History of railways in Canada: Difference between revisions

From Citizendium
Jump to navigation Jump to search
imported>Richard Jensen
(add bibl)
mNo edit summary
 
(11 intermediate revisions by 3 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
[[Canada]] has a large and well developed [[railway]] system that today primarily transports freight.  
{{subpages}}{{TOC|right}}
==System in 21st century==
[[Canada]] developed a transcontinental [[railway]] system that today primarily transports freight.  Canada used standard gauge for most of its trackage.  Some isolated lines in used in extraction industries (mining and timber) used narrow gauge.  Broad gauge was used for some streetcar and subway lines, especially in Toronto.
There are two major privately owned transcontinental freight railway systems, the [[Canadian National Railway|Canadian National]] and [[Canadian Pacific Railway]]. Nation-wide passenger services are provided by the federal crown corporation [[VIA Rail]]. Commuter trains serve Montréal, Toronto and Vancouver. Smaller railways such as Ontario Northland and Algoma Central also run passenger trains to remote rural areas.
 
==Philosophy of Railroading in Canada==
Andrew Albert den Otter (1997) noted that, like most western civilizations following the [[Enlightenment]], Canadians believed that technologies were a symbol of their economic and moral progress.  As such, expanding technologies, such as railroads, into the "wilderness" was part of their "civilizing mission."   
 
Canadian entrepreneurs sought to exploit, or at least participate in, the growing U.S. market to its south.  The adoption of U.S. railway standards allowed Canadians to avoid some aspects of British financial and military control.  But at the same time, because they continued their political relationship with Great Britain, they continued some of Britain's elite social and political institutions.  This unique blend of British and American institutions and philosophies led Canadians to think about their own uniquely Canadian railway system.
 
With U.S. connections and British money, and entrepot rivalies among Montreal, Halifax, and Saint John led Canada to build more mileage per capita than any other industrializing nation.  This was more than building ahead of demand, as Canada had neither the population, markets, nor the capital to support the large network it was building.  This competition drove companies to bankruptcy and led Canadians to demand nationalization as the means to support these networks and expand them continentally.
 
==Creating Lines==
The [[Champlain and Saint Lawrence Railroad]] opened in 1836 was the first Canadian railway.
 
In 1849, the colonial government passed the Guarantee Act which provided government guarantees of railroad bonds for every railroad in excess of 75 miles in length.  This act prompted a rapid expansion railways.  But as many of these lines did not have developed markets, many went under forcing the government to honor the bonds.  Several provinces' finances were severely strained by the experiment. 
 
One exception to this predicament was the construction of the [[Grand Trunk Railway]] between Montreal and Sarnia, Ontario. Completed by 1860, it was burdened by debt and threatening bankruptcy. Guaranteeing the bonds of the GT, however, could well have bankrupted the Ontario government.  The government worked out a deal with the GT whereby it bailed out the company in exchange for relinquishing the role of guarantor of its bonds.


Canada has 49,422 km total trackage, of which only 129 km is electrified. Canada uses standard gauge track for the majority of its railway system. The exceptions to this are small lines isolated from the main North American rail network used in resource industries such as mining or forestry, some of which are narrow gauge, and the broad-gauge streetcar and subway lines of Toronto.
The railways of Canada also facilitated [[Canadian confederation]].  As a result of the guarantee act which nearly bankrupted all the provinces, the government was looking for a new and more stable method of finance.  Many Canadians also believed that a transcontinental railway would bind the confederation together. This was true for the Maritimes, which joined the confederation, in part, on promises from the government to build the [[Intercolonial Railway]].  


