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The
Canadian Pacific Railway (
CPR), formerly also known as
CP Rail (
reporting mark CP) between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian
Class I rail carrier founded in 1881 and now operated by
Canadian Pacific Railway Limited (
TSX:
CP,
NYSE:
CP), which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001.
[1]
Headquartered in
Calgary,
Alberta, it owns approximately 14,000 miles (22,500 km) of track all across Canada and into the United States,
[1] stretching from
Montreal to
Vancouver, and as far north as
Edmonton. Its rail network also serves major cities in the United States, such as
Minneapolis,
Milwaukee,
Detroit,
Chicago, and
New York City.
The railway was originally built between Eastern Canada and
British Columbia between 1881 and 1885 (connecting with
Ottawa Valley and
Georgian Bay area lines built earlier), fulfilling a promise extended to British Columbia when it entered
Confederation in 1871. It was Canada's first
transcontinental railway, but currently does not reach the Atlantic coast. Primarily a
freight railway, the CPR was for decades the only practical means of long-distance
passenger transport in most regions of Canada, and was instrumental in the
settlement and
development of Western Canada. The CP became one of the largest and most powerful companies in Canada, a position it held as late as 1975.
[2] Its primary passenger services were eliminated in 1986, after being assumed by
Via Rail Canada in 1978. A
beaver
was chosen as the railway's logo because it is one of the national
symbols of Canada and was seen as representing the hardworking character
of the company.
The company acquired two American lines in 2009: the
Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad and the
Iowa, Chicago and Eastern Railroad. The trackage of the
ICE was at one time part of CP subsidiary
Soo Line and predecessor line
The Milwaukee Road. The combined
DME/
ICE system spanned
North Dakota,
South Dakota,
Minnesota,
Wisconsin,
Nebraska and
Iowa, as well as two short stretches into two other states, which included a line to
Kansas City, Missouri, and a line to Chicago, Illinois, and regulatory approval to build a line into the
Powder River Basin of
Wyoming. It is publicly traded on both the
Toronto Stock Exchange and the
New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CP. Its U.S. headquarters are in
Minneapolis.
History
The creation of the Canadian Pacific Railway was a task originally undertaken for a combination of reasons by the
Conservative government of Prime Minister
Sir John A. Macdonald.
British Columbia had insisted upon a transport link to the East as a condition for joining the
Confederation of Canada (initially requesting a wagon road).
[3] The government however, proposed to build a railway linking the
Pacific province
to the Eastern provinces within 10 years of 20 July 1871. Macdonald saw
it as essential to the creation of a unified Canadian nation that would
stretch across the continent. Moreover,
manufacturing interests in
Quebec and
Ontario needed access to raw materials and markets in
Western Canada
The first obstacle to its construction was political. The logical route went through the American
Midwest and the city of
Chicago, Illinois. In addition to this was the difficulty of building a railroad through the
Canadian Rockies, an entirely Canadian route would require crossing 1,600 km (990 mi) of rugged terrain across the barren
Canadian Shield and
muskeg of
Northern Ontario. To ensure this routing, the government offered huge incentives including vast grants of land in the West.
In 1873,
Sir John A. Macdonald and other high-ranking politicians, bribed in the
Pacific Scandal, granted federal contracts to
Hugh Allan's Canada Pacific Railway Company (which was unrelated to the current company) rather than to
David Lewis Macpherson's Inter-Ocean Railway Company which was thought to have connections to the American
Northern Pacific Railway Company. Because of this scandal, the Conservative Party was removed from office in 1873. The new
Liberal prime minister,
Alexander Mackenzie,
ordered construction of segments of the railway as a public enterprise
under the supervision of the Department of Public Works led by
Sandford Fleming.
Surveying was carried out during the first years of a number of
alternative routes in this virgin territory followed by construction of a
telegraph along the lines that had been agreed upon.
[4] The
Thunder Bay section linking
Lake Superior to
Winnipeg
was commenced in 1875. By 1880, around 700 miles was nearly complete,
mainly across the troublesome Canadian Shield terrain, with trains
running on only 300 miles of track.
[5]
With Macdonald's return to power on 16 October 1878, a more
aggressive construction policy was adopted. Macdonald confirmed that
Port Moody would be the terminus of the transcontinental railway, and announced that the railway would follow the
Fraser and
Thompson rivers between Port Moody and
Kamloops.
In 1879, the federal government floated bonds in London and called for
tenders to construct the 206 km (128 mi) section of the railway from
Yale, British Columbia, to
Savona's Ferry, on
Kamloops Lake. The contract was awarded to
Andrew Onderdonk,
whose men started work on 15 May 1880. After the completion of that
section, Onderdonk received contracts to build between Yale and Port
Moody, and between Savona's Ferry and
Eagle Pass.
On 21 October 1880, a new syndicate, unrelated to Hugh Allan's,
signed a contract with the Macdonald government and Fleming was
dismissed. They agreed to build the railway in exchange for
$25
million (approximately $625 million in modern Canadian dollars) in
credit from the Canadian government and a grant of 25 million acres
(100,000 km
2) of land. The government transferred to the new
company those sections of the railway it had constructed under
government ownership, on which it had already spent at least $25m. But
its estimates of the cost of the Rocky Mountain section alone was over
$60m.
[6]
The government also defrayed surveying costs and exempted the railway
from property taxes for 20 years. The Montreal-based syndicate
officially comprised five men:
George Stephen,
James J. Hill,
Duncan McIntyre,
Richard B. Angus and
John Stewart Kennedy.
Donald A. Smith and
Norman Kittson
were unofficial silent partners with a significant financial interest.
On 15 February 1881, legislation confirming the contract received
royal assent, and the
Canadian Pacific Railway Company was formally
incorporated the next day.
[7] Someclaimed
that the government gave too large a subsidy for the proposed project
but this was to incorporate uncertainties of risk and irreversibility of
insurance. The large subsidy also needed to compensate the CPR for not
constructing the line at a privately optimal time late in the future,
but rather right away when projected demand would not cover operational
costs.
[8]
Building the railway, 1881–1885
Canadian Pacific Railway began its westward expansion from
Bonfield, Ontario
(previously called Callander Station), where the first spike was driven
into a sunken railway tie. Bonfield was inducted into Canadian Railway
Hall of Fame in 2002 as the CPR first spike location. That was the point
where the
Canada Central Railway extension ended.
[9]
The CCR was owned by Duncan McIntyre, who amalgamated it with the CPR,
and became one of the handful of officers of the newly formed CPR. The
CCR started in Brockville and extended to Pembroke. It then followed a
westward route along the Ottawa River passing through places like
Cobden, Deux-Rivières, and eventually to Mattawa at the confluence of
the Mattawa and Ottawa rivers. It then proceeded cross-country towards
its final destination of Bonfield. Duncan McIntyre and his contractor
James Worthington piloted the CPR expansion. Worthington continued on as
the construction superintendent for the CPR past Bonfield. He remained
with the CPR for about a year after which he left the company. McIntyre
was uncle to John Ferguson who staked out future North Bay and who
became the town's wealthiest inhabitant and mayor for four successive
terms.
[10]
One consequence was that the CPR would need to find a route through the
Selkirk Mountains
in British Columbia while, at the time, it was not known whether a
route even existed. The job of finding a pass was assigned to a
surveyor named Major
Albert Bowman Rogers. The CPR promised him a
cheque
for $5,000 and that the pass would be named in his honour. Rogers
became obsessed with finding the pass that would immortalize his name.
