The development of steam-powered railways in the 19th century revolutionized

transportation in Canada and was integral to the very act of nation building.
Railways played an integral role in the process of industrialization, opening up new
markets and tying regions together, while at the same time creating a demand for
resources and technology. The construction of transcontinental railways such as the
Canadian Pacific Railway opened up settlement in the west, and played an
important role in the expansion of Confederation. However, railways had a divisive
effect as well, as the public alternately praised and criticized the involvement of
governments in railway construction and the extent of government subsidies to
railway companies.

Early Railways

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 by a winch driven by a steam engine, was used to hoist stone
during the building of the Québec Citadel. Another railway was used during the
building of the Rideau Canal to carry stone from the quarry at Hog's Back in
Ottawa.

The Railway Age

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), which began the railway age in England. By 1841 there were some 2,100
km of rail in the British Isles and by 1844 the frenetic promotion of railways aptly
called "The Mania" was under way. Many of the lasting characteristics of the
railway were established in this early stage: steam locomotion, the standard gauge
(1.435 m), and the rolled-edge rail (which bellied out on the underside for
strength).

Early Railways in British North America

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) was
an enormous country. Its roads were poor and its waterways were frozen for up to
five months per year.

The first true railway built in Canada was the Champlain and Saint Lawrence
Railroad from La Prairie on the St Lawrence River to St Johns on the Richelieu
River (Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu). Backed by John Molson and other Montréal
merchants, the line opened officially on 21 July 1836. Built as a "portage" between
Montréal and Lake Champlain, in practice the railway carried little freight.

On 19 September 1839, the first railway in the Maritimes opened; the Albion
Mines Railway was built to carry coal from Albion Mines some 9.5 km to the
loading pier at Dunbar Point (near Pictou, NS). The Montreal and Lachine
Railroad (1847) was another short (12 km) line built to supplement water
transportation.

Railway Mania

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 Montréal with a year-round
ocean outlet and Portland with access to a hinterland. Promotion of the railway set
a pattern often repeated later. In the initial enthusiasm, Montréalers subscribed
£100,000 but paid only 10 per cent of that amount. Galt raised another £53,000 in
England and mortgaged his land company to get the project moving.

But it was the Guarantee Act, 1849, sponsored in the Canadian legislature by Galt's
friend Francis Hincks, which ensured the railway's completion (1853). Under the
Act, railways that were longer than 75 miles (120 km) were eligible to receive a
government grant that guaranteed interest of up to 6 per cent on half its bonds once
half of the railway had been completed. While the Act established government
assistance for railway construction, it also inspired a railway building mania in
Canada, and led companies and governments to overextend themselves financially.

Another collaboration between Canadian and American interests lay behind the
Great Western Railway, which began construction in October 1849 and was
completed from Niagara Falls to Windsor, Canada West (Ontario), in January
1854. In this case Conservative politician and businessman Allan MacNab
arranged for partners in Canada and the United States, and persuaded the
legislature to proffer a loan of £200,000, profiting mightily himself.
The most ambitious pre-Confederation railway project in Canada was the Grand
Trunk Railway (GTR) — a bold attempt by Montréal to capture the hinterland of
Canada West and traffic from American states in the Great Lakes region. The GTR
aroused great anticipation, but Canadians had neither the money nor the
technicians to build it. The success of Hincks and other promoters in raising money
for the GTR and other railway projects was largely due to their determination and
the seemingly unbounded enthusiasm of British investors for railways.

By the time it was completed from Sarnia to Montréal in 1860, the GTR was
£800,000 in debt to the British banks of Baring Bros and Glyn Mills. Edward
Watkin, sent out by head office to reorganize the railway, declared the GTR "an
organized mess — I might say a sink of iniquity." The GTR relied on government
assistance in order to continue operations, and in 1862 the Grand Trunk
Arrangements Act provided yet more resources to the railway company. The
public, which had earlier been enthusiastic about the GTR’s potential, viewed such
handouts with contempt and hostility.

Economic and Industrial Impact

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, railways extended into new territories and pushed the
agricultural and timber frontiers westward and northward.

