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487:, and sees very heavy traffic. From Tête Jaune Cache (Yellowhead Pass), the GTPR line to Prince Rupert is a secondary mainline, as the CNoR line southwest from Tête Jaune Cache to Vancouver forms the CN mainline. In the 1990s and 2000s, congestion at many ports along the west coast of North America made the GTPR's development of Prince Rupert an attractive alternative. Canadian National Railways, now a private corporation, as of 2012 had completed port facilities at Prince Rupert capable of handling two million
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on the Alaska border was selected, but a border dispute with the United States in the early 20th century left Canada concerned about the defensibility of any
Pacific rail terminal, and the terminal for GTP was moved south to Prince Rupert. That selection potentially saved a day of steaming for ships
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The NTR route across northern Quebec and
Ontario, far from the major population centres, had been approved by Laurier's government largely because of the support of his Quebec caucus to make Quebec City the preferred port for western grain shipments. The NTR in those provinces never lived up to its
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set out across Canada to survey routes for the proposed railway. The "Canadian
Pacific Survey", as it was called, surveyed routes to a number of Pacific Coast destinations (including Victoria on Vancouver Island). When Grand Trunk balked at building a railway using the survey, the government turned
185:(CPR) on November 7, 1885, preceded a tremendous economic expansion and immigration boom in western Canada during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but the monopolistic policies of the CPR, coupled with its southerly routing (new scientific discoveries were pushing the northern boundary of
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By the early 1900s, the GTR was willing to consider building a second transcontinental system for the country if it received government assistance, similar to the CPR's deal. However, while the government and GTR were considering whether to proceed and negotiating terms, the
311:. Canada has supported two transcontinental railway systems for many years, but even in 1914 it was not clear that there was enough traffic for three. The GTPR/NTR system was surveyed and construction began in 1905 and the entire system was finished (except for the
296:, which would run from Winnipeg to Prince Rupert and be built and operated by GTR as a subsidiary, and the government-owned and -built National Transcontinental Railway (NTR) would run from Winnipeg to Moncton and be operated by GTR upon completion.
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located just south of the US/Canada border), favoured a route farther south, as Hill hoped to tap into freight flows from the northern US states. That left Canada with a single transcontinental route close to the US border, since CPR chose to use
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Several years later, on July 12, 1920, the GTPR was nationalized and entered the CNR fold. The GTR itself was placed under government control several weeks earlier on May 21, 1920; however, GTR was not merged into the CNR until
January 23, 1923.
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East of La Sarre to Quebec City, the former NTR mainline supports a network of CN branchlines in northern Quebec, but the Quebec Bridge and related trackage in the Quebec City area is heavily used by freight and passenger traffic as part of the
514:, the former NTR mainline was abandoned in the 1980s after the completion in 1976 of a 30-mile (48 km) "cutoff" from the latter station to CN's former Intercolonial Railway mainline in the St. Lawrence River valley west of
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On
September 6, 1918, the CNoR was nationalized after becoming insolvent and its government-appointed directors were ordered to assume operation of the CGR system. On December 20, 1918, the federal government created the
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The Grand Trunk
Pacific/National Transcontinental route remained intact for only a few years during World War I. The GTP had built through the Yellowhead Pass on a route paralleled later by Canadian Northern, but near
518:. However, from Pelletier east to Moncton, the NTR mainline across central New Brunswick, including the massive bridges in the Appalachian Mountains, is still heavily used since it forms the core of CN's Montreal-
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committed to building a transcontinental system in partnership with the GTR. In keeping with the trend of railways to exploit virgin territories, the government-backed "transcon" would run from the port of
363:
Much GTP track through the
Yellowhead Pass did not last even to the end of World War I. As a government-imposed war measure to garner rails for potential use in France, trackage was consolidated between
241:
in 1899 through their amalgamation of several smaller branch lines. The CNoR started the process of building Canada's second transcontinental system between 1903 and 1912. The system was built from
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The system in 1906, soon after the construction of the transcontinental railway. The map shows the planned route from
Edmonton to the western seaboard which was later redirected to Prince Rupert.
335:, the largest cantilever span in the world, took $ 40 million of the $ 170 million total project cost alone. The territory across northern Quebec and Ontario to Winnipeg, through the heart of the
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Under CNR (CN post-1960), the NTR route across northern Quebec and
Ontario became a marginal secondary main line, with little in the way of through freight or passenger traffic. At
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The GTPR/NTR deal came in the heady final days of Canada's railway boom and would soon prove to be the financial straw that broke the back of Canada's railway industry during the
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in 1915 for administrative and financial purposes, although the individual systems maintained their independent names. The CGR and its subsidiaries would last until 1918.
