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With Canada being such a vast country (over 6,300 kms – 3,900 miles) from east to west, it is not surprising that for most long journeys people choose to fly. You can fly from Halifax to Vancouver in six hours – the train would take you about five days, though it is a fabulous way to travel, leaving Halifax lunchtime and arriving in Montreal next morning; then a mere five hours to Toronto before a late evening departure (10 pm) on day two, arriving in Vancouver mid-morning on day five. A lot of people do take the train, not necessarily all the way but the Toronto-Vancouver services are very well supported. With a comfortable sleeper compartment with en-suite shower, very good meals and the opportunity to relax and forget about airport security line-ups, cramped seats and lack of service on the airlines, those with time to spare would choose this marvellous way of travelling, especially as the scenery of Canada unfolds.
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And going back in time it was the railways that made Canada, linking east and west and opening up many more opportunities than would have been the case. The first railways appeared in the eastern part of Canada, in Quebec province, in 1836 (Champlain & St Lawrence Railroad) which connected Montreal to Lake Champlain and connected to boats coming from New York up the Hudson river. Another line was built linking to Portland, Maine, an ice-free port in the winter through which Canada could get supplies. A few other lines also saw the light of day, all in the eastern half of what is now Canada, going no further west than the Toronto area. Of course other railways were being built, both in Canada (before it became a country) and in the north-west USA and by 1852 the Grand Trunk Railway had been put in place, linking several railways from Toronto, through Montreal to Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut. In 1867 Canada became one country (apart from BC which joined in 1871) and it was decided that a transcontinental railway was vital to the economic development of the entire country. The west had great mineral resources and these were needed for manufacturing processes in Ontario and Quebec. Agricultural produce was also sent by rail.
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The first Prime Minister of Canada, Sir John A McDonald, was instrumental in pushing for the railway, though it later transpired that he had taken vast bribes to do so and had to step down from office. But the railway was built and, despite earlier considerations that it would have been easier to link east and west by running track through northern Illinois (in the USA) the line remained on Canadian territory its entire length. Building it was a major task as can be imagined, particularly as it drove through the Rocky Mountains. Apart from technical difficulties there were disputes with the native Indian tribes which lived on land through which the railway was planned to pass. The leader of the Blackfoot, the main tribe affected, was eventually mollified by giving him a life-time free pass on the railways !
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The first train from Montreal arriving at Port Moody (Vancouver) on July 4, 1886 at noon.
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But eventually the route was finished and on June 28th 1886, at 8 pm, a 12-coach train departed from Montreal's Dalhousie Station, arriving at Port Moody (Vancouver) on July 4, 1886 at noon. The route proved a commercial success and CP went on to become very successful, due in part to some very close connections with the government of the time. As part of its contract to build the railway, which, let us not forget, was politically necessary, CP was granted 25 million acres of land and, once the railway was complete CP set about inviting immigrants to Canada to buy some of this land. It opened offices in several European countries, offering cheap transatlantic voyages (on CP's own liners, which included the famous "Empress" liners, a very important aspect of transport to Canada from various places), transportation across the country in its own trains, as long as immigrants bought a certain amount of land. It was, thus, responsible for populating part of Canada. The land cost the immigrants just $2.50 per acre.
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Into the 20th century and during both First and Second World Wars CP continued to support Canada. It was virtually debt free for much of that time and enjoyed the lion's share of east-west rail traffic. Meanwhile a major competitor, Canadian National Railways (now CN) was gobbling up bankrupt railways across the country, many of which had sprung up to serve local routes. CN was a Crown Corporation from the start and it was obvious that profit was not its main raison d'être. It often did what the government of the day told it. Initially it also ran passenger services but these were hived off into VIA and today CN is totally involved in freight, both within Canada and also extensively in the USA.
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But after World War II transport in Canada changed. Airlines began operating and took much of the passenger load and quite a bit of freight. CP did get into airline operations with CP Air, which operated from 1942 to 1987, serving both Canadian and international routes before being absorbed into Canadian Airlines, which continued operating until 2001. Road transport also increased as highways were built. During the 1950s CP introduced some new transcontinental trains like The Canadian and others, but in 1978 all intercity passenger services were transferred to the newly-created VIA Rail, a Crown Corporation. CP, and CN, reverted to just carrying freight and today still run services across the country.
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VIA is now responsible for all the mainline passenger services within Canada (and, in association with Amtrak services from both Montreal and Toronto to New York and between Vancouver and Seattle). The busiest route is the eastern corridor between Windsor (Ontario), Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City, a route served several times each day in both directions. If ever a train route called out for a high speed link this is it but apparently politicians have been "considering" it for about 20 years, though there is still no prospect of it happening, such is the resistance from the road haulage lobby and Air Canada (which makes a fortune on these routes with an hourly service between Montreal and Toronto running from early morning to gone midnight). But there are also regular overnight services between Montreal and Halifax (Nova Scotia) – a superb trip on a sleeper; from Winnipeg to Churchill on Hudson's Bay (a 48 hour journey); and from Vancouver to Jasper and Banff – a beautiful journey through the Rockies though sadly most of it is at night so you miss the views ! The overland Toronto-Vancouver journey is also very popular.
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