The effect of railways on emerging urban centres was crucial and dramatic.
Toronto's dominant position in south-central Ontario was clearly established by its
rail connections. It benefited from its connections with the Great Western and its
central place on the GTR, neither of which it had done much to help build. It also
tapped the northern hinterland via the Ontario, Simcoe and Huron Railway
(completed to Collingwood, on Georgian Bay, in 1855, with a branch line to Belle
Ewart on the south shore of Lake Simcoe), the Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway
(completed to Owen Sound, on Georgian Bay, in 1873), and the Toronto and
Nipissing Railway (extended to Lake Simcoe in 1877). Toronto was also home to
the first locomotive built in Canada; the Toronto No. 2 of the Ontario, Simcoe and
Huron line was built by James Good of Toronto in 1853.

While railways were also constructed in sparsely populated and nonindustrial areas
such as Newfoundland, they were not as profitable and tended to diminish in size
and importance over time. The development of a Newfoundland Railway system is
a case in point. In 1919, the Grand Trunk Railway was earning $16,000 per mile
while the Newfoundland system was earning $1,500.

The railways played an integral role in the process of industrialization, tying

together and opening up new markets while, at the same time creating a demand
for fuel, iron and steel, locomotives, and rolling stock. The pioneer wood-burning
locomotives required great amounts of fuel, and "wooding-up" stations were
required at regular intervals along the line.

Entrepreneurs invested in the manufacture of almost everything that went into the
operation of the railway, and consequently railways had a positive effect on levels
of employment. Some small towns became railway service and maintenance
centres, with the bulk of the population dependent on the railway shops; for
example, the Cobourg Car Works employed 300 workers in 1881. The railway also
had a decisive impact on the physical characteristics of Canadian cities: hotels and
industries were built around tracks, yards, and stations, making the railway a
central feature of the urban landscape.

The railway greatly stimulated engineering, particularly with the demand for
bridges and tunnels. Canadians contributed a few inventions, notably the first
successful braking system (W.A. Robinson, 1868) and the rotary snowplough
(J.W. Elliott, 1869; developed further by O. Jull), which made possible safe,
regular travel in Canadian winters. The great Canadian railway engineer Sir
Sandford Fleming devised his famous zone system of time to overcome the
confusion of clocks varying from community to community along the rail routes.

The Transcontinentals

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 written into the Constitution Act, 1867. Because of the
grand scale of the new nation, and the fact that political considerations often
overrode economic realities (e.g., in the circuitous routes the Intercolonial and
other railways took to avoid American territory), government assistance was
crucial in building the transcontinental railways.

The Intercolonial was owned and operated by the federal government and was
largely financed with British loans backed by imperial guarantees. Despite the
badgering of commissioners determined to make political advantage, Fleming built
the Intercolonial to the highest standards and completed it by 1876.

The Canadian Pacific Railway

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 to Sir Hugh Allan in return for financial
support for the Conservatives during the closely contested 1872 election. The
subsequent revelation that Allan was largely backed by American promoters, and
that he had sunk $350,000 into the Conservative campaign, brought down the
government (see Pacific Scandal).

On 21 October 1880, the government finally signed a contract with the Canadian
Pacific Railway (CPR) Company, headed by George Stephen, and construction
began in 1881. The "Last Spike" was driven on 7 November 1885 and the first
passenger train left Montréal in June 1886, arriving in Port Moody, BC, on 4 July.
Completion of the railway was one of the great engineering feats of the day and
owed much to the indefatigable supervision of William Van Horne and the
determination of Sir John A. Macdonald. While Macdonald’s government was
criticized for the generous terms offered to the company, it considered the railway
crucial to the nation.

Though ostensibly a private enterprise, the CPR was generously endowed by the
federal government with cash ($25 million), land grants (25 million acres), tax
concessions, rights-of-way, and a 20-year prohibition on the construction of
competing lines on the prairies that might provide feeder lines to US railways.
Whether or not the country received adequate compensation for this largesse has
been hotly debated ever since. However, the CPR was built in advance of a market
and by a very expensive route through the Canadian Shield of Northern Ontario.
Macdonald's controversial decision in favour of an expensive all-Canadian route
seemed to be vindicated during the North-West Rebellion; how would the
American government have reacted to Canadian troops moving across American
territory? The CPR also had a profound effect on the settlement of the Prairie
West, and new cities, from Winnipeg to Vancouver, were heavily dependent on the
railway. Other western towns were strung out along the railway like beads on a
string.
The Canadian Northern Railway

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 Canadian Northern grew by leasing
and absorbing other lines; it also constructed new links to Regina, Saskatoon,
Prince Albert, and Edmonton, and pushed on through the Yellowhead Pass. It was
linked to the East, with its main eastern terminus at Montréal, and also operated
mileage in eastern Québec and the Maritimes.

