Canadian Railways

Railways in the 19^th Century served to unify Canada. The Mulroney Era all but destroyed our rail system.

How many grain elevators on the Prairies now sit mouldering beside a defunct set of rail lines?

In Eastern Canada the effect is most strongly felt. The Newfie Bullet's narrow gauge line is relegated to a museum in St. John's, the bed itself a rails to trails addition to the Trans Canada Trail. Similarly you will find no tracks remaining or in use in Cape Breton and PEI. In Nova Scotia the South Shore Line and the Acadian Line to Yarmouth are history. Only the Intercolonial Line from Halifax to Montreal still exists, the Ocean Limited the only remaining service. Oil tankers still pour into Canada's largest refinery the Irving Complex in Saint John.

It took over a century for the CPR and VIA to figure out that tourists weren't interested in viewing the Rockies by moonlight. Trains used to leave Vancouver at 7 PM and those heading west were perennially late. Only the rich can afford the present luxury service.

The Transcontinental from Toronto West heads north from Sudbury on the Capriol Line a continuous weld line that requires trains slow to a crawl in hot weather.

Everywhere it seems poorly maintained road beds, ballasts, and rail lines lead to go slow orders or worse derailments.

Recently in the news was a list of Canada's 100 most dangerous railway crossings.

The possibility of high speed rail service which could easily rival air service from downtown Toronto to downtown Montreal is hampered by poorly maintained lines and the vast number of level crossings. Incredibly there are still level crossings traversing Canada's busiest highway the 401. The Turbo was a failed high speed rail experiment that on its maiden trip chopped a transport truck in half at a level crossing.

In the late sixties I travelled from Halifax to Kitchener, Ontario Fall, Christmas and Spring to and from WLU. (There is no longer passenger service from Stratford to Toronto.) The trip took 2 days with inconvenient layovers of up to 6 hours in Montreal and Toronto. On my first trip in 1967 I was still able to ship my trunk from Bridgewater, Lunenburg County to Kitchener but it arrived a day after I did. My fellow passengers in those days in Pullman Class were mainly free riding retired CN Employees.

My first trip to Montreal in 1967 was by coach class. Smoking was still permitted in those days. Leaving the former Nova Scotian Hotel Complex in Halifax the line soon enters a slate and granite cut that takes on much of the route to Truro. Thereafter it passes through some of the grottiest neighbourhoods in every small town until it reaches the long narrow Habitant holdings of the Eastern Townships. Inevitably a stop in Lévis opposite Quebec. It was there I encountered my first Quebeçois who disobeyed every rule of French Grammar drilled into me in High School while they drunkenly played cards all night. The Rapido from Montreal to Toronto was a noisy rough ride that saw one already fatigued waiting for it. The ride to Kitchener was on a self-propelled jitney that lacked baggage service.

One Christmas upon my return trip the engines froze up in Moncton, NB waiting for the late arriving cut in from PEI. On another occasion the engine going 70 mph around a bend 50 miles East of Montreal hit a car driven by young drunken Frenchies stalled across the tracks. I was asleep at the time and my head bumped the metal bulkhead of my upper berth. Needless to say I didn't meet the people planning to pick me up that Fall in Kitchener.

At the time CN was attempting to discourage passenger rail traffic for them a losing proposition. They did this by not so subtle means such as routing passenger trains on to sidings to wait for profitable freight trains, reducing meal service and the number of dining cars, removing the observation car.

After the train wreck that saw us sit for 4 hours waiting to be pulled in reverse from the wrecked engine and a mile of track where a derailed engine truck had cut rail spikes holding the tracks in place I decided to fly Air Canada Standby instead.