More than 3,000 teamsters union members walked out on strike at Canadian Pacific Railway yesterday after contract talks failed to reach agreement before a midnight deadline.

The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference union represents 3,300 locomotive engineers and other train workers.

It was not clear yesterday how deeply the country’s rail service might be affected.

“I am incredibly disappointed,” Labour and Status of Women Minister Kellie Leitch, who had been involved in the bargaining effort, claimed in a statement.

She urged the union to end the strike immediately and return to the negotiating table.

The minister called the strike a “reckless disregard for Canadians and the Canadian economy” and said that the government would review all available options including the introduction of legislation in parliament — presumably to ban transport strikes.

A spokesman for the Teamsters suggested last week that any disruption of the service would have a widespread effect on industries that rely on trains, and that railway managers would find it difficult to maintain a service.

However, Canadian Pacific said last week that in the event of a strike it would “implement its extensive contingency plan by deploying qualified management employees to maintain a reduced freight service on its Canadian network.”

The federal government passed legislation to force an end to a nine-day strike by some 4,800 members of the teamsters union and CP Rail employees in 2012.

It was estimated at the time that a prolonged strike would cost the Canadian economy £281 million a week.