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Railways in Canada
The development of railways has perhaps been more important to Canada than
to any other country. Confederation itself in 1867, which was the historical
beginning of Canada as a nation, was to some extent dependent upon the
construction of a railway to link the maritime provinces on the Atlantic coast
with Quebec and Ontario. And again a few years later when the Canadian
West was being settled the westernmost province of Canada, British Columbia,
was prepared to join the federation only if the Federal Government in Ottawa
promised to build a railway across the continent to the Pacific coast.
This underlying need for a dependable and nation-wide transportation
system led to the establishment of the two great Canadian companies, the
Canadian Pacific Railway and the Canadian National Railways. The CPR,
a privately owned company, was founded in 1880: its first through passenger
train travelled from Montreal to the Pacific coast in 1886. The CNR, a
publicly owned company, was formed from the consolidation of several
private and government lines after the first world war.
Both companies operate, in addition to their nation-wide rail networks,
fleets of inland, coastal and ocean going vessels, telegraph services with connec-
tions to all parts of the world, and chains of hotels as well as air-services in
Canada and overseas. In order to serve the rapidly growing economy of
Canada, which has become one of the world’s foremost producing and trading
nations, these two transportation systems are constantly modernizing their
equipment. One of the most important developments of the last years has
been the introduction of diesel locomotives on Canadian railroads.
This year two new trans-continental diesel-powered passenger trains have
been introduced, the CPR’s “The Canadian” and the CNR’s “Super Conti-
nental”. Both trains offer the traveler the utmost comfort and cover the nearly
3,000 miles from Montreal
to Vancouver in just
over 70 hours. It was
necessary to put more
than 20 complete train
sets of equipment on the
rails to makea daily
service possible.
Listeners to the CBC
International Service
shortwave broadcasts
frequently hear details
about this railway system
in programs transmitted
from Canada.
CNR’s Hotel "Chateau Laurier”
in Ottawa. i
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