: ''This article is part of the

history of rail transport by country The history of rail transport began in the BCE times. It can be divided into several discrete periods defined by the principal means of track material and motive power used. Ancient systems The Post Track, a prehistoric causeway in the va ...

series.'' The history of

rail transport in Canada Canada has a large and well-developed railway system that primarily transports freight. There are two major publicly traded transcontinental freight railway systems, Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific (CP). Nationwide passenger service ...

began in the early 19th century. The Canadian railway system saw several expansion "booms" throughout history, as well as a major change from

broad Broad(s) or The Broad(s) may refer to: People * A slang term for a woman. * Broad (surname), a surname Places * Broad Peak, on the border between Pakistan and China, the 12th highest mountain on Earth * The Broads, a network of mostly na ...

to standard gauge which occurred in the 1870s. An initially disconnected system was gradually integrated with the American railway network, as Canadian and American railway companies built lines and bought smaller companies in each other's country. The

Intercolonial Railway The Intercolonial Railway of Canada , also referred to as the Intercolonial Railway (ICR), was a historic Canadian railway that operated from 1872 to 1918, when it became part of Canadian National Railways. As the railway was also completely o ...

, a product of

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 Dominion ...

, was Canada's first major experiment in railway nationalization, and following Confederation, several

transcontinental railway A transcontinental railroad or transcontinental railway is contiguous railroad trackage, that crosses a continental land mass and has terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single ...

s were built. Many Canadian railways were gradually brought together under large conglomerates, but by the end of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the sudden and decisive financial collapse of these conglomerates created a deep threat to Canadian infrastructure and economy, leading to their nationalization under the Dominion government. This nationalization and consolidation process produced the Canadian National Railways (CNR), which was owned by the Canadian federal government until 1995. The Great Depression led to a decline in rail traffic, and the sudden reversal of this during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

left railways with overtaxed, aging, and poorly-maintained infrastructure. Toward the end of the 1950s, railways began to transition toward diesel trains. Ridership on passenger trains declined postwar, leading to railways to pursue their abandonment. Nationally, most passenger services were transferred to a new crown agency,

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 ...

Early tramways

Canada coalesced into a state following millennia of

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

habitation, as well as centuries of habitation by European settlers. Different parts of the country were settled at different times, with their transport systems laid out in reflection of the era. Early transport patterns of indigenous peoples and

voyageurs The voyageurs (; ) were 18th and 19th century French Canadians who engaged in the transporting of furs via canoe during the peak of the North American fur trade. The emblematic meaning of the term applies to places (New France, including th ...

followed large natural

waterway A waterway is any navigable body of water. Broad distinctions are useful to avoid ambiguity, and disambiguation will be of varying importance depending on the nuance of the equivalent word in other languages. A first distinction is necessary b ...

s such as the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lak ...

waterway system, the

Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connectin ...

, and the Ottawa River. This was suitable for the fur trade, which involved the transport of light, high-value commodities by boat early in its history. The earliest recognizably railway-like system in recorded Canadian history was an

industrial tramway Tramways are lightly laid railways, sometimes with the wagons or carriages moved without locomotives. Because individual tramway infrastructure is not intended to carry the weight of typical standard-gauge railway equipment, the tramways over w ...

on Cape Breton Island, which is said to have been built around 1720. The existence of a tramway, as opposed to simply a road, is poorly attested in written and archaeological records, but was present in local oral history in the early 20th century. This tramway has been cited in various sources as an example of a pre-steam railway in North America, despite a lack of evidence confirming its existence. Remaining physical evidence has led to the belief that it was used for transporting

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

to the

Fortress of Louisbourg The Fortress of Louisbourg (french: Forteresse de Louisbourg) is a National Historic Site and the location of a one-quarter partial reconstruction of an 18th-century French fortress at Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Its two siege ...

from mines on the island, during a period when the island was under French control. There is also some speculation that it was used in the construction of the fortress. Several other tramway systems were constructed before the 1830s. The first was a combined

wagonway Wagonways (also spelt Waggonways), also known as horse-drawn railways and horse-drawn railroad consisted of the horses, equipment and tracks used for hauling wagons, which preceded steam-powered railways. The terms plateway, tramway, dramway ...

and incline tramway near

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Fall ...

along what is now the American side of the Canada–United States border. It was built by the British in 1762 near the end of the

French and Indian War The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...

. The challenging geography of the Niagara Peninsula meant that until the later construction of canals, there was no navigable water route between

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border ...

and

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also h ...

, so transport between the two required the use of a portage. The French had long sought to take control of the portage trail from the

Seneca Seneca may refer to: People and language * Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname * Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America ** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people Places Extrat ...