He discovered the pass in April 1881
[11][12] and, true to its word, the CPR named it "
Rogers Pass"
and gave him the cheque. However, he at first refused to cash it,
preferring to frame it, saying he did not do it for the money. He later
agreed to cash it with the promise of an engraved watch.
Another obstacle was that the proposed route crossed land in Alberta that was controlled by the
Blackfoot First Nation. This difficulty was overcome when a
missionary priest,
Albert Lacombe, persuaded the Blackfoot chief
Crowfoot
that construction of the railway was inevitable. In return for his
assent, Crowfoot was famously rewarded with a lifetime pass to ride the
CPR. A more lasting consequence of the choice of route was that, unlike
the one proposed by Fleming, the land surrounding the railway often
proved too arid for successful agriculture. The CPR may have placed too
much reliance on a report from
naturalist John Macoun, who had crossed the
prairies at a time of very high rainfall and had reported that the area was fertile.
[13]
The greatest disadvantage of the route was in
Kicking Horse Pass,
at the Alberta-British Columbia border and Continental Divide. In the
first 6 km (3.7 mi) west of the 1,625 metres (5,331 feet) high summit,
the
Kicking Horse River
drops 350 metres (1,150 feet). The steep drop would force the
cash-strapped CPR to build a 7 km (4.3 mi) long stretch of track with a
very steep 4.5 percent gradient once it reached the pass in 1884. This
was over four times the maximum gradient recommended for railways of
this era, and even modern railways rarely exceed a two-percent gradient.
However, this route was far more direct than one through the
Yellowhead Pass and saved hours for both passengers and freight. This section of track was the CPR's
Big Hill.
Safety switches were installed at several points, the speed limit for
descending trains was set at 10 km per hour (6 mph), and special
locomotives
were ordered. Despite these measures, several serious runaways still
occurred including the first locomotive, which belonged to the
contractors, to descend the line. CPR officials insisted that this was a
temporary expediency, but this state of affairs would last for 25 years
until the completion of the
Spiral Tunnels in the early 20th century.
In 1881, construction progressed at a pace too slow for the railway's
officials who, in 1882, hired the renowned railway executive
William Cornelius Van Horne
to oversee construction with the inducement of a generous salary and
the intriguing challenge of handling such a difficult railway project.
Van Horne stated that he would have 800 km (500 mi) of main line built
in 1882.
Floods
delayed the start of the construction season, but over 672 km (418 mi)
of main line, as well as various sidings and branch lines, were built
that year. The Thunder Bay branch (west from
Fort William)
was completed in June 1882 by the Department of Railways and Canals and
turned over to the company in May 1883, permitting all-Canadian lake
and rail traffic from Eastern Canada to
Winnipeg,
for the first time in Canada's history. By the end of 1883, the railway
had reached the Rocky Mountains, just eight km (five miles) east of
Kicking Horse Pass. The construction seasons of 1884 and 1885 would be
spent in the mountains of British Columbia and on the north shore of
Lake Superior.
Many thousands of
navvies
worked on the railway. Many were European immigrants. In British
Columbia, government contractors hired workers from China, known as "
coolies".
A navvy received between $1 and $2.50 per day, but had to pay for his
own food, clothing, transportation to the job site, mail and medical
care. After 2-1/2 months of hard labour, they could net as little as
$16. Chinese laborers in British Columbia made only between 75 cents and
$1.25 a day, paid in rice mats, and not including expenses, leaving
barely anything to send home. They did the most dangerous construction
jobs, such as working with
explosives to clear tunnels through rock.
[14]
The families of the Chinese who were killed received no compensation,
or even notification of loss of life. Many of the men who survived did
not have enough money to return to their families in China, although
Chinese labour contractors had promised that as part of their
responsibilities.
[15]
Many spent years in isolated and often poor conditions. Yet the Chinese
were hard working and played a key role in building the Western stretch
of the railway; even some boys as young as twelve years old served as
tea-boys. In 2006 the Canadian government issued a formal apology to the
Chinese population in Canada for their treatment both during and
following the construction of the CPR.
[16]
By 1883, railway construction was progressing rapidly, but the CPR
was in danger of running out of funds. In response, on 31 January 1884,
the government passed the Railway Relief Bill, providing a further $22.5
million in loans to the CPR. The bill received royal assent on 6 March
1884.
[17]
In March 1885, the
North-West Rebellion broke out in the
District of Saskatchewan. Van Horne, in
Ottawa at the time, suggested to the government that the CPR could transport troops to
Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan (
Assiniboia)
in 10 days. Some sections of track were incomplete or had not been used
before, but the trip to Winnipeg was made in nine days and the
rebellion quickly put down. Perhaps because the government was grateful
for this service, they subsequently re-organized the CPR's debt and
provided a further $5 million loan. This money was desperately needed by
the CPR. However, this government loan was later found out to be
controversial. Even with Van Horne's support with moving troops to
Qu'Appelle, the government still delayed in giving its support to CPR.
This was due to Sir John A. Macdonald putting pressure on George Stephen
for additional benefits. Stephen himself later did admit to spending $1
million between 1881 and 1886 to ensure government support. This money
went to buying a £40,000 necklace for Lady MacDonald and numerous other
"bonifications" to government members.
[18]
On 7 November 1885, the
last spike was driven at
Craigellachie, British Columbia,
making good on the original promise. Four days earlier, the last spike
of the Lake Superior section was driven in just west of
Jackfish, Ontario.
While the railway was completed four years after the original 1881
deadline, it was completed more than five years ahead of the new date of
1891 that Macdonald gave in 1881. The successful construction of such a
massive project, although troubled by delays and scandal, was
considered an impressive feat of engineering and political will for a
country with such a small population, limited capital, and difficult
terrain. It was by far the longest railway ever constructed at the time.
It had taken 12,000 men and 5,000 horses to construct the Lake section.
[19]
Meanwhile, in Eastern Canada, the CPR had created a network of lines reaching from
Quebec City to
St. Thomas, Ontario by 1885, and had launched a fleet of Great Lakes ships to link its terminals. The CPR had effected purchases and long-term
leases of several railways through an associated railway company, the
Ontario and Quebec Railway (O&Q). The O&Q built a line between
Perth, Ontario, and
Toronto
(completed on 5 May 1884) to connect these acquisitions. The CPR
obtained a 999-year lease on the O&Q on 4 January 1884. In 1895 it
acquired a minority interest in the
Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway, giving it a link to New York and the Northeast United States.
[20]
1886–1900
The
last spike in the CPR was driven on 7 November 1885, by one of its directors,
Donald Smith,
but so many cost-cutting shortcuts were taken in constructing the
railway that regular transcontinental service could not start for
another seven months while work was done to improve the railway's
condition (part of this was due to snow in the mountains and lack of
snowsheds to keep the line open). However, had these shortcuts not been
taken, it is conceivable that the CPR might have had to default
financially, leaving the railway unfinished.
The first transcontinental passenger train departed from Montreal's
Dalhousie Station, located at Berri Street and Notre Dame Street at 8 pm on 28 June 1886, and arrived at
Port Moody
at noon on 4 July 1886. This train consisted of two baggage cars, a
mail car, one second-class coach, two immigrant sleepers, two
first-class coaches, two sleeping cars and a diner (several dining cars
were used throughout the journey, as they were removed from the train
during the night, and another one was picked in the morning).
