The
Canadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States.
CN i ...
's Beachburg Subdivision or "Beachburg Sub" for short, was part of the former Transcontinental Mainline. The Beachburg Sub connected
Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
to
Brent, Ontario
Brent is a community on Cedar Lake (Nipissing District), Cedar Lake on the Petawawa River in northern Algonquin Provincial Park, and is located in Township (Canada)#Ontario, geographic Deacon Township in the Unorganized South Nipissing District, u ...
.
The line began operating in 1915 as part of
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 ...
, then in 1923 it became part of the Canadian National Railway. The route passed through a portion of
Algonquin Provincial Park
Algonquin Provincial Park is a provincial park located between Georgian Bay and the Ottawa River in Ontario, Canada, mostly within the Unorganized South Part of Nipissing District. Established in 1893, it is the oldest provincial park in Cana ...
in Ontario, where
Achray was a station in the park with a passing track on the mainline. The final train through the park was an eastbound freight on November 24, 1995. Abandonment from
Pembroke, west to Brent, went through and the rail was lifted at Pembroke west through the park and was completed by September 1997. The remaining line went from Ottawa MP 0.0 to Pembroke MP 88.7
Ottawa Central Railway
The Ottawa Central Railway was a Canadian short-line railroad subsidiary of the Canadian National Railway. The headquarters were at the Walkley Yard, 3141 Albion Road South, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
The OCRR was a wholly owned subsidiary of the ...
began operating in 1998 to 2008 as a short-line maintaining local traffic to industries along remaining line out of Walkley Yard in Ottawa. November 3, 2008 CN bought the short line and began running the local traffic and with the intention to discontinue the line from Nepean Junction to Pembroke. Traffic slowed as industry along the line closed or ramped down production. A group called Transport Pontiac-Renfrew (TPR) was working towards a deal to acquire the Beachburg sub for future passenger service to Ottawa and Pembroke and freight service. Without a deal made, in April 2013 CN began removing rail in Pembroke and working east.
A short section of the line between the
Ottawa Railway Station and the junction with the Smith Falls Subdivision (after crossing the
Canadian Northern Ontario Railway Federal Bridge
The Canadian Northern Ontario Railway Bridge is a railway plate girder bridge over the Rideau River from the Merivale area to the Mooney's Bay neighbourhood in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is owned today by the CNoR's successor Canadian Nation ...
) is currently owned and operated by
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 ...
, which operates its ''
Corridor
Corridor or The Corridor may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Films
* ''The Corridor'' (1968 film), a 1968 Swedish drama film
* ''The Corridor'' (1995 film), a 1995 Lithuanian drama film
* ''The Corridor'' (2010 film), a 2010 Canadia ...
'' service between Ottawa and
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 ...
.
In 2019, the City of Ottawa announced its intention to acquire a portion of the Beachburg Subdivision
right of way
Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another.
A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...
for possible eventual use as a belt line in the city's growing
O-Train
The O-Train is a light metro transit system in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, operated by OC Transpo. The O-Train system has two lines, the electrically-operated Confederation Line (Line 1) and the diesel-operated Trillium Line (Line 2). Since May 20 ...
light rail transit system. In 2021, Ottawa City Council approved the purchase of the abandoned section of the Beachburg Subdivision between Nepean Junction and the Ottawa River.
References
*Canadian Trackside Guide 2009, Bytown Railway Society, Inc
Further reading
* Various reminiscences of Canadian National operations on the line.
*
External links
Sunset on the Algonquin Route
{{Rail Subdivisions in Ontario, state=expanded
Beachburg Subdivision