, who had taken control of it from the

Neutral Nation The Neutral Confederacy (also Neutral Nation, Neutral people, or ''Attawandaron'' by neighbouring tribes) were an Iroquoian people who lived in what is now southwestern and south-central Ontario in Canada, North America. They lived throughout ...

in the mid-17th century, amidst the Beaver Wars. The French tried to control this key point with repeated military expeditions and fortifications throughout the 17th and early 18th centuries, including Fort Conti in 1679,

Fort Denonville Fort Denonville was a French fort built in 1688 at the current site of Fort Niagara. It replaced Fort Conti which had been built on the site in 1679 and had burned later that year. The fort was located at the mouth of the Niagara River on Lake ...

in 1687, and

Fort Niagara Fort Niagara is a fortification originally built by New France to protect its interests in North America, specifically control of access between the Niagara River and Lake Ontario, the easternmost of the Great Lakes. The fort is on the river's e ...

in 1726. The British gained control of the portage by the 1760s, but their efforts to replace the system of Seneca

porters Porters may refer to: * Porters, Virginia, an unincorporated community in Virginia, United States * Porters, Wisconsin, an unincorporated community in Wisconsin, United States * Porters Ski Area, a ski resort in New Zealand * ''Porters'' (TV ser ...

with a tramway met with resistance from the Seneca. The situation erupted in violence with the

Battle of Devil's Hole The Battle of Devil's Hole, also known as the Devil's Hole Massacre, was fought near Niagara Gorge in present-day New York state on September 14, 1763, between a detachment of the British 80th Regiment of Light Armed Foot and about 300 Seneca w ...

, a part of

Pontiac's War Pontiac's War (also known as Pontiac's Conspiracy or Pontiac's Rebellion) was launched in 1763 by a loose confederation of Native Americans dissatisfied with British rule in the Great Lakes region following the French and Indian War (1754–176 ...

. A warband of several hundred Seneca ambushed a British wagon train, massacring many of the

teamster A teamster is the American term for a truck driver or a person who drives teams of draft animals. Further, the term often refers to a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a labor union in the United States and Canada. Origi ...

s and their soldier escorts. The British ultimately retained control of the portage and continued to use and maintain its tramway until their surrender of the land to the United States following the

Treaty of Paris Treaty of Paris may refer to one of many treaties signed in Paris, France: Treaties 1200s and 1300s * Treaty of Paris (1229), which ended the Albigensian Crusade * Treaty of Paris (1259), between Henry III of England and Louis IX of France * Trea ...

in 1783. Another recorded incline tramway system was in

Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the metropolitan area had a population of 839,311. It is t ...

and was constructed in the 1820s, possibly as early as 1823. It marked several firsts in Canada: it was the first known

double-track railway A double-track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single-track railway where trains in both directions share the same track. Overview In the earliest days of railways in the United Kingdom, most li ...

, the first steam-powered railway, and the first railway system known to have carried passengers regularly. It was built on

Cap Diamant Cap Diamant (English: Cape Diamond) is a cape on an edge of the Promontory of Quebec and on which Quebec City is located, formed by the confluence of a bend in the St. Lawrence River to the south and east, and the much smaller Saint-Charles River ...

to haul stone and other construction materials for the

Citadelle of Quebec The Citadelle of Quebec (french: Citadelle de Québec), also known as ''La Citadelle'', is an active military installation and the secondary official residence of both the Canadian monarch and the governor general of Canada. It is located atop C ...

up from a

wharf A wharf, quay (, also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths (mooring locatio ...

below. The tramway was powered by a stationary steam engine and was a permanent structure that operated until the late 1840s, when it was shut down due to its inconvenient location. Throughout the construction of the citadel, the general public was allowed to ride it as passengers, making it technically one of the earliest railways in Canada to carry passengers. A similar system, the

Old Quebec Funicular The Old Quebec Funicular (french: Funiculaire du Vieux-Québec) is a funicular railway in the Old Quebec neighbourhood of Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. It links the Haute-Ville (Upper Town) at Dufferin Terrace to the Basse-Ville (Lower Town) at R ...

, was later built in 1879 in a different location in the city.

First railway boom

The first Canadian railway, the

Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad The Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad (C&SL) was a historic railway in Lower Canada, the first Canadian public railway and one of the first railways built in British North America. Origin The C&SL was financed by Montreal entrepreneur and br ...