By that time, however, the CPR had decided to move its western terminus from
Port Moody to
Granville,
which was renamed "Vancouver" later that year. The first official train
destined for Vancouver arrived on 23 May 1887, although the line had
already been in use for three months. The CPR quickly became profitable,
and all loans from the Federal government were repaid years ahead of
time. In 1888, a branch line was opened between
Sudbury and
Sault Ste. Marie
where the CPR connected with the American railway system and its own
steamships. That same year, work was started on a line from
London, Ontario, to the American border at
Windsor, Ontario. That line opened on 12 June 1890.
[21]
The CPR also leased the
New Brunswick Railway in 1891 for 991 years,
[22] and built the
International Railway of Maine, connecting Montreal with
Saint John, New Brunswick,
in 1889. The connection with Saint John on the Atlantic coast made the
CPR the first truly transcontinental railway company in Canada and
permitted trans-Atlantic cargo and passenger services to continue
year-round when
sea ice in the
Gulf of St. Lawrence closed the port of Montreal during the winter months. By 1896, competition with the
Great Northern Railway
for traffic in southern British Columbia forced the CPR to construct a
second line across the province, south of the original line. Van Horne,
now president of the CPR, asked for government aid, and the government
agreed to provide around $3.6 million to construct a railway from
Lethbridge, Alberta, through
Crowsnest Pass to the south shore of
Kootenay Lake, in exchange for the CPR agreeing to reduce freight rates in perpetuity for key commodities shipped in Western Canada.
The controversial Crowsnest Pass Agreement effectively locked the eastbound rate on
grain
products and westbound rates on certain "settlers' effects" at the 1897
level. Although temporarily suspended during World War I, it was not
until 1983 that the "
Crow Rate"
was permanently replaced by the Western Grain Transportation Act which
allowed for the gradual increase of grain shipping prices. The Crowsnest
Pass line opened on June 18, 1898, and followed a complicated route
through the maze of valleys and passes in southern British Columbia,
rejoining the original mainline at
Hope after crossing the
Cascade Mountains via
Coquihalla Pass.
[23]
The Southern Mainline, generally known as the
Kettle Valley Railway
in British Columbia, was built in response to the booming mining and
smelting economy in southern British Columbia, and the tendency of the
local geography to encourage and enable easier access from neighbouring
US states than from Vancouver or the rest of Canada, which was viewed to
be as much of a threat to national security as it was to the province's
control of its own resources. The local passenger service was re-routed
to this new southerly line, which connected numerous emergent small
cities across the region. Independent railways and subsidiaries that
were eventually merged into the CPR in connection with this route were
the
Shuswap and Okanagan Railway, the
Kaslo and Slocan Railway, the
Columbia and Kootenay Railway, the
Columbia and Western Railway and various others.
[22]
The CPR and the settlement of Western Canada
Practically speaking, the CPR had built a railway that operated
mostly in the wilderness. The usefulness of the prairies was
questionable in the minds of many. The thinking prevailed that the
prairies had great potential. Under the initial contract with the
Canadian government to build the railway, the CPR was granted 25 million
acres (100,000 km
2). Proving already to be a very
resourceful organization, Canadian Pacific began an intense campaign to
bring immigrants to Canada. Canadian Pacific agents operated in many
overseas locations. Immigrants were often sold a package that included
passage on a CP ship, travel on a CP train, and land sold by the CP
railway. Land was priced at $2.50 an acre and up but required
cultivation.
[24]
1901–1928
During the first decade of the 20th century, the CPR continued to
build more lines. In 1908 the CPR opened a line connecting Toronto with
Sudbury. Previously, westbound traffic originating in
southern Ontario
took a circuitous route through eastern Ontario. Several operational
improvements were also made to the railway in Western Canada. In 1909
the CPR completed two significant engineering accomplishments. The most
significant was the replacement of the Big Hill, which had become a
major bottleneck in the CPR's main line, with the
Spiral Tunnels,
reducing the grade to 2.2 percent from 4.5 percent. The Spiral Tunnels
opened in August. In April 1908, the CPR started work to replace the Old
Calgary-Edmonton Rail Bridge across the Red Deer River with a new
standard steel bridge that was completed by March 1909.
[25]
On 3 November 1909, the
Lethbridge Viaduct over the
Oldman River valley at
Lethbridge,
Alberta, was opened. It is 1,624 metres (5,328 feet) long and, at its
maximum, 96 metres (315 feet) high, making it one of the longest railway
bridges in Canada. In 1916 the CPR replaced its line through
Rogers Pass, which was prone to
avalanches (the
most serious of which killed 62 men in 1910) with the
Connaught Tunnel, an eight km (5 mile) long tunnel under
Mount Macdonald that was, at the time of its opening, the longest railway tunnel in the
Western Hemisphere.
On 21 January 1910, a
passenger train derailed on the CPR line at the
Spanish River bridge at
Nairn, Ontario (near
Sudbury), killing at least 43.
[26][27]
The CPR acquired several smaller railways via long-term leases in 1912. On 3 January 1912, the CPR acquired the
Dominion Atlantic Railway, a railway that ran in western
Nova Scotia. This acquisition gave the CPR a connection to
Halifax,
a significant port on the Atlantic Ocean. The Dominion Atlantic was
isolated from the rest of the CPR network and used the CNR to facilitate
interchange; the DAR also operated ferry services across the
Bay of Fundy for passengers and cargo (but not rail cars) from the port of
Digby, Nova Scotia, to the CPR at
Saint John, New Brunswick. DAR steamships also provided connections for passengers and cargo between
Yarmouth, Boston and New York. On 1 July 1912, the CPR acquired the
Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway, a railway on
Vancouver Island that connected to the CPR using a railcar ferry. The CPR acquired the
Quebec Central Railway on 14 December 1912.
[22]
During the late 19th century, the railway undertook an ambitious
program of hotel construction, building Glacier House in Glacier
National Park,
Mount Stephen House at
Field, British Columbia, the
Château Frontenac in
Quebec City, and the
Banff Springs Hotel.
By then, the CPR had competition from three other transcontinental
lines, all of them money-losers. In 1919, these lines were consolidated,
along with the track of the old
Intercolonial Railway and its spurs, into the government-owned
Canadian National Railways. The CPR suffered its greatest loss of life when one of its steamships, the
Empress of Ireland, sank after a collision with the Norwegian collier
SS Storstad. On 29 May 1914, the
Empress (operated by the CPR's
Canadian Pacific Steamship Company) went down in the
St. Lawrence River with the loss of 1,024 lives, of which 840 were passengers.
[28]
World War I
During World War I CPR put the entire resources of the “world’s
greatest travel system” at the disposal of the British empire, not only
trains and tracks, but also its ships, shops, hotels, telegraphs, and,
above all, its people. Aiding the war effort meant transporting and
billeting troops; building and supplying arms and munitions; arming,
lending and selling ships. Fifty-two CPR ships were pressed into service
during World War I, carrying more than a million troops and passengers
and four million tons of cargo. Twenty seven survived and returned to
CPR. CPR also helped the war effort with money and jobs. CPR made loans
and guarantees to the Allies of some $100 million. As a lasting tribute,
CPR commissioned three statues and 23 memorial tablets to commemorate
the efforts of those who fought and those who died in the war.
