injuries at a nearby hospital. All of them have since been released.
By later in the day, passengers began to arrive in Montreal aboard busses.
"I think we're all shook up," a female passenger told CTV Montreal. "It's not a good experience, but it could have been very worse and we're very lucky. We could have been by the water or something."
Throughout Thursday, work crews picked through the wreckage and investigators searched for what caused the crash.
Shawn Roy, from Ottawa, was riding in one of the cars which went off the tracks.
"We didn't realize what was going on," he recalled, adding that the locomotive which was in front of his passenger car flipped over once it derailed.
"I think we were really, really lucky."
The area was hit with blizzard-like conditions Thursday, with brisk winds kicking up snow around the crash scene.
Other Via Rail routes were not affected by the derailment. No cause for the crash has been released.
Via Rail has set up a toll-free number for family and friends of passengers -- 1-877-747-0707.