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But
Mackenzie and Mann had spurned the federal government's offer for assistance to expand the CNoR in 1903 and in doing so, the federal government under Prime Minister
665:
491:(TEU) per year and was lengthening passing sidings on the line from Jasper to Prince Rupert. CN now offers daily container train service between Prince Rupert,
257:. In addition to an extensive network of branch lines in the prairie provinces, CNoR had many branch lines in Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritime Provinces.
196:(GTR) system in the 1870s to consider building the transcontinental rail line. During the same time, a government survey party under the direction of
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The GTR reneged on its deal with the federal government for operating the eastern section (the NTR) and the government folded it, along with the
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expectations for creating traffic, but for a time, it aided the resource-rich mining communities of northern Ontario and northwestern Quebec.
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315:) in 1913. The task was monumental and no expense was spared in building a railway system of minimal grades and curvature. In crossing the
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Booklet published by the Conservative Party opposing the large amount of money given by the Liberal Party for the construction of the NTR.
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only for the portion of the system west of Winnipeg and so the agreement resulted in two railway systems being funded by government: the
438:
233:
The Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) was an upstart regional system for the prairies that had begun in Manitoba under entrepreneurs
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Map showing the territory of the National Transcontinental Railway, in Quebec and Ontario (very pale blue along the top of the map).
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The significant cost overruns in construction of the NTR/GTPR contributed to the downfall of Laurier's
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crops), led to increasing western discontent with the railway and federal transportation policies.
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476:, in 1993. The mainline was also abandoned by CN for 82 miles (132 km) east of Cochrane to
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West of Nakina, the combined NTR/GTPR line forms CN's transcontinental mainline through to
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of eastern Quebec and northern New Brunswick, the NTR used massive bridges, such as the
205:, a Canadian who had settled in Minnesota (and eventual builder of the transcontinental
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with Canadian Northern in 1917, and rails were lifted from the nearly brand-new GTP.
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to the privately owned Canadian Pacific. The CPR, one of whose directors was
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was forced to finish the project, including the disastrous spanning of the
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327:(the second largest railway bridge in Canada) to span wide valleys. The
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627:(November 1904). "The National Transcontinental Railway of Canada".
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Lines of Country: an atlas of railway and waterway history in Canada
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Building a bridge on the National Transcontinental Railway, ca 1910.
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purchased the section of NTR mainline between Calstock and
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was already building a second transcontinental rail line.
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World War I and the Consolidation of Rail Line in Canada
409:(CNR) under which the CNoR and CGR were to be operated.
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177:The completion of construction of Canada's first
666:Predecessors of the Canadian Government Railways
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288:The GTR board of directors wished to assume the
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218:Passes rather than the surveyed route over the
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281:, by way of a route directly across central
277:and continue on to its eastern terminus at
192:The federal government had encouraged the
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392:(as well as some smaller lines) into the
711:Railway companies disestablished in 1918
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701:Canadian companies established in 1913
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706:Railway companies established in 1913
609:. Erin, Ontario: Boston Mills Press.
671:Former Crown corporations of Canada
576:History of rail transport in Canada
370:Red Pass Junction, British Columbia
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17:National Transcontinental Railway
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382:Intercolonial Railway of Canada
267:Prince Rupert, British Columbia
681:Defunct New Brunswick railways
629:Quarterly Journal of Economics
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456:, the CNR had constructed the
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605:Andreae, Christopher (1997).
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394:Canadian Government Railways
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165:The Grand Trunk partnership
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333:St. Lawrence River
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73:Dates of operation
46:, Manitoba, Canada
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512:Pelletier, Quebec
474:Cochrane, Ontario
466:Calstock, Ontario
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360:to or from Asia.
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40:Headquarters
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384:(IRC), the
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239:Donald Mann
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522:mainline.
220:Yellowhead
331:over the
247:Vancouver
91:Technical
81:Successor
526:See also
323:and the
255:Montreal
243:Winnipeg
147:Winnipeg
145:between
116: in
67:Manitoba
44:Winnipeg
35:Overview
649:1884867
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497:Memphis
493:Chicago
462:Longlac
251:Toronto
151:Moncton
143:railway
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454:Nakina
417:Legacy
368:, and
212:Rogers
187:cereal
181:, the
155:Canada
59:Quebec
51:Locale
645:JSTOR
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