Though sometimes portrayed as rapacious promoters, Mackenzie and Mann built

their railway to serve western needs that were not being met by the CPR, and they
invested most of their own fortunes in the enterprise. Nevertheless, the railway
received public assistance of $250 million, most of it in the form of provincial and
federal bond guarantees.

A Third Transcontinental Railway

Meanwhile, Prime Minister 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 government itself decided to build a line from
Winnipeg to Moncton (the National Transcontinental Railway or NTR) and to
lease it to the GTR on completion. The NTR was built through the empty expanse
of northern Québec and Ontario in hopes of encouraging development there; begun
in 1905, it was completed in 1913 at a cost of $160 million. The GTR's subsidiary,
the Grand Trunk Pacific (GTP), constructed the more profitable line westward
from Winnipeg. The GTP began construction in 1906 and was completed in 1914
through the Yellowhead Pass and along the spectacular Skeena River valley to
Prince Rupert, BC.

Nationalization

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. The First World War
delivered the knockout blow, ending immigration and stifling the flow of British
capital. In confusion and frustration Prime Minister Robert Borden called a royal
commission, headed by Sir Henry Drayton and British financier W.M. Acworth,
which in May 1917 recommended the nationalization of all railways except the
CPR. By the 1920s, the Canadian Northern, Intercolonial, Grand Trunk Railway,
and Grand Trunk Pacific were brought together to form the Canadian National
Railways (CNR).

The North

The period after the formation of the CNR was essentially one of consolidation,
although several lines were pushed into northern frontiers. The Hudson Bay
Railway, beginning at a line built by Mackenzie and Mann to The Pas, MB, in
1906, was finally opened to traffic in 1929. The Pacific Great Eastern began
pushing slowly into the interior of BC in 1912. It was completed from Squamish to
Quesnel by 1921, and finally reached Prince George and Dawson Creek in the
1950s. Northern Alberta Railways (owned jointly by CNR and CPR) ran lines from
Edmonton North to Grande Prairie and to Dawson Creek by 1931.

Perhaps the most successful of these ventures was the Ontario Northland Railway,
which reached James Bay in 1932. Owned by the Ontario government, the railway
led directly to a mining boom in the Timmins-Porcupine area as well as to the
emergence of the giant pulp and paper industry. The Quebec, North Shore and
Labrador Railway, completed in 1954, provided access to the massive iron-ore
deposits of interior Québec and Labrador. The Great Slave Lake Railway was
opened in 1964 between Roma, Alberta, and Hay River, NT.

Challenges

More recently, railways have faced challenges from other modes of transportation.
This has prompted significant changes at both the Canadian National Railway and
the Canadian Pacific Railway, including the privatization of CN in 1995 and the
streamlining of operations at CP. Both railways are important carriers of bulk
commodities in North America, particularly coal and grain. Many finished goods
are also transported by rail, using railway containers that can easily be transferred
between train, ship, and truck. Due to the relatively low cost of rail transport, rail is
a cost-effective option for the long-distance transport of Canadian and American
goods to market.

However, passenger travel has declined significantly. In order to compensate

railways for the loss of passenger fares, the Canadian government offered direct
subsidies to the railways from 1967 to 1977. This ended with the creation of VIA
Rail in 1977, which became a Crown Corporation in 1978. VIA is responsible for
most intercity passenger operations, but contracts out to CN and CP for the
maintenance and operation of trains. In the 2000s, financial pressures led to the
reduction of intercity service, although VIA still operates many passenger trains in
the Québec–Windsor corridor.

Legacy

Did the railways achieve the ends expected of them? Did they repay the large
infusions of public money? A final accounting can likely never be done,
particularly in terms of judging the satisfaction of nationalistic and long-term
economic goals. Regulation of the railways (now the responsibility of the Canadian
Transportation Agency) and freight-rate agreements (notably the Crow Nest Pass
Agreement) have been highly controversial, and very different views have been
taken by western farmers and the railway companies on these issues (see
Transportation Regulation).

At the same time, the railwaymen — from Fleming and Van Horne to Allan,
Mann, Mackenzie, Stephen and Lord Shaughnessy— have been among the most
prominent figures in Canadian history, evoking by turns admiration for their
outstanding engineering feats and contempt for their perceived bleeding of the
public purse. The building of the transcontinentals perhaps provided for Canada
the closest approximation of a heroic age.