[29] After the war, the Federal government created
Canadian National Railways
(CNR, later CN) out of several bankrupt railways that fell into
government hands during and after the war. CNR would become the main
competitor to the CPR in Canada. In 1923
Henry Worth Thornton replaced
David Blyth Hanna becoming the second president of the CNR, and his competition spurred
Edward Wentworth Beatty, the first Canadian-born president of the CPR, to action.
[30] During this time the railway land grants were formalised.
[31]
The Great Depression and World War II, 1929–1945
The
Great Depression,
which lasted from 1929 until 1939, hit many companies heavily. While
the CPR was affected, it was not affected to the extent of its rival CNR
because it, unlike the CNR, was debt-free. The CPR scaled back on some
of its passenger and freight services, and stopped issuing dividends to
its shareholders after 1932. Hard times led to the creation of new
political parties such as the
Social Credit movement and the
Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, as well as popular protest in the form of the
On-to-Ottawa Trek.
[32]
One highlight of the late 1930s, both for the railway and for Canada, was the visit of
King George VI and
Queen Elizabeth during their
1939 royal tour of Canada,
the first time that the reigning monarch had visited the country. The
CPR and the CNR shared the honours of pulling the royal train across the
country, with the CPR undertaking the westbound journey from Quebec
City to Vancouver. Later that year, World War II began. As it had done
in World War I, the CPR devoted much of its resources to the war effort.
It retooled its
Angus Shops in Montreal to produce
Valentine tanks
and other armored vehicles, and transported troops and resources across
the country. As well, 22 of the CPR's ships went to war, 12 of which
were sunk.
[33]
1946–1978
After World War II, the transportation industry in Canada changed.
Where railways had previously provided almost universal freight and
passenger services, cars, trucks, and
airplanes
started to take traffic away from railways. This naturally helped the
CPR's air and trucking operations, and the railway's freight operations
continued to thrive hauling resource traffic and bulk commodities.
However, passenger trains quickly became unprofitable. During the 1950s,
the railway introduced new innovations in passenger service. In 1955 it
introduced
The Canadian,
a new luxury transcontinental train. However, starting in the 1960s the
company started to pull out of passenger services, ending services on
many of its branch lines. It also discontinued its secondary
transcontinental train
The Dominion in 1966, and in 1970 unsuccessfully applied to discontinue
The Canadian. For the next eight years, it continued to apply to discontinue the service, and service on
The Canadian declined markedly. On 29 October 1978, CP Rail transferred its passenger services to
Via Rail, a new federal
Crown corporation
that is responsible for managing all intercity passenger service
formerly handled by both CP Rail and CN. Via eventually took almost all
of its passenger trains, including
The Canadian, off CP's lines.
[34]
In 1968, as part of a corporate re-organization, each of the CPR's
major operations, including its rail operations, were organized as
separate subsidiaries. The name of the railway was changed to CP Rail,
and the parent company changed its name to
Canadian Pacific Limited
in 1971. Its air, express, telecommunications, hotel and real estate
holdings were spun off, and ownership of all of the companies
transferred to Canadian Pacific Investments. The company discarded its
beaver logo, adopting the new
Multimark that was used—with a different colour background—for each of its operations.
[35]
1979–2001
On 10 November 1979 a
derailment of a hazardous materials train in
Mississauga, Ontario, led to the evacuation of 200,000 people; there were no fatalities.
[36][37]
In 1984 CP Rail commenced construction of the
Mount Macdonald Tunnel to augment the
Connaught Tunnel under the
Selkirk Mountains.
The first revenue train passed through the tunnel in 1988. At 14.7 km
(nine miles), it is the longest tunnel in the Americas. During the
1980s, the
Soo Line Railroad, in which CP Rail still owned a controlling interest, underwent several changes. It acquired the
Minneapolis, Northfield and Southern Railway in 1982. Then on 21 February 1985, the Soo Line obtained a controlling interest in the
Milwaukee Road, merging it into its system on 1 January 1986. Also in 1980 Canadian Pacific bought out the controlling interests of the
Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway (TH&B) from
Conrail
and molded it into the Canadian Pacific System, dissolving the
TH&B's name from the books in 1985. In 1987 most of CPR's trackage
in the
Great Lakes region, including much of the original Soo Line, were spun off into a new railway, the
Wisconsin Central, which was subsequently purchased by
CN. Influenced by the
Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement
of 1989 which liberalized trade between the two nations, the CPR's
expansion continued during the early 1990s: CP Rail gained full control
of the Soo Line in 1990, and bought the
Delaware and Hudson Railway
in 1991. These two acquisitions gave CP Rail routes to the major
American cities of Chicago (via the Soo Line) and New York City (via the
D&H).
[38]
During the next few years CP Rail downsized its route, and several Canadian
branch lines and even some secondary mainlines were either sold to
short lines or abandoned. This rationalization, however, came at a price, as many
grain elevators in the region known as Canada's
Breadbasket
shut down due to not being able to distribute their thousands of
bushels of grain through a large enough region. This included all of its
lines east of Montreal, with the routes operating across Maine and New
Brunswick to the port of Saint John (operating as the
Canadian Atlantic Railway) being sold or abandoned, severing CPR's transcontinental status (in Canada); the opening of the
St. Lawrence Seaway in the late 1950s, coupled with subsidized icebreaking services, made Saint John surplus to CPR's requirements.
During the 1990s, both CP Rail and CN attempted unsuccessfully to buy
out the eastern assets of the other, so as to permit further
rationalization. In 1996, CP Rail moved its head office from Windsor
Station in Montreal to Gulf Canada Square in Calgary, Alberta. CP
consolidated most of its Canadian train control into the new office,
creating the Network Management Centre (NMC). The NMC controlled all CP
train movement from the Port of Vancouver to Northern Ontario (Mactier,
Ontario). A smaller office was left at Windsor Station, which controlled
train traffic from Mactier to the Port of Montreal.
In 1996, CP Rail moved its head office to Calgary from Montreal and
changed its name back to Canadian Pacific Railway. A new subsidiary
company, the
St. Lawrence and Hudson Railway, was created to operate its money-losing lines in eastern North America, covering
Quebec, Southern and
Eastern Ontario, trackage rights to
Chicago, Illinois, as well as the
Delaware and Hudson Railway
in the northeastern United States. However, the new subsidiary,
threatened with being sold off and free to innovate, quickly spun off
losing track to short lines, instituted scheduled freight service, and
produced an unexpected turn-around in profitability. On January 1, 2001
the StL&H was formally amalgamated with the CP Rail system.
2001 to present
In 2001, the CPR's parent company,
Canadian Pacific Limited,
spun off its five subsidiaries, including the CPR, into independent
companies. Most of the company's non-railroad businesses at the time of
the split were operated by a separate subsidiary called
Canadian Pacific Limited.
Canadian Pacific Railway formally (but, not legally) shortened its name
to Canadian Pacific in early 2007, dropping the word "railway" in order
to reflect more operational flexibility. Shortly after the name
revision, Canadian Pacific announced that it had committed to becoming a
major sponsor and logistics provider to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games
in
Vancouver, British Columbia.
