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Literally kept telling people where I was standing to get off the tracks and back away a bit or the train won't come. As soon as the police looked away guess what? Even adults were right back on the tracks looking for the train. "Adults" like model for your children... That caused so much delay. You hear someone say get off just listen. It was so annoying seeing them just hop right back on the tracks. Some of these "adults" really need to grow up.

Common sense has really gone out the window when people need to constantly need to be told to get off the tracks so the train can come. The steel on that train is very unforgiving even at slow speeds.  
 
Also delays can happen for any event. And when you have to be outdoors, properly prepare. The CP schedule is at most a rough timeline and can vary depending on a wide range situations.  
 
And it's a good time to educate your children about railway safety and in life things don't always go exactly as planned.

The whole point of the CP Holiday Train is to bring awareness about hunger and raise money for local food banks. Freight trains take priority on the line over passenger trains, and that i:ncludes the Holiday Train. So yes, it has to wait if there is a freight train on the line. They also can't help if the conditions of the track are less than ideal. We have had a lot of snow and fluctuating temperatures this week, which creates the build-up of ice. The Holiday Train's Twitter account was updated with the status of the train. Yes, I waited with my family (including two young children) and it was a bit annoying that the train was late. But it can't be helped at all. It was definitely nothing to do with people being on the tracks. Yes, I don't think that anyone should be playing around/on the tracks. But they didn't put a rope up until about 5 minutes before the train arrived. It was a FREE concert and it raised money and food for the food bank. Let's not focus on the unavoidable negatives and be thankful that the train came through Brandon and that the food bank benefited greatly because of it.

at 0923. Should be arriving on time in Virden if not early

I understand that things happen, and cause delays. Nothing that can be done about that. What was upsetting, was that noone was informing us of how long the expected delay would be. Although i see that CP was posting on Twitter, not all of us have Twitter. Absolutely every family around mine had no clue as to when it would finally arrive. We waited about an hour and a half, and then left. Although it was annoying to see all the people constantly being told to get off the tracks, that had nothing to do with the delay. They apparently posted on Twitter that they didn't expect to arrive until around 8. Oh well, next year I guess!

Yes it did have some effect on even more of a delay. Just after 8 the train still wasn't here and we had police come tell where we were standing the train is stopped in the east end because people are on the tracks, and it will not move until everyone is off and stepped back. They told us it was sitting at the east end because of this problem. So if people actually listened maybe it would have been there right at 8. But it was still a bit after. It's really sad when police have to say back up and even the adults would keep jumping back on the tracks even worse it was these adults complaining why the train wasn't there. The more sad part is finally when we seen the train lights these adults kept running up to the track even more. It was like grow up.

time did it actually arrive at where the crowds were?

I don't know the exact time, but I think it was around 8:10-8:15. I don't have Twitter either, a simple Google search on my phone took me to their Twitter feed. How exactly wete they supposed to inform everyone of the late arrival? It's not a case of simply announcing it, there were people spread out over quite a distance. It just goes to show how rumours spread and become exaggerated so quickly. A lady approached my sister at around 7:45 and told her that the train was sitting in the East end waiting for people to vacate the tracks. I'm fairly certain that the police have the resources and means to remove people from the tracks if they were causing the delay of the train.

hobbes said "Not quite a safety video... but a scary one....   https://youtu.be/bM7FaW-av4M "

I can't believe they let people be so close to the train with that many people around anything could had happened. The police shouldn't attend there, they can only do so much to watch for, they aren't babysitters  
can do and watch so much.  
Parents let their kids get to close and I don't who they blame if someone got injuried. I found it scary anyway.

I was still waiting in Chater for it to pass. So not sure where she got her information from. And you can read Twitter feeds without needing an account. And just typing in 'CP Holiday train' brings up their recent tweets.  
 

CORRECTOR - Estimated time of arrival for the @CityBrandon event now 8:00pm. Thanks for your patience, we hope to see you there.

— CP Holiday Train (@CPHolidayTrain) December 4, 2016

1 chance said "    hobbes said "Not quite a safety video... but a scary one....   https://youtu.be/bM7FaW-av4M " I can't believe they let people be so close to the train with that many people around anything could had happened. The police shouldn't attend there, they can only do so much to watch for, they aren't babysitters   can do and watch so much.   Parents let their kids get to close and I don't who they blame if someone got injuried. I found it scary anyway. "

the people thought it would be safe to stand mere feet from the tracks.