==History==
Subsequent governments avoided the problems of guarantees and funded no other railways with them. Instead, the confederation government fully controlled the construction of the Intercolonial, placing Sir Sanford Fleming in charge.
===Philosophy of railroading===
According to den Otter (1997), as products of the [[Enlightenment]], Canadians believed in economic and moral progress, and shared the technological optimism of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Liberalism. Modernizers had upon a "mission" to "civilize" (or conquer) the wilderness for the expansion of British trade, commerce, and culture.  The Canadian market itself was always much cmaller than the nearby American market, which Canadians sought to exploit.  They adopted American technology to escape British financial and military control. At the same time, because they rejected [[Republicanism, U.S.|American democratic values]] and were content with Britain's elite social and political institutions, Canadians resisted incorporation into the U.S. and envisioned an independent transcontinental nation, one politically distinct and economically competitive with the United States, but never entirely independent from America's larger market opportunities. Unfortunately, metropolitan rivalries between Montreal, Halifax, and Saint John caused Canadians to build more railway lines per capita than any other industrializing nation, even though they had neither sufficient capital resources, nor freight and passenger traffic to make all of their schemes pay. Over time, internal competition for resources forced Canadians to demand centralization and state intervention to support their expansionist plans, a situation that pitted Canadian regions against each other as urban entrepreneurs sought closer ties with either Britain or the United States.  
===Creating lines===
The first Canadian railway, the [[Champlain and Saint Lawrence Railroad]], was opened in 1836 near Montreal. Heavy expansion of the rail system did came after the Guarantee Act of 1849 guaranteed bonds on all railways over 75 miles. This led to rapid expansion of railways; there was excessive growth as uneconomic lines were built since the government guaranteed profits.  This proved disastrous for government finances, however, 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]] linking Montreal to Sarnia, Ontario, was finished in 1860, but was mired in debt. In exchange for bailing out the company the government escaped its guarantee on the railway bonds.


[[Canadian confederation]] was made possible in part by the railways. The separate colonial 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 railways linking [[British North America]]. The Maritime colonies joined the Confederation in part because of promises to build the [[Intercolonial Railway]]. [[British Columbia]] was lured by the promise of a transcontinental railway.
To help build the [[Canadian Pacific]] (CP), the transcontinental line to the Pacific, the government tried new finance methods. The CP was built mostly with private capital, but the confederation government offered massive land grants, $25 million in cash, and a guaranteed monopoly on the Pacific transportation. The CP was an engineering marvel because it was, at the time of its completion in 1885, the longest railway in the world.


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 skilled direction of Sir Sanford Fleming.
As the Canadian economy prospered after 1900, new plans to build transcontinental railways started.  The first was the [[Canadian Northern Railway]], which was a successful system in the northern prairies and began making plans for a Pacific extension.  The second was the Grand Trunk which created a subsidiary called [[Grand Trunk Pacific]] to expand to the coast.  The dominion government rightly felt that western Canada could not support three transcontinentals and urged the two to cooperate or otherwise figure out to build only one line.  But neither railroad was willing to share a line and ultimately both lines were built. The dominion government also built an eastern transcontinental, the [[National Transcontinental]], which ran from Moncton, New Brunswick, through Quebec City to Winnipeg, Manitoba.  Most of the territory through which it ran was sparsely populated.


The railway to the Pacific, the [[Canadian Pacific]], was financed by private funds and through massive land grants in the Canadian prairies, much of it of little value until the railway arrived, $25 million in cash and a guaranteed monopoly. The railway, an engineering marvel that was then the longest in the world, was completed in 1885 to great fanfare.
During the time that the Canadian economy was growing through immigration and investment, this aggressive expansion may have made sense.  But at the outbreak of World War One, immigration and investment stopped and these expansive systems quickly began to suffer.  The [[Canadian Northern Railway]], Grand Trunk Pacific, and Grand Trunk were nationalized by the federal government.  The dominion absorbed over two billion dollars in the debt of these carriers.  Earlier the dominion had formed the [[Canadian Government Railways]] which was nationalized from the Intercolonial, National Transcontinental, and several smaller lines. Between 1918 and 1923, the dominion merged all of these lines into the [[Canadian National Railways]].


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]], a line from Moncton, New Brunswick through Quebec City to Winnipeg, Manitoba, passing through the vast and uninhabited hinterland of the [[Canadian Shield]].
==20th Century==
After the First World War, only limited expansion of the Canadian rail network occurred.  As in the U.S., new transportation competition from cars and trucks, and then airlines after the Second World War, sapped more and more of the railroad market. But despite these declining fundamentals, new lines were constructed in Quebec, Labrador, and British Columbia to tap natural resources.  Few of these new lines, though, were directly connected to the main North American rail network.