, was opened in 1836 outside of

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

, a seasonal portage railway to connect river traffic. It was followed by the Albion Railway in Stellarton, Nova Scotia in 1840, a collier railway connecting coal mines to a seaport. Heavy expansion of the rail system did not get under way until the '' Railway Guarantee Act'' of 1849 that guaranteed bond returns on all railways over 75 miles. This led to rapid expansion of railway in the Canadas, sometimes excessive growth as uneconomic lines were built since the government guaranteed profits. However, this proved disastrous for government finances, and the Canadas were all but bankrupted by the subsidies. The largest rail project of this period was also a disaster. 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 rail ...

linking Montreal to

Sarnia Sarnia is a city in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada. It had a Canada 2021 Census, 2021 population of 72,047, and is the largest city on Lake Huron. Sarnia is located on the eastern bank of the junction between the Upper and Lower Great Lakes w ...

was finished in 1860, but was vastly mired in debt. In exchange for bailing out the company the government escaped its guarantee on the railway bonds.

Transcontinental expansion

was in part brought about by the railways. The local governments had all but emptied their treasuries building railways, and a new and more stable method of financing them was required. It was also believed that union would allow for the needed construction of railroads linking

British North America British North America comprised the colonial territories of the British Empire in North America from 1783 onwards. English colonisation of North America began in the 16th century in Newfoundland, then further south at Roanoke and Jamestow ...

. The Maritimes joined largely because of promises to build the

, and

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

only because of a promise to build a transcontinental railroad. The government had learnt its lesson and these railways were not funded by guarantees. Rather, the construction of the Intercolonial was fully controlled by the government under the direction of

Sandford Fleming Sir Sandford Fleming (January 7, 1827 – July 22, 1915) was a Scottish Canadian engineer and inventor. Born and raised in Scotland, he emigrated to colonial Canada at the age of 18. He promoted worldwide standard time zones, a prime meridian, ...

. The railway to the Pacific, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), was financed by private funds and through massive land grants in the

Canadian prairies The Canadian Prairies (usually referred to as simply the Prairies in Canada) is a region in Western Canada. It includes the Canadian portion of the Great Plains and the Prairie Provinces, namely Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. These provin ...

, much of it of little value until the railway arrived, $25 million in cash and a guaranteed monopoly. The railway, then the longest in the world, was completed in 1885 to great fanfare. The booming Canadian economy after 1900 led to plans to build two new transcontinental railways. The Canadian Northern, a successful system covering the northern part of the prairies, and the Grand Trunk (through its Grand Trunk Pacific subsidiary) both launched ambitious plans to expand. The government at first encouraged the two to come to some arrangement and only have one new line, but in the end no agreement was made and the government supported the expansion of both lines. The federal government itself built the National Transcontinental Railway, a line from Moncton to

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...

, passing through the vast and uninhabited hinterland of the Canadian Shield.

Nationalization effort

This aggressive expansion proved disastrous when immigration and supplies of capital all but disappeared with the outbreak of the

. The

Canadian Northern 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. Ma ...

Grand Trunk Pacific The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway running from Fort William, Ontario (now Thunder Bay) to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, a Pacific coast port. East of Winnipeg the line continued as the National Tra ...

, and Grand Trunk were nationalized by the federal government, which absorbed the debt of over two billion dollars. All three railways, along with the

Canadian Government Railways Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

(formed by the Intercolonial, National Transcontinental, and several smaller lines) were then merged into the Canadian National Railways in 1923. The years after the First World War saw only moderate expansion of the rail network and the age of the great railways were over in Canada. The automobile provided strong competition by the 1920s, and after the

most passenger service was lost to

airlines An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in whic ...

. The Canadian National Railways was one of the earliest diesel train operators in North America. The CNR experimented with self-propelled "oil-electric" cars starting in 1924. Diesels slowly became more prominent as yard switchers in the following decades. A prominent debut of diesel railway locomotion in Canada was in 1929, when CN No. 9000, built by the

Canadian Locomotive Company The Canadian Locomotive Company, commonly referred to as CLC, was a Canadian manufacturer of railway locomotives located in Kingston, Ontario. Its works were located on the south side of Ontario Street between William and Gore streets on Kingston ...

using diesel engines imported from Britain, was used on the ''

International Limited International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

'', the flagship train of the former Grand Trunk Railway.

Postwar period

The ''National Transportation Act'' of 1967 was an attempt at comprehensive transportation reform. It provided government subsidies for branch lines and passenger services, which at the time were still operated primarily by Canadian National and Canadian Pacific. In 1978, Canadian National passenger services were transferred to a new federal agency,

. CN was privatized in November 1995.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

Exploring the Newfoundland Railway: Virtual Museum of Canada Exhibit
{{DEFAULTSORT:History of Rail Transport in Canada