[39]
In December 2004, Teck Cominco filed to sue Canadian Pacific Railway
to protect its right over metal contamination at an old mine site. On 10
October 2006, Canadian Pacific Railway was awarded the "Rail Origin of
the Year" award by American Honda Motor Co.
[40] On 4 September 2007, CPR announced it was acquiring the
Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad from London-based
Electra Private Equity.
[41]
The transaction was an "end-to-end" consolidation and gave CPR access
to United States shippers of agricultural products, ethanol, and coal.
CPR stated its intention to use this purchase to gain access to the rich
coal fields of
Wyoming's
Powder River Basin. The purchase price was US
$
1.48 billion with future payments of over US$1 billion contingent on
commencement of construction on the smaller railroad's Powder River
extension and specified volumes of coal shipments from the Powder River
basin. The transaction was subject to approval of the U.S.
Surface Transportation Board
(STB), which was expected to take about a year. On 4 October 2007, CPR
announced that it completed financial transactions required for the
acquisition, placing the DM&E and IC&E in a voting trust with
Richard Hamlin appointed as trustee.
[42] The merger was completed as of 31 October 2008.
[43]
On 28 October 2011, in a 13D regulatory filing, the U.S. hedge fund
Pershing Square Capital Management (PSCM) indicated it owned 12.2 percent of Canadian Pacific.
[44][44]
PSCM began acquiring Canadian Pacific shares in 2011. The stake
eventually increased to 14.2 percent, making PSCM the railway's largest
shareholder. At a meeting with the company that month, Pershing's head
Bill Ackman
proposed replacing Fred Green as CP's chief executive. Just hours
before the railway's annual shareholder meeting on Thursday, 17 May
2012, Green and five other board members, including chairman John
Cleghorn, resigned. The seven nominees, including Ackman and his
partner, Paul Hilal, were then elected. The reconstituted board, having
named Stephen Tobias (former vice president and
chief operating officer of
Norfolk Southern Railroad) as interim CEO, initiated a search for a new CEO, eventually settling on
E. Hunter Harrison, former President of CN Rail, on 29 June 2012.
[45][46]
Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. trains resumed regular operations on 1
June 2012 after a nine-day strike by some 4,800 locomotive engineers,
conductors and traffic controllers walked off the job on 23 May,
stalling Canadian freight traffic and costing the economy an estimated
C$80 million (USD $77 million). The strike ended with a government
back-to-work bill forcing both sides to come to a
binding agreement.
[47][48]
On 6 July 2013, a unit train of
crude oil which CP had subcontracted to short-line operator
Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway derailed in Lac-Mégantic, killing 47.
[49] On 14 August 2013, the Quebec government added the CPR, along with lessor
World Fuel Services (WFS), to the list of corporate entities from which it seeks reimbursement for the environmental cleanup of the
Lac-Megantic derailment.
[49] On 15 July, the press reported that CP would appeal the legal order. Railway spokesman Ed Greenberg stated
"Canadian Pacific has reviewed the notice. As a matter of fact, in law, CP is not responsible for this cleanup."[50] In February 2014, Harrison called for immediate action to phase-out
DOT-111 tank cars, known to be more dangerous in cases of derailment.
[51]
Freight trains
Over half of CP's freight traffic is in coal, grain, and
intermodal
freight, and the vast majority of its profits are made in western
Canada. A major shift in trade from the Atlantic to the Pacific has
caused serious drops in CPR's wheat shipments through
Thunder Bay. It also ships automotive parts and assembled automobiles,
sulphur,
fertilizers, other chemicals, forest products, and other types of
commodities. The busiest part of its railway network is along its main
line between Calgary and Vancouver. Since 1970, coal has become a major
commodity hauled by CPR. Coal is shipped in
unit trains from coal mines in the mountains, most notably
Sparwood, British Columbia to terminals at
Roberts Bank and
North Vancouver, from where it is then shipped to Japan. CP hauls millions of metric tons of coal to the west coast each year.
Grain is hauled by the CPR from the prairies to ports at
Thunder Bay (the former cities of
Fort William and
Port Arthur), Quebec City and Vancouver, where it is then shipped overseas. The traditional winter export port was
West Saint John, New Brunswick,
when ice closed the St. Lawrence River. Grain has always been a
significant commodity hauled by the CPR; between 1905 and 1909, the CPR
double-tracked its section of track between
Fort William, Ontario (part of present-day
Thunder Bay) and
Winnipeg
to facilitate grain shipments. For several decades this was the only
long stretch of double-track mainline outside of urban areas on the CPR.
Today, though the Thunder Bay-Winnipeg section is now single tracked,
the CPR still has two long distance double track lines serving rural
areas, including a 75-mile (121 km) stretch between
Kent, British Columbia and
Vancouver which follows the
Fraser River into the
Coast Mountains, as well as the Canadian Pacific Winchester Sub, a 100-mile (160 km) stretch of double track mainline which runs from
Smiths Falls, Ontario through downtown
Montreal which runs through many rural farming communities. There are also various long stretches of double track between
Golden and
Kamloops, British Columbia, and portions of the original Winnipeg-Thunder Bay double track (such as 20 miles through
Kenora and
Keewatin, Ontario) are still double track.
In 1952, the CPR became the first North American railway to introduce
intermodal or "piggyback"
freight service, where truck trailers are carried on
flat cars.
Containers later replaced most piggyback service. In 1996, the CPR
introduced a scheduled reservation-only short-haul intermodal service
between Montreal and West Toronto called the
Iron Highway; it utilized unique equipment that was later replaced (1999) by conventional piggyback flatcars and renamed
Expressway. This service was extended to Detroit with plans to reach Chicago however CP was unable to locate a suitable terminal.
Passenger trains
The train was the primary mode of long-distance transportation in
Canada until the 1960s. Among the many types of people who rode CPR
trains were new immigrants heading for the prairies, military troops
(especially during the two world wars) and upper class tourists. It also
custom-built many of its
passenger cars at its
CPR Angus Shops to be able to meet the demands of the upper class.
The CPR also had a line of Great Lakes ships integrated into its
transcontinental service. From 1885 until 1912, these ships linked Owen
Sound on
Georgian Bay
to Fort William. Following a major fire in December 1911 that destroyed
the grain elevator, operations were relocated to a new, larger port
created by the CPR at Port McNicoll opening in May 1912. Five ships
allowed daily service, and included the S.S.
Assiniboia, and S.S.
Keewatin
built in 1908 which remained in use until the end of service.
Travellers went by train from Toronto to that Georgian Bay port, then
travelled by ship to link with another train at the Lakehead. After
World War II, the trains and ships carried automobiles as well as
passengers. This service featured what was to become the last
boat train in North America. The
Steam Boat
was a fast, direct connecting train between Toronto and Port McNicoll.
The passenger service was discontinued at the end of season in 1965 with
one ship, the
Keewatin, carrying on in freight service for two more years. It later became a marine museum in the United States before returning to Canada in 2013.