This aggressive expansion proved disastrous when immigration and supplies of capital all but disappeared with the outbreak of the First World War. The Canadian Northern, Grand Trunk Pacific, 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]] (formed by the Intercolonial, National Transcontinental, and several smaller lines) were then merged into the [[Canadian National Railways]] between 1918-1923.
Also with the advent of jet airlines, Canadian passenger rail service face a similar crisis as did the U.S. carriers. The Canadian government reacted similarly to the U.S. response and nationalized passenger service. In 1978, [[VIA Rail]], a crown corporation, took over all passenger service from the freight railroads.
==20th century==
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 and truck provided growing competition by the 1920s, and after 1945 most passenger service was lost to airlines. During the post-war period several large resource lines were opened in Quebec, Labrador, and British Columbia - several of which are not directly connected to the main North American network.


In 1978 the government created VIA Rail which took over all national passenger service in the country. In 1987 the ''National Transportation Act'' partially deregulated the railway industry in Canada and removed much of the red tape that railways experienced when attempting to abandon unprofitable lines, however the NTA is now viewed as more of a failure in that railways used the legislation merely as a first-resort after "demarketing" a line, rather than a last-resort after trying to find a short line buyer. In 1995 the federal government privatized CN and in 1996, the government corrected the NTA 1987 shortfalls with the ''Canadian Transportation Act'' which more fully deregulates the railway industry.
The government partially deregulated its rail industry with the [[National Transportation Act]] in 1987.  This allowed railroads to more easily abandon non-remunerative lines without having regulatory hearings.  However, many railroads used the law to jettison lines that were just barely remunerative but perhaps otherwise administratively burdensome leaving many Canadian towns without rail service for the first time in generations.  The law was intended to have been a last resort for the railroads, allowing them to abandon when they could not find a buyer. Most railroads though, simply just abandoned without looking for buyers.  This was corrected in 1996, with the [[Canadian Transportation Act]] which also more fully deregulated the Canadian railway industry.
==Bibliography==
* [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ ''The Dictionary of Canadian Biography''](1966-2006), scholarly biographies of railway men who died by 1930
* Andreae, Christopher. ''Lines of Country: An Atlas of Railway and Waterway History in Canada'' (1996)
*  Brown, Ron. ''The Train Doesn't Stop Here Any More'' (1998) an illustrated history of railway stations in Canada
* Darling H. ''The Politics of Freight Rates'' McClelland and Stewart 1980
* Due, J. F. ''The Intercity Electric Railway Industry in Canada'' University of Toronto Press 1966 
* Eagle, J. A. ''The Canadian Pacific Railway and the Development of Western Canada, 1896-1914.'' McGill-Queen's University Press 1989 
* Fleming, R. B. ''The Railway King of Canada: Sir William Mackenzie, 1849-1923'' University of British Columbia Press, 1991 [http://www.questia.com/library/book/the-railway-king-of-canada-sir-william-mackenzie-1849-1923-by-r-b-fleming.jsp online at [[Questia]]]
* Hertel; D. W. ''History of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees: Its Birth and Growth, 1887-1955.'' 1955 [http://www.questia.com/library/book/history-of-the-brotherhood-of-maintenance-of-way-employees-its-birth-and-growth-1887-1955-by-d-w-hertel.jsp online edition from [[Questia]]]
* Kaye, Lamb W. ''History of the Canadian Pacific Railway''. (1977).
* Leonard, Frank. ''A Thousand Blunders: The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway and Northern British Columbia'' University of British Columbia Press, 1996 [http://www.questia.com/library/book/a-thousand-blunders-the-grand-trunk-pacific-railway-and-northern-british-columbia-by-frank-leonard.jsp online edition from [[Questia]]]
* den Otter, A.A. ''The Philosophy of Railways: The Transcontinental Railway Idea in British North America'' University of Toronto Press, 1997.
* Regehr, T. D. ''The Canadian Northern Railway'' Macmillan of Canada 1976 
* Stevens, G. ''History of the Canadian National Railways'' Macmillan Company 1973
* Underwood, Jay. ''Built for War: Canada's Intercolonial Railway,'' (2006) [http://www.amazon.com/Built-War-Canadas-Intercolonial-Railway/dp/189719000X/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200276105&sr=1-9 excerpt and text search]
* Weaver, R. Kent. ''The Politics of Industrial Change: Railway Policy in North America'' (1985) [http://www.questia.com/library/book/the-politics-of-industrial-change-railway-policy-in-north-america-by-r-kent-weaver.jsp online edition from [[Questia]]]
* Willson, Beckles. ''The Life of Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal'' 1915. [http://www.questia.com/library/book/the-life-of-lord-strathcona-and-mount-royal-gcmg-gcv0-by-beckles-willson.jsp online edition from [[Questia]]]
===Primary sources===
* Innis, Harold. A., and A. R. M. Lower; ''Select Documents in Canadian Economic History, 1783-1885'' University of Toronto Press, 1933 [http://www.questia.com/library/book/select-documents-in-canadian-economic-history-1783-1885-by-h-a-innis-a-r-m-lower.jsp online edition from [[Questia]]]
==External links==


