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High-volume passenger and freight train travel between Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa is at a standstill Friday during a solidarity protest for opponents of a natural gas pipeline being built through Wet’suwet’en territory in northern British Columbia.

A protest at CN Rail line near Wyman’s Road along the Tyendinaga Mohawk territory started Thursday afternoon and continued into Friday afternoon.

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The protest is based where a road intersects with rail tracks about 20 kilometres east of Belleville and 60 kilometres west of Kingston.

VIA passenger service on the Ottawa/Montreal to Toronto and Toronto to Ottawa/Montreal routes have been cancelled. Passengers on board any of the trains blocked en route Thursday were offered to either get off at the station where the train stopped or return to their station of origin.

Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg

“Our trains are prepared to leave on schedule should we achieve line clearance,” Karl-Philip Marchand Giguere, a spokesman for VIA Rail Canada said midday Friday.

CN trains are similarly affected.

“CN crews and CN police are responding to a protest near CN tracks between Shannonville and Desoronto. Train movements are currently stopped and we are monitoring the situation,” said Alexandre Boulé.

Photos from the protest site from Thursday night on social media show a large dump truck equipped with a plough blocking tracks at a rail crossing. The distinctive red-backed flag of the Mohawk Warrior Society had been affixed to the top of a long, upright crossing barrier and a hand-painted sign reads: “#RCMP get out”.