Lac-Mégantic Rail Disaster
The Lac-Mégantic rail disaster occurred in the town of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, Canada, on July 6, 2013, at approximately 01:15 EDT, when an unattended 73-car Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway (MMA) freight train carrying Bakken Formation crude oil rolled down a 1.2% grade from Nantes and derailed downtown, resulting in the explosion and fire of multiple tank cars. Forty-seven people were killed. More than thirty buildings in Lac-Mégantic's town centre, roughly half of the downtown area, were destroyed, and all but three of the thirty-nine remaining buildings had to be demolished due to petroleum contamination of the townsite. Initial newspaper reports described a blast radius. The Safety Board identified multiple causes for the accident, principally leaving a train unattended on a main line, failure to set enough handbrakes, and lack of a backup safety mechanism. The death toll of 47 makes this the fourth-deadliest rail accident in Canadian history, and the deadliest in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lac-Mégantic, Quebec
Lac-Mégantic () is a town in the Eastern Townships region of Quebec, Canada. It is located on Lac Mégantic, a freshwater lake after which the town was named. Situated in the former Frontenac County in the historic Eastern Townships, Lac-Mégantic is the seat of Le Granit Regional County Municipality and of the judicial district of Mégantic. Lac-Mégantic was a tourist destination and a producer of forestry products, furniture, Masonite doors, particleboard, and architectural granite before July 6, 2013, when the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster led to a massive fire and deadly explosion of petroleum tank cars that devastated the downtown and killed 47 people. History Prior to contact with Europeans, the region was inhabited by the Abenaki. Archaeological digs found that the Amerindians had been in the region for over 12,000 years, making this the oldest known site of human occupation in Quebec. The name of Mégantic comes from the Abenaki word "namesokanjik" which translates ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Canadian Confederation
Canadian Confederation (french: Confédération canadienne, link=no) was the process by which three British North American provinces, the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, were united into one federation called the Canada, Dominion of Canada, on July 1, 1867. Upon Confederation, Canada consisted of four provinces: Ontario and Quebec, which had been split out from the Province of Canada, and the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Over the years since Confederation, Canada has seen numerous territorial changes and expansions, resulting in the current number of Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories. Terminology Canada is a federation and not a confederate association of sovereign states, which is what "confederation" means in contemporary political theory. It is nevertheless often considered to be among the world's more decentralization, decentralized federations. The use of the term ''confederation'' arose in the Provin ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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New Brunswick Southern Railway
The New Brunswick Southern Railway Company Limited is a Canadian short line railway owned by the New Brunswick Railway Company Limited, a holding company that is part of "Irving Transportation Services", a division within the industrial conglomerate J.D. Irving Limited. Together with its sister company Eastern Maine Railway , NBSR and EMRY form a continuous main line connecting Saint John, New Brunswick, with Brownville Junction, Maine. NBSR also operates an additional of branch lines in New Brunswick. Today most locomotives hauling trains that operate over NBSR and EMRY are owned and carry the reporting marks of NBSR. Some maintenance of way equipment that operates exclusively in the state of Maine is owned directly by EMRY. A sister company Maine Northern Railway operates a separate railway system connecting Millinocket, Maine, with Van Buren, Maine. History NBSR was established as a corporate entity in November 1994 by J.D. Irving Ltd. to purchase 131.7 miles of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Eastern Maine Railway (1995)
The Eastern Maine Railway Company Limited is a U.S. short line railroad owned by the New Brunswick Railway Company, a holding company that is part of "Irving Transportation Services", a division within the industrial conglomerate J.D. Irving Limited. Together with its sister company New Brunswick Southern Railway , EMRY and NBSR form a continuous main line connecting Saint John, New Brunswick with Brownville Junction, Maine in addition to another of branch lines owned and operated by NBSR in Canada. A sister company Maine Northern Railway operates a separate 258-mile railway system connecting Millinocket, Maine with Van Buren, Maine. History EMRY was established as a corporate entity on November 10, 1994 by J.D. Irving Ltd. to purchase the 99.5 mile right of way and physical railway assets of the Canadian Pacific Railway's Mattawamkeag Subdivision rail line within the state of Maine, running from its eastern terminus at the Canada–United States border, this being the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Atlantic (train)
The ''Atlantic'' (french: L'Atlantique) was a passenger train operated by Via Rail, serving both Canadian and U.S. territory between Montreal, Quebec and Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was previously operated by Canadian Pacific Railway as ''The Atlantic Limited'' between Montreal and Saint John, New Brunswick. It formed part of the transcontinental service for both systems. The ''Atlantic'' and its predecessor ''The Atlantic Limited'' (along with several other CPR local trains) was the only passenger rail service in the U.S. state of Maine from the late 1960s until discontinuance of operations in December 1994. (Maine is now served by Amtrak's '' Downeaster''.) The ''Atlantic'' also holds a unique spot in U.S. railroading history as it operated the last regular-service steam-heated passenger train in the United States until Via converted its trainsets to "head end power" in 1993. Since its cancellation, citizen's groups in southern New Brunswick and the Eastern Townships of Quebe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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VIA Rail