*[http://www.musee-mccord.qc.ca/en/keys/webtours/GE_P2_4_EN.html Forging the National Dream] — Illustrated Historical Essay
The Canadian government privatized Canadian National in 1995, ending its nearly seventy-five years in the railroad business.
*[http://www.sciencetech.technomuses.ca/english/collection/rail.cfm History of Rail in Canada]


==System in 21st century==
Canada has two major transcontinental freight railway systems.  Both are privately-owned: the [[Canadian National Railway|Canadian National]] and [[Canadian Pacific Railway]].  A federal crown corporation called [[VIA Rail]] provides passenger services.  Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver provide municipal commuter service.  In remote rural regions of upper Ontario, [[Ontario Northland]] and [[Algoma Central]] also run passenger trains


==see also==
Canada today has 49,422 km total trackage.  One-hundred-twenty-nine kilometers are electrified.[[Category:Suggestion Bot Tag]]
* [[Grand Trunk Railway of Canada]]
* [[Canada, history]]
----

Latest revision as of 12:01, 28 August 2024

This article is developing and not approved.
Main Article
Discussion
Related Articles  [?]
Bibliography  [?]
External Links  [?]
Citable Version  [?]
 
This editable Main Article is under development and subject to a disclaimer.

Canada developed a transcontinental railway system that today primarily transports freight. Canada used standard gauge for most of its trackage. Some isolated lines in used in extraction industries (mining and timber) used narrow gauge. Broad gauge was used for some streetcar and subway lines, especially in Toronto.

Philosophy of Railroading in Canada

Andrew Albert den Otter (1997) noted that, like most western civilizations following the Enlightenment, Canadians believed that technologies were a symbol of their economic and moral progress. As such, expanding technologies, such as railroads, into the "wilderness" was part of their "civilizing mission."

Canadian entrepreneurs sought to exploit, or at least participate in, the growing U.S. market to its south. The adoption of U.S. railway standards allowed Canadians to avoid some aspects of British financial and military control. But at the same time, because they continued their political relationship with Great Britain, they continued some of Britain's elite social and political institutions. This unique blend of British and American institutions and philosophies led Canadians to think about their own uniquely Canadian railway system.

With U.S. connections and British money, and entrepot rivalies among Montreal, Halifax, and Saint John led Canada to build more mileage per capita than any other industrializing nation. This was more than building ahead of demand, as Canada had neither the population, markets, nor the capital to support the large network it was building. This competition drove companies to bankruptcy and led Canadians to demand nationalization as the means to support these networks and expand them continentally.

Creating Lines

The Champlain and Saint Lawrence Railroad opened in 1836 was the first Canadian railway.

In 1849, the colonial government passed the Guarantee Act which provided government guarantees of railroad bonds for every railroad in excess of 75 miles in length. This act prompted a rapid expansion railways. But as many of these lines did not have developed markets, many went under forcing the government to honor the bonds. Several provinces' finances were severely strained by the experiment.

