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Passenger train services which were not included in the creation of Via Rail included those offered by BC Rail, Algoma Central Railway, Ontario Northland Railway, Quebec North Shore & Labrador Railway, various urban commuter train services operated by CN and CP, and remaining CN passenger services in Newfoundland. At this time, Via did not own any trackage and had to pay right-of-way fees to ...
Both railways pressured the government in discontinuing their passenger service, Pierre-Elliot Trudeau's government creates VIA Rail Canada on January 12, 1977, which would rely on CN's and CP's assets to function at first, using a mixed fleet of rail cars and locomotives.
- Early Railways
- The Railway Age
- Early Railways in British North America
- Railway Mania
- Economic and Industrial Impact
- The Transcontinentals
- The Canadian Pacific Railway
- The Canadian Northern Railway
- A Third Transcontinental Railway
- Nationalization
In the early 17th century, mining railways were introduced to England; powered by horses, these early railways carried ore and coal from pitheads to water. In Canada, a primitive railway of this type may have been used as early as the 1720s to haul quarried stone at the fortress of Louisbourg. In the 1820s, an incline railway of cable cars, powered...
Steam locomotion, together with the low rolling friction of iron-flanged wheels on iron rails, enabled George Stephenson (the first of the great railway engineers) to design and superintend the building of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (1830). This began the railway age in England. By 1841, there were some 2,100 km of rail in the British Isl...
Railway fever came a little later to British North America; the colony had a small population and much of its capital was tied up in the expansion of its canals and inland waterways. Nevertheless, it did not take long for politicians and entrepreneurs to realize the potential benefits. The Province of Canada (1841–1867) was an enormous country. Its...
More ambitious was the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad, promoted initially by John A. Poor of Portland, Maine, and Canadian entrepreneur Alexander Tilloch Galt. The dual purpose of the line was to provide Montreal with a year-round ocean outlet and Portland with access to a hinterland. Promotion of the railway set a pattern often repeated later....
The financial difficulties experienced by all early railways forced massive public expenditures in the form of cash grants, guaranteed interest, land grants, rebates, and rights-of-way. In return, the railways contributed to general economic developments, and the indirect benefits for business and employment were significant. Unlike canals, railway...
The second phase of railway building in Canada came with Confederation in 1867. As historian George Stanley wrote in The Canadians, “Bonds of steel as well as of sentiment were needed to hold the new Confederation together. Without railways there would be and could be no Canada.” In fact, the building of the Intercolonial Railway was a condition wr...
In 1871, British Columbia was lured into Confederation with the promise of a transcontinental railway within 10 years. The proposed line — 1,600 km longer than the first US transcontinental — represented an enormous expenditure for a nation of only three and a half million people. Two syndicates vied for the contract, and it was secretly promised t...
The flood of immigrants to the Prairie West after 1900 and the dramatic increase in agriculture soon proved the CPR inadequate, and a third phase of railway expansion began. Numerous branches sprouted in the West, of which the most notable was the Canadian Northern Railway, owned by the two bold entrepreneurs Donald Mann and William Mackenzie. The ...
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier enthusiastically encouraged the development of a third transcontinental railway by the Grand Trunk company, now led by Charles M. Hays. Although it would have made sense for the GTR to co-operate with the Canadian Northern company, mutual jealousies made such co-operation difficult. Therefore, the federal g...
The ill-planned proliferation of railways proved disastrous. Rumours of outrageous patronage in the building of the NTR were later confirmed. The Canadian Northern and GTP were constantly begging aid from the public purse. TheFirst World War delivered the knockout blow, ending immigration and stifling the flow of British capital. In confusion and f...
In the mid-1970s, the Canadian government chose a solution that mirrored Amtrak, and VIA Rail Canada evolved. First, CN's services came under the VIA banner. Then, with the change from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time in the fall of 1976, a joint VIA timetable included both CN and CP trains.
Feb 11, 2024 · “VIA got it at a bargain price because it was all built — and some of the cars were partially built and not completed — intended for the overnight service that was going to run through the English Channel tunnel, and that just never happened,” Hayman says.
With Canadian National and Canadian Pacific gradually cutting down their passenger service since the 1960's, the federal government decided to create VIA Rail along the lines of Amtrak, founded by the American government six years earlier.
1977-1987. A decade of firsts! VIA Rail introduces Canadian rail passengers to the first Super Continental train, First-class service, the first LRC train, as well as the first Canada-US Amtrak train.