[52]
After World War II, passenger traffic declined as automobiles and
aeroplanes became more common, but the CPR continued to innovate in an
attempt to keep ridership up. Beginning 9 November 1953, the CPR
introduced
Budd Rail Diesel Cars (RDCs) on many of its lines. Officially called "Dayliners" by the CPR, they were always referred to as
Budd Cars
by employees. Greatly reduced travel times and reduced costs resulted,
which saved service on many lines for a number of years. The CPR went on
to acquire the second largest fleet of RDCs totaling 52 cars. Only the
Boston and Maine Railroad
had more. This CPR fleet also included the rare model RDC-4 (which
consisted of a mail section at one end and a baggage section at the
other end with no formal passenger section). On 24 April 1955, the CPR
introduced a new luxury transcontinental passenger train,
The Canadian. The train provided service between Vancouver and Toronto or Montreal (east of
Sudbury; the train was in two sections). The train, which operated on an expedited schedule, was pulled by
diesel locomotives, and used new, streamlined, stainless steel rolling stock.
[53]
Starting in the 1960s, however, the railway started to discontinue
much of its passenger service, particularly on its branch lines. For
example, passenger service ended on its line through southern
British Columbia and
Crowsnest Pass in January 1964, and on its
Quebec Central in April 1967, and the transcontinental train
The Dominion was dropped in January 1966. On 29 October 1978, CP Rail transferred its passenger services to
Via Rail,
a new federal Crown corporation that was now responsible for intercity
passenger services in Canada. Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney
presided over major cuts in Via Rail service on 15 January 1990. This
ended service by "The Canadian" over CPR rails, and the train was
rerouted on the former "Super Continental" route via Canadian National
without a change of name. Where both trains had been daily prior to the
15 January 1990, cuts, the surviving "Canadian" was only a
three-times-weekly operation. In October 2012, the "Canadian" was
reduced to twice-weekly for the six-month off-season period, and now
operates three-times-weekly for only six months a year. In addition to
inter-city passenger services, the CPR also provided
commuter rail services in Montreal. CP Rail introduced Canada's first
bi-level passenger cars here in 1970. On 1 October 1982, the
Montreal Urban Community Transit Commission (STCUM) assumed responsibility for the commuter services previously provided by CP Rail. It continues under the
Metropolitan Transportation Agency (AMT).
Canadian Pacific Railway currently operates two commuter services under contract.
GO Transit
contracts CPR to operate six return trips between Milton and downtown
Toronto in Ontario. In Montreal, 59 daily commuter trains run on CPR
lines from
Lucien-L'Allier Station to
Candiac,
Rigaud and
Blainville–Saint-Jerome on behalf of the AMT. CP no longer operates Vancouver's
West Coast Express on behalf of
TransLink, a regional transit authority.
Bombardier Transportation assumed control of train operations on May 5, 2014.
[54]
Sleeping, Dining and Parlour Car Department
Sleeping cars
were operated by a separate department of the railway that included the
dining and parlour cars and aptly named as the Sleeping, Dining and
Parlour Car Department. The CPR decided from the very beginning that it
would operate its own sleeping cars, unlike railways in the United
States that depended upon independent companies that specialized in
providing cars and porters, including building the cars themselves.
Pullman was long a famous name in this regard; its
Pullman porters were legendary. Other early companies included the
Wagner Palace Car Company. Bigger-sized berths and more comfortable surroundings were built by order of the CPR's General Manager,
William Van Horne,
who was a large man himself. Providing and operating their own cars
allowed better control of the service provided as well as keeping all of
the revenue received, although profit was never a direct result of
providing food to passengers. Rather, it was the realization that those
who could afford to travel great distances expected such facilities and
their favourable opinion would bode well to attracting others to Canada
and the CPR's trains.
[55]
Express
W. C. Van Horne decided from the very beginning that the CPR would
retain as much revenue from its various operations as it could. This
translated into keeping express, telegraph, sleeping car and other lines
of business for themselves, creating separate departments or companies
as necessary. This was necessary as the fledgling railway would need all
the income it could get, and in addition, he saw some of these
ancillary operations such as express and telegraph as being quite
profitable. Others such as sleeping and dining cars were kept in order
to provide better control over the quality of service being provided to
passengers. Hotels were likewise crucial to the CPR’s growth by
attracting travellers.
Dominion Express Company was formed independently in 1873
before the CPR itself, although train service did not begin until the
summer of 1882 at which time it operated over some 300 miles (480 km) of
track from Rat Portage (Kenora) Ontario west to Winnipeg, Manitoba. It
was soon absorbed into the CPR and expanded everywhere the CPR went. It
was renamed
Canadian Express Company on 1 September 1926, and the
headquarters moved from Winnipeg, to Toronto. It was operated as a
separate company with the railway charging them to haul express cars on
trains. Express was handled in separate cars, some with employees on
board, on the headend of passenger trains to provide a fast scheduled
service for which higher rates could be charged than for LCL (
Less than Carload Lot),
small shipments of freight which were subject to delay. Aside from all
sorts of small shipments for all kinds of businesses such products as
cream, butter, poultry, and eggs were handled along with fresh flowers,
fish and other sea foods some handled in separate refrigerated cars.
Horses and livestock along with birds and small animals including prize
cattle for exhibition were carried often in special horse cars that had
facilities for grooms to ride with their animals.
Automobiles for individuals were also handled by express in closed
boxcars. Gold and silver bullion as well as cash were carried in large
amounts between the mint and banks and Express messengers were armed for
security. Small business money shipments and valuables such as
jewellery were routinely handled in small packets. Money orders and
travellers' cheques were an important part of the express company’s
business and were used worldwide in the years before credit cards.
Canadian Express Cartage Department
was formed in March 1937 to handle pickup and delivery of most express
shipments including less-than-carload freight. Their trucks were painted
Killarney (dark) green while regular express company vehicles were
painted bright red. Express routes using highway trucks beginning in
November 1945 in southern Ontario and Alberta co-ordinated rail and
highway service expanded service to better serve smaller locations
especially on branchlines. Trucking operations would go on to expand
across Canada making it an important transportation provider for small
shipments. Deregulation in the 1980s, however, changed everything and
trucking services were ended after many attempts to change with the times.
Special trains
Silk trains
Between the 1890s and 1933, the CPR transported raw silk from Vancouver, where they had been shipped from the
Orient, to silk mills in New York and
New Jersey.
A silk train could carry several million dollars worth of silk, so they
had their own armed guards. To avoid train robberies and so minimize
insurance costs, they travelled quickly and stopped only to change
locomotives and crews, which was often done in under five minutes. The
silk trains had superior rights over all other trains; even passenger
trains (including the Royal Train of 1939) would be put in sidings to
make the silk trains' trip faster. At the end of World War II, the
invention of nylon made silk less valuable so the silk trains died out.
[56]
Funeral trains
Funeral trains
would carry the remains of important people, such as prime ministers.
As the train would pass, mourners would be at certain spots to show
respect. Two of the CPR's funeral trains are particularly well-known. On
10 June 1891, the funeral train of Prime Minister
Sir John A. Macdonald ran from Ottawa to
Kingston, Ontario. The train consisted of five heavily draped passenger cars and was pulled by
4-4-0 No. 283. On 14 September 1915, the funeral train of former CPR president
Sir William Cornelius Van Horne ran from Montreal to
Joliet, Illinois, pulled by
4-6-2 No. 2213.
Royal trains
The CPR ran a number of trains that transported members of the Royal
family when they toured Canada. These trains transported royalty through
Canada's scenery, forests, small towns and enabled people to see and
greet them. Their trains were elegantly decorated; some had amenities
such as a post office and barber shop. The CPR's most notable royal
train was in 1939. In 1939 the CPR and the CNR had the honour of giving
King George VI and
Queen Elizabeth a rail tour of Canada, from
Quebec City to
Vancouver.
