The Canadian National Electric Railways (CNER) was a

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...

of the

Canadian National Railways The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I railroad, Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern United States, M ...

created to operate a few electric lines. It was formed in November 1923, with

headquarters Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the to ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Acquired lines

The CNER inherited the following lines or systems from the

Canadian Northern Railway The Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway. At its 1923 merger into the Canadian National Railway , the CNoR owned a main line between Quebec City and Vancouver via Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Edmonton. Mani ...

and unified them under one management: * Niagara, St. Catharines and Toronto Railway - an interurban system operating on the

Niagara Peninsula The Niagara Peninsula is an area of land lying between the southwestern shore of Lake Ontario and the northeastern shore of Lake Erie, in Ontario, Canada. Technically an isthmus rather than a peninsula, it stretches from the Niagara River in the ...

Toronto Suburban Railway The Toronto Suburban Railway was a Canadian electric railway operator with local routes in west Toronto, and a radial (interurban) route to Guelph. History Corporate Timeline The Weston, High Park and Toronto Street Railway Company was incor ...

Guelph Guelph ( ; 2021 Canadian Census population 143,740) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as "The Royal City", Guelph is roughly east of Kitchener and west of Downtown Toronto, at the intersection of Highway 6, Highway 7 and Wel ...

and

Woodbridge Woodbridge may refer to: Places Australia *Woodbridge, Western Australia formerly called ''West Midland'' *Woodbridge, Tasmania Canada *Woodbridge, Ontario England *Woodbridge, Suffolk, the location of ** Woodbridge (UK Parliament constituency ...

lines only *

Toronto Eastern Railway The Toronto Eastern Railway, or Toronto and Eastern Railway, is a noted "ghost railroad" in southern Ontario, Canada. It was part of William Mackenzie's ambitious plan to provide high-speed electric "interurban" service throughout the district ...

- a line never completed

Associated lines

The CNER was closely associated with three railways which Canadian National Railways inherited from the

Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (; french: Grand Tronc) was a railway system that operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The rai ...

. These railways never became a corporate part of the CNER: * Oshawa Railway - a passenger and freight operation in

Oshawa Oshawa ( , also ; 2021 population 175,383; CMA 415,311) is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario, approximately east of Downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of the G ...

, Ontario *

Thousand Islands Railway The Thousand Islands Railway (originally Gananoque & Rideau Railway) was an long railway running from the town of Gananoque north to the Grand Trunk Railway (now CN) Toronto-Montreal mainline, just south of present-day Cheeseborough. The service ...

- a shortline in

Gananoque Gananoque ( ) is a town in the Leeds and Grenville United Counties, Leeds and Grenville area of Ontario, Canada. The town had a population of 5,383 year-round residents in the 2021 Canadian census, 2021 Canadian Census, as well as summer resident ...

, Ontario - never electrified *

Montreal and Southern Counties Railway The Montreal and Southern Counties Railway Company (often abbreviated M&SCRC or M&SC) was an electric interurban streetcar line that served communities between Montreal and Granby from 1909 until 1956. A second branch served the city of Longueu ...

- an interurban between

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 ...

and

Granby, Quebec Granby is a town in southwestern Quebec, located east of Montreal. The population as of the Canada 2021 Census was 69,025. Granby is the seat of La Haute-Yamaska Regional County Municipality. It is the second most populated city in Estrie after ...

with a branch to

Longueuil Longueuil () is a city in the province of Quebec, Canada. It is the seat of the Montérégie administrative region and the central city of the urban agglomeration of Longueuil. It sits on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River directly acr ...

Radial network

With the creation of the CNER, CNR president Henry Thornton was enthusiastic to develop Canadian National's own network of electric railways. This followed setbacks that

Adam Beck Sir Adam Beck (June 20, 1857 – August 15, 1925) was a Canadian politician and hydroelectricity advocate who founded the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario. Biography Beck was born in Baden, Upper Canada (now Ontario) to German i ...

had in promoting an

Ontario Hydro Ontario Hydro, established in 1906 as the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, was a publicly owned electricity utility in the Province of Ontario. It was formed to build transmission lines to supply municipal utilities with electricity ge ...

radial network with its subsidiary the

Hydro-Electric Railways Hydro-Electric Railways, a subsidiary of the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario (HEPC or HEPCO), was an operator of radial railways in the province of Ontario, Canada. Its parent agency, the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, would ...

. Thornton planned to link the unfinished

to the

's Guelph line via the

Toronto Belt Line Railway The Toronto Belt Line Railway was built during the 1890s in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It consisted of two commuter railway lines to promote and service new suburban neighbourhoods outside of the then city limits. Both lines were laid as loops. Th ...

running through northern Toronto. There was also another plan to extend the Guelph line from its "temporary" terminal at Keele Street and St. Clair Avenue to downtown via the nearby CNR line. The CNER's Toronto Suburban district never turned a profit, and its abandonment in 1931 was the result of huge deficits from that line.

References

External links

* {{url, http://www.trainweb.org/elso/cnel.htm, Canadian National Electric Railways on Trainweb.org Canadian National Electric Railways Canadian National Railway subsidiaries Railway companies established in 1923 Interurban railways in Ontario Electric railways in Canada

Acquired lines

Associated lines

Radial network

See also

References

External links