One exception to this predicament was the construction of the Grand Trunk Railway between Montreal and Sarnia, Ontario. Completed by 1860, it was burdened by debt and threatening bankruptcy. Guaranteeing the bonds of the GT, however, could well have bankrupted the Ontario government. The government worked out a deal with the GT whereby it bailed out the company in exchange for relinquishing the role of guarantor of its bonds.

The railways of Canada also facilitated Canadian confederation. As a result of the guarantee act which nearly bankrupted all the provinces, the government was looking for a new and more stable method of finance. Many Canadians also believed that a transcontinental railway would bind the confederation together. This was true for the Maritimes, which joined the confederation, in part, on promises from the government to build the Intercolonial Railway.

Subsequent governments avoided the problems of guarantees and funded no other railways with them. Instead, the confederation government fully controlled the construction of the Intercolonial, placing Sir Sanford Fleming in charge.

To help build the Canadian Pacific (CP), the transcontinental line to the Pacific, the government tried new finance methods. The CP was built mostly with private capital, but the confederation government offered massive land grants, $25 million in cash, and a guaranteed monopoly on the Pacific transportation. The CP was an engineering marvel because it was, at the time of its completion in 1885, the longest railway in the world.

As the Canadian economy prospered after 1900, new plans to build transcontinental railways started. The first was the Canadian Northern Railway, which was a successful system in the northern prairies and began making plans for a Pacific extension. The second was the Grand Trunk which created a subsidiary called Grand Trunk Pacific to expand to the coast. The dominion government rightly felt that western Canada could not support three transcontinentals and urged the two to cooperate or otherwise figure out to build only one line. But neither railroad was willing to share a line and ultimately both lines were built. The dominion government also built an eastern transcontinental, the National Transcontinental, which ran from Moncton, New Brunswick, through Quebec City to Winnipeg, Manitoba. Most of the territory through which it ran was sparsely populated.

During the time that the Canadian economy was growing through immigration and investment, this aggressive expansion may have made sense. But at the outbreak of World War One, immigration and investment stopped and these expansive systems quickly began to suffer. The Canadian Northern Railway, Grand Trunk Pacific, and Grand Trunk were nationalized by the federal government. The dominion absorbed over two billion dollars in the debt of these carriers. Earlier the dominion had formed the Canadian Government Railways which was nationalized from the Intercolonial, National Transcontinental, and several smaller lines. Between 1918 and 1923, the dominion merged all of these lines into the Canadian National Railways.

20th Century

After the First World War, only limited expansion of the Canadian rail network occurred. As in the U.S., new transportation competition from cars and trucks, and then airlines after the Second World War, sapped more and more of the railroad market. But despite these declining fundamentals, new lines were constructed in Quebec, Labrador, and British Columbia to tap natural resources. Few of these new lines, though, were directly connected to the main North American rail network.

Also with the advent of jet airlines, Canadian passenger rail service face a similar crisis as did the U.S. carriers. The Canadian government reacted similarly to the U.S. response and nationalized passenger service. In 1978, VIA Rail, a crown corporation, took over all passenger service from the freight railroads.

The government partially deregulated its rail industry with the National Transportation Act in 1987. This allowed railroads to more easily abandon non-remunerative lines without having regulatory hearings. However, many railroads used the law to jettison lines that were just barely remunerative but perhaps otherwise administratively burdensome leaving many Canadian towns without rail service for the first time in generations. The law was intended to have been a last resort for the railroads, allowing them to abandon when they could not find a buyer. Most railroads though, simply just abandoned without looking for buyers. This was corrected in 1996, with the Canadian Transportation Act which also more fully deregulated the Canadian railway industry.

The Canadian government privatized Canadian National in 1995, ending its nearly seventy-five years in the railroad business.

System in 21st century

Canada has two major transcontinental freight railway systems. Both are privately-owned: the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Railway. A federal crown corporation called VIA Rail provides passenger services. Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver provide municipal commuter service. In remote rural regions of upper Ontario, Ontario Northland and Algoma Central also run passenger trains

Canada today has 49,422 km total trackage. One-hundred-twenty-nine kilometers are electrified.