This was the first visit to Canada by a reigning Monarch. The steam
locomotives used to pull the train included CPR 2850, a Hudson (
4-6-4) built by
Montreal Locomotive Works in 1938, CNR 6400, a U-4-a Northern (
4-8-4) and CNR 6028 a U-1-b Mountain (
4-8-2)
type. They were specially painted royal blue, with the exception of CNR
6028 which was not painted, with silver trim as was the entire train.
The locomotives ran 5,189 km (3,224 mi) across Canada, through 25
changes of crew, without engine failure. The King, somewhat of a
railbuff, rode in the cab when possible. After the tour, King George gave the CPR permission to use the term "
Royal Hudson"
for the CPR locomotives and to display Royal Crowns on their running
boards. This applied only to the semi-streamlined locomotives
(2820–2864), not the "standard" Hudsons (2800–2819).
[57]
Better Farming Train
CPR provided the rollingstock for the
Better Farming Train which toured rural
Saskatchewan
between 1914 and 1922 to promote the latest information on agricultural
research. It was staffed by the University of Saskatchewan and
operating expenses were covered by the Department of Agriculture.
[58]
School cars
Between 1926 and the early 1960s the CPR ran a school car to reach
people who lived in Northern Ontario, far from schools. A teacher would
travel in a specially designed car to remote areas and would stay to
teach in one area for two to three days, then leave for another area.
Each car had a blackboard and a few sets of chairs and desks. They also
contained miniature libraries and accommodation for the teacher.
Silver Streak
Major filming for the 1976 movie
Silver Streak, a fictional comedy tale of a murder-infested train trip from Los Angeles to Chicago, was done on the CPR, mainly in the
Alberta area with station footage at
Toronto's Union Station.
The train set was so lightly disguised as the fictional "AMRoad" that
the locomotives and cars still carried their original names and numbers,
along with the easily identifiable CP Rail red-striped paint scheme.
Most of the cars are still in revenue service on Via Rail Canada; the
lead locomotive (CP 4070) and the second unit (CP 4067) were sold to Via
Rail and CTCUM respectively.
[59]
Holiday Train
Starting in 1999, CP runs a Holiday Train along its main line during
the months of November and December. The Holiday Train celebrates the
holiday season and collects donations for community
food banks
and hunger issues. The Holiday Train also provides publicity for
Canadian Pacific and a few of its customers. Each train has a box car
stage for entertainers who are travelling along with the train.
[60]
The train is a freight train, but also pulls vintage passenger cars
which are used as lodging/transportation for the crew and entertainers.
Only entertainers and CP employees are allowed to board the train aside
from a coach car that takes employees and their families from one stop
to the next. Since its launch in 1999, the Holiday Train program has
raised close to $9.5 million
CAD
and 3.3 million pounds of food for North American food banks. All
donations collected in a community remain in that community for
distribution.
[61]
There are two Holiday trains that cover 150 stops in Canada and the United States Northeast and Midwest.
[62]
Each train is roughly 1,000 feet in length with brightly decorated rail
cars, including a modified box car that has been turned into a
traveling stage for performers. They are each decorated with hundred of
thousands of LED Christmas lights. In 2013 to celebrate the programs
15th year, three signature events were held in
Hamilton, Ontario,
Calgary, Alberta, and
Cottage Grove, Minnesota to further raise awareness for hunger issues.
Royal Canadian Pacific
On 7 June 2000, the CPR inaugurated the
Royal Canadian Pacific,
a luxury excursion service that operates between the months of June and
September. It operates along a 1,050 km (650 mi) route from Calgary,
through the
Columbia Valley in British Columbia, and returning to Calgary via
Crowsnest Pass.
The trip takes six days and five nights. The train consists of up to
eight luxury passenger cars built between 1916 and 1931 and is powered
by first-generation diesel locomotives.
[63]
Steam train
In 1998, the CPR repatriated one of its former passenger steam
locomotives that had been on static display in the United States
following its sale in January 1964, long after the close of the steam
era. CPR Hudson
2816 was re-designated
Empress 2816
following a 30-month restoration that cost in excess of $1 million. It
was subsequently returned to service to promote public relations. It has
operated across much of the CPR system, including lines in the U.S. and
been used for various charitable purposes; 100% of the money raised
goes to the nation-wide charity
Breakfast for Learning — the CPR bears all of the expenses associated with the operation of the train.
2816 is the subject of
Rocky Mountain Express, a 2001
IMAX
film which follows the locomotive on an eastbound journey beginning in
Vancouver, and which tells the story of the building of the CPR.
[64]
Spirit Train
In 2008, Canadian Pacific partnered with the
2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games to present a "Spirit Train" tour that featured Olympic-themed events at various stops.
Colin James was a headline entertainer.
[65] Several stops were met by protesters who argued that the games were slated to take place on stolen indigenous land.
[66][67][68]
Non-railway services
Historically, Canadian Pacific operated several non-railway
businesses. In 1971, these businesses were split off into the separate
company
Canadian Pacific Limited, and in 2001, that company was further split into five companies. CP no longer provides any of these services.
Telegraph
The original charter of the CPR granted in 1881 provided for the right to create an
electric telegraph
and telephone service including charging for it. The telephone had
barely been invented but telegraph was well established as a means of
communicating quickly across great distances. Being allowed to sell this
service meant the railway could offset the costs of constructing and
maintaining a pole line along its tracks across vast distances for its
own purposes which were largely for dispatching trains. It began doing
so in 1882 as the separate Telegraph Department. It would go on to
provide a link between the cables under the Atlantic and Pacific oceans
when they were completed. Prior to the CPR line messages to the west
could be sent only via the United States.
[69]
Paid for by the word, the telegram was an expensive way to send
messages, but they were vital to businesses. An individual receiving a
personal telegram was seen as being someone important except for those
that transmitted sorrow in the form of death notices. Messengers on
bicycles delivered telegrams and picked up a reply in cities. In smaller
locations the local railway station agent would handle this on a
commission basis. To speed things, at the local end messages would first
be telephoned. In 1931 it became the Communications Department in
recognition of the expanding services provided which included telephones
lines,
news wire,
ticker quotations for the
stock market and eventually
Teleprinters. All were faster than mail and very important to business and the public alike for many decades before
cell phones
and computers came along. It was the coming of these newer technologies
especially cellular telephones that eventually resulted in the demise
of these services even after formation in 1967 of
CN-CP Telecommunications in an effort to effect efficiencies through consolidation rather than competition.
Deregulation in the 1980s brought about mergers and the sale of remaining services and facilities.
[70]
Radio
On 17 January 1930, the CPR applied for licenses to operate radio
stations in 11 cities from coast to coast for the purpose of organizing
its own radio network in order to compete with the
CNR Radio
service. The CNR had built a radio network with the aim of promoting
itself as well as entertaining its passengers during their travels. The
onset of the Great Depression hurt the CPR's financial plan for a rival
project and in April they withdrew their applications for stations in
all but Toronto, Montreal and Winnipeg. CPR did not end up pursuing
these applications but instead operated a
phantom station in Toronto known as "CPRY," with initials standing for "Canadian Pacific Royal York"
[71] which operated out of studios at CP's
Royal York Hotel and leased time on
CFRB and
CKGW.
