2 Third Transcontinental

Mackenzie and Mann had spurned the federal government's offer for assistance in 19031903 has the latest occurring solstices and equinoxes for 400 years, because the Gregorian calendar hasn't had a leap year for seven years or a century leap year since 1600. Events January 1 Edward VII of the United Kingdom is proclaimed Emperor of India and in doing so, the federal government under prime minister Wilfrid LaurierWilfrid Laurier Rank 7th ( 1896- 1911) Date of Birth November 20, 1841 Place of Birth St-Lin, Quebec Spouse Zoe Lafontaine Profession lawyer Political Party Liberal Party of Canada Laurier re-directs here. For the Canadian federal electoral district see L committed to building a trancontinental 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 Prince Rupert, British Columbia across the northern portion of the prairies to Winnipeg, and from there across northern Ontario and Quebec to Quebec City where it would cross the St. Lawrence River and continue on to its eastern terminus at Moncton, New Brunswick by way of a route directly across central New Brunswick.

The GTR board of directors only wished to assume the financial risks for the portion of the system west of Winnipeg, therefore the agreement resulted in two railway systems being funded by government: the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway which would run from Winnipeg-Prince Rupert and be built and operated by GTR as a subsidiary, and the government owned and built National Transcontinental Railway (NTR) which would run from Winnipeg-Moncton and be operated by GTR upon completion.

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 First World War. The GTPR/NTR system was surveyed and construction began in 1905 and the entire system was finished (except for the Quebec Bridge) in 1913. The task was monumental and no expense was spared in building a railway system of minimal grades and curvature. In crossing the Appalachian Mountains of New Brunswick, the NTR used massive bridges, and the Quebec Bridge - the largest cantilever span in the world - took $40 million of the $170 million total project cost. The territory across northern Quebec and Ontario to Winnipeg, through the heart of the Canadian Shield, posed an extremely difficult contruction obstacle, yet in the end, the system was one of the best-constructed railways in the world.

3 Canadian Government Railways

Unfortunately, the GTR reneged on its deal with the federal government for operating the eastern section (the NTR) and the government folded this railway along with the Intercolonial Railway of Canada (IRC), the Prince Edward Island Railway (PEIR), and the Hudson Bay Railway (as well as some smaller lines) into the Canadian Government Railways in 1915 for administrative and financial purposes, although the individual systems maintained their independent names.

On September 6, 1918 the CNoR was nationalized after declaring bankruptcy and was directed to assume direction of the CGR system. On December 20, 1918 the federal government created the Canadian National Railways (CNR) under which the CNoR and CGR were to be administered. On July 12, 1920 the GTPR was nationalized and entered the CNR fold, however the GTR itself having been nationalized on May 21 of that year, was not placed under the CNR until January 23, 1923.

4 NTR Legacy

The signficant cost overruns of the NTR/GTPR construction led to the downfall of Laurier's Liberals in 1911 and Robert Borden's Tories were forced to finish the project, including the disastrous spanning of the St. Lawrence River with the Quebec Bridge.

The NTR route across northern Quebec and Ontario, far from the major population centres, had been approved by Laurier's government largely due to the support of his Quebec caucus as the routing made Quebec City the preferred port for western grain shipments. The NTR never lived up to its expectations for creating traffic, although it did aid the resource-rich mining communities of northern Ontario and northwestern Quebec for a time.

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. A 122-mile section of the NTR mainline between Nakina- Calstock, Ontario was abandoned in 1993 and the Ontario Northland Railway purchased the section of NTR mainline between Calstock and Cochrane, Ontario. The mainline was also abandoned by CN for 82 miles east of Cochrane to La Sarre, Quebec in 1997.

West of Nakina, the combined NTR/GTPR line forms CN's transcontinental mainline through to Tête Jaune, British Columbia . From Tête Jaune, the GTPR line to Prince Rupert is a secondary mainline and the CNoR line southwest to Vancouver forms the CN mainline. East of La Sarre to Quebec City, the former NTR mainline forms a network of CN branchlines in northern Quebec, although the Quebec Bridge and related trackage in the Quebec City area is heavily used by freight and passenger traffic. From Quebec City east to Pelletier, Quebec , the former NTR mainline was abandoned in 1976 following the completion of a 30-mile "cutoff" from the latter station to the former IRC mainline near Rivière-du-Loup. 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 and forms the core of CN's Montreal- Halifax mainline.

Railway companies of Canada Defunct railroad companies of Canada

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