Via Rail Canada Inc. (), operating as Via Rail or Via, is a Canadian Crown corporation that is mandated to operate intercity passenger rail service in Canada. It receives an annual subsidy from Transport Canada to offset the cost of operating services connecting remote communities. Via Rail operates over 500 trains per week across eight Canadian provinces and of track, 97 per cent of which is owned and maintained by other railway companies, mostly by Canadian National Railway (CN). Via Rail carried approximately 4.39 million passengers in 2017, the majority along the ''Corridor'' routes connecting the major cities of the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor, and had an on-time performance of 73 per cent. History Background Yearly passenger levels on Canada's passenger trains peaked at 60 million during World War II. Following the war the growth of air travel and the personal automobile caused significant loss of mode share for Canada's passenger train operators. By the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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International Railway Of Maine
The International Railway of Maine was a historic railroad constructed by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) between Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, and Mattawamkeag, Maine, closing a key gap in the railway's transcontinental main line to the port of Saint John, New Brunswick. Winter alternative to Montreal The CPR completed its route from Montreal, Quebec, to Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1885. In the decades prior to the use of ice breaking ships in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and St. Lawrence River, the port of Montreal was closed from December to May, limiting any advantage that the railway might have over its competitors. CPR's primary Canadian competitor, the Grand Trunk Railway (GTR), managed to avoid the winter ice problems in Montreal by using the ice-free port of Portland, Maine, accessed by a route constructed by the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad which the GTR had purchased in the mid-1850s. The Delaware and Hudson Railway ran a feeder route down the valleys of Lake C ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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New Brunswick
New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and French as its official languages. New Brunswick is bordered by Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to the west. New Brunswick is about 83% forested and its northern half is occupied by the Appalachians. The province's climate is continental with snowy winters and temperate summers. New Brunswick has a surface area of and 775,610 inhabitants (2021 census). Atypically for Canada, only about half of the population lives in urban areas. New Brunswick's largest cities are Moncton and Saint John, while its capital is Fredericton. In 1969, New Brunswick passed the Official Languages Act which began recognizing French as an ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Saint John, New Brunswick
Saint John is a seaport city of the Atlantic Ocean located on the Bay of Fundy in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. Saint John is the oldest incorporated city in Canada, established by royal charter on May 18, 1785, during the reign of King George III. The port is Canada's third-largest port by tonnage with a cargo base that includes dry and liquid bulk, Breakbulk_cargo, break bulk, containers, and cruise. The city was the most populous in New Brunswick until the 2016 census, when it was overtaken by Moncton. It is currently the second-largest city in the province, with a population of 69,895 over an area of . French explorer Samuel de Champlain landed at Saint John Harbour on June 24, 1604 (the feast of St. John the Baptist) and is where the Saint John River (Bay of Fundy), Saint John River gets its name although Mi'kmaq and Maliseet, Wolastoqiyik peoples lived in the region for thousands of years prior calling the river Wolastoq. The Saint John area was an important area ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as ''Fort Ville-Marie, Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-peaked hill around which the early city of Ville-Marie is built. The city is centred on the Island of Montreal, which obtained its name from the same origin as the city, and a few much smaller peripheral islands, the largest of which is Île Bizard. The city is east of the national capital Ottawa, and southwest of the provincial capital, Quebec City. As of 2021, the city had a population of 1,762,949, and a Census Metropolitan Area#Census metropolitan areas, metropolitan population of 4,291,732, making it the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest city, and List of cen ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and northwest, respectively. The largest state by total area in New England, Maine is the 12th-smallest by area, the 9th-least populous, the 13th-least densely populated, and the most rural of the 50 U.S. states. It is also the northeasternmost among the contiguous United States, the northernmost state east of the Great Lakes, the only state whose name consists of a single syllable, and the only state to border exactly one other U.S. state. Approximately half the area of Maine lies on each side of the 45th parallel north in latitude. The most populous city in Maine is Portland, while its capital is Augusta. Maine has traditionally been known for its jagged, rocky Atlantic Ocean and bayshore coastlines; smoothly contoured mountains; heavily f ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Brownville Junction, Maine
Brownville Junction is a census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Brownville, Piscataquis County, Maine, United States. It is west-central part of the town, on the west side of the Pleasant River, a south-flowing tributary of the Piscataquis River and part of the Penobscot River watershed. Maine State Route 11 passes through the community, leading south to Brownville village and to Milo, and northeast to Millinocket. The community came into existence in 1889 when the Canadian Pacific Railway built the International Railway of Maine as part of its transcontinental railroad, connecting Montreal, Quebec, with Saint John, New Brunswick Saint John is a seaport city of the Atlantic Ocean located on the Bay of Fundy in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. Saint John is the oldest incorporated city in Canada, established by royal charter on May 18, 1785, during the reign of K .... The railway crossed the older Bangor and Katahdin Iron Works Railway at the location tha ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |