London Ontario - Even for a city with frequent traffic tie-ups from trains, it was a monster.
 
A broken-down freight train blocked traffic in the centre of London for almost an hour Wednesday, infuriating drivers and lighting up social media with frustration.
 
The train, on the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) line just south of Oxford Street between Richmond and Adelaide Streets, blocked many from entering downtown over the noon hour.
 
The London Transit Commission sent out a tweet, saying "all buses were unable to travel past the tracks south of Oxford between Richmond and Adelaide."
 
The tweet also said buses would be turning around before the tracks for an "unknown period of time."
 
Scott Mitchell was on his way to work on his bicycle when he was stopped by the train.
 
He said he waited about an hour with several other pedestrians and vehicles to cross the tracks.
 
"There was probably about four to five pedestrians, and a whole bunch of cyclists who went back around," Mitchell said.
 
"And three to four times cars would turn around going back to Oxford. Every single car would leave and a whole new row of 20 cars would come."
 
Mitchell said he was already unhappy about having to regularly wait about 10 minutes for trains to pass while on his commute to work, but Wednesday's wait was much worse.
 
He said his bike ride to work is about 20 minutes long, but he leaves his home an hour and a half early to account for train delays getting into downtown.
 
This time, he tried reaching out to rail companies and city staff to see if they could help, but didn't get any responses.
 
"Daily waiting for the train is an annoyance, but this was 58 minutes and no one wanted to take responsibility," Mitchell said.
 
"I lost time out of my day so I either have to work late or I don't get paid for it."
 
The city's manager for transportation, planning, and design, Doug MacRae, said train schedules are out of the city's control.
 
"The railways are run by CN (Canadian National Railway) and CP, they're federally regulated so the City of London has no ability to adjust their scheduling," MacRae said.
 
"That said, we communicate frequently with the railways to provide our concerns with any of their operating procedures that affect London traffic."
 
MacRae also said the city works with the railways to better improve railway crossings, like the one at Wharncliffe Road and Horton Street where the city will be expanding the crossing to make it more functional with better cycling space and wider sidewalks.
 
But sidewalks and crossings don't help when pedestrians are stuck waiting for a train to pass.
 
And MacRae strongly recommended that people do not try to cross the tracks while the train is stopped.
 
"If a train is stationary, pedestrians and cyclists should not try to cross the tracks, they shouldn't disobey the rail crossing gates and flashing lights," MacRae said.
 
"You never know when that train is going to start rolling again."
 
In an e-mail, CP representative Mallory McCredie said the train "experienced a mechanical issue" and crews were on scene working to get the train moved as quickly as possible.
 
About an hour after the train had stopped, reports on Twitter said it began to move again, but people like Mitchell had already gone out of their way to get past it, even if that meant an extra 30 minutes of cycling to get to work.
 
"This is a major artery of downtown that gets blocked," Mitchell said.
 
"I just don't like the fact that they can sit there and there's no punitive action."
 
Shalu Mehta.