[72]
A network of affiliates carried the CPR radio network's broadcasts in
the first half of the 1930s, but the takeover of CNR's Radio service by
the new
Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission removed CPR's need to have a network for competitive reasons, and CPR's radio service was discontinued in 1935.
Steamships
Steamships
played an important part in the history of CP from the very earliest
days. During construction of the line in British Columbia even before
the private CPR took over from the government contractor, ships were
used to bring supplies to the construction sites. Similarly, to reach
the isolated area of Superior in northern Ontario ships were used to
bring in supplies to the construction work. While this work was going on
there was already regular passenger service to the West. Trains
operated from Toronto to Owen Sound where CPR steamships connected to
Fort William where trains once again operated to reach Winnipeg. Before
the CPR was completed the only way to reach the West was through the
United States via St. Paul and Winnipeg. This Great Lakes steam ship
service continued as an alternative route for many years and was always
operated by the railway. Canadian Pacific passenger service on the lakes
ended in 1965.
[73]
In 1884, CPR began purchasing sailing ships as part of a railway supply service on the
Great Lakes. Over time, CPR became a railroad company with widely organized water transportation auxiliaries including the
Great Lakes service, the trans-Pacific service, the
Pacific coastal service, the
British Columbia lake and river service,
the trans-Atlantic service, and the Bay of Fundy Ferry service. In the
20th century, the company evolved into an intercontinental railroad
which operated two transoceanic services which connected Canada with
Europe and with Asia. The range of CPR services were aspects of an
integrated plan.
[74]
Once the railway was completed to British Columbia the CPR chartered
and soon bought their own passenger steamships. These sleek steamships
were of the latest design and christened with the prefix Empress in a
link to the Orient. Travel to and from the Orient and cargo, especially
imported tea and silk were an important source of revenue aided by Royal
Mail contracts. This was an important part of the All Red Route to link
the British Empire. The other ocean part was the Atlantic service from
England which began with acquisition of two existing lines, Beaver Line,
owned by Elder Dempster and Allan Lines. These two segments became
Canadian Pacific Ocean Services (later, Canadian Pacific Steamships) and
operated separately from the various lake services operated in Canada
and which were considered to be a direct part of the railway's
operations. These trans-ocean routes made it possible to travel from
Britain to Hong Kong using only the CPR's ships, trains and hotels. CP’s
'Empress' ships became world-famous for their luxury and speed. They
had a practical role too in transporting immigrants from much of Europe
to Canada especially to populate the vast prairies. They also played an
important role in both world wars with many of them being lost to enemy
action including
Empress of Britain.
[73]
There were also a number of
rail ferries operated over the years as well including, between Windsor, Ontario and
Detroit, Michigan
from 1890 until 1915. This began with two paddle-wheelers capable of
carrying 16 cars. Passenger cars were carried as well as freight. This
service ended in 1915 when the CPR made an agreement with the Michigan
Central to use their Detroit River tunnel opened in 1910.
Pennsylvania-Ontario Transportation Company was formed jointly with the
PRR in 1906 to operate a ferry across lake Erie between
Ashtabula, Ohio and
Port Burwell, Ontario
to carry freight cars, mostly of coal, much of it to be burned in CPR
steam locomotives. Only one ferry boat was ever operated,
Ashtabula, a large vessel which eventually sank in a harbour collision in Ashtabula on 18 September 1958, thus ending the service.
[73]
Canadian Pacific Car and Passenger Transfer Company was formed by
other interest in 1888 linking the CPR in Prescott, Ontario, and the NYC
in Ogdensburg, New York. Service on this route had actually begun very
early, in 1854 along with service from Brockville. A bridge built in
1958 ended passenger service however, freight continued until
Ogdensburg's dock was destroyed by fire 25 September 1970, thus ending
all service. CPC&PTC was never owned by the CPR.
Bay of Fundy ferry service was operated for passengers and freight for many years linking
Digby, Nova Scotia, and
Saint John, New Brunswick.
Eventually, after 78 years, with the changing times the scheduled
passenger services would all be ended as well as ocean cruises. Cargo
would continue on both oceans with a change over to containers. CP was
an intermodal pioneer especially on land with road and rail mixing to
provide the best service.
CP Ships was the final operation, and in the end it too left CP ownership when it was spun off in 2001.
CP Ships was merged with
Hapag-Lloyd in 2005.
[75]
BC Coast Steamships
The
Canadian Pacific Railway Coast Service (
British Columbia Coast Steamships or BCCS) was established when the CPR acquired in 1901
Canadian Pacific Navigation Company
(no relation) and its large fleet of ships that served 72 ports along
the coast of British Columbia including on Vancouver Island. Service
included the Vancouver-Victoria-Seattle
Triangle Route, Gulf
Islands, Powell River, as well as Vancouver-Alaska service. BCCS
operated a fleet of 14 passenger ships made up of a number of
Princess ships, pocket versions of the famous ocean going
Empress
ships along with a freighter, three tugs and five rail car barges.
Popular with tourists, the Princess ships were famous in their own right
especially
Princess Marguerite (II) which operated from 1949 until 1985 and was the last coastal liner in operation. The best known of the princess ships, however, is
Princess Sophia, which sank with no survivors in October 1918 after striking the
Vanderbilt Reef in Alaska's
Lynn Canal,
constituting the largest maritime disaster in the history of the
Pacific Northwest. These services continued for many years until
changing conditions in the late 1950s brought about their decline and
eventual demise at the end of season in 1974.
Princess Marguerite
was acquired by the province’s British Columbia Steamship (1975) Ltd.
and continued to operate for a number of years. In 1977 although BCCSS
was the legal name, it was rebranded as Coastal Marine Operations (CMO).
By 1998 the company was bought by the Washington Marine Group which
after purchase was renamed Seaspan Coastal Intermodal Company and then
subsequently rebranded in 2011 as Seaspan Ferries Corporation. Passenger
service ended in 1981.
[76]
BC Lake and River Service
The
Canadian Pacific Railway Lake and River Service (
British Columbia Lake and River Service)
developed slowly and in spurts of growth. CP began a long history of
service in the Kootenays region of southern British Columbia beginning
with the purchase in 1897 of the Columbia and Kootenay Steam Navigation
Company which operated a fleet of steamers and barges on the
Arrow Lakes and was merged into the CPR as the
CPR Lake and River Service which also served the
Arrow Lakes and Columbia River,
Kootenay Lake and Kootenai River,
Lake Okanagan and
Skaha Lake,
Slocan Lake,
Trout Lake, and
Shuswap Lake and the
Thompson River/
Kamloops Lake.
[73]
All of these lake operations had one thing in common, the need for
shallow draft therefore sternwheelers were the choice of ship. Tugs and
barges handled rail equipment including one operation that saw the
entire train including the locomotive and caboose go along. These
services gradually declined and ended in 1975 except for a freight barge
on Slocan Lake. This was the one where the entire train went along
since the barge was a link to an isolated section of track. The
Iris G
tug boat and a barge were operated under contract to CP Rail until the
last train ran late in December 1988. The sternwheel steamship
Moyie
on Kootenay Lake was the last CPR passenger boat in BC lake service,
having operated from 1898 until 1957. She became a beached historical
exhibit, as are also the
Sicamous and
Naramata at
Penticton on
Lake Okanagan.
[77][78]
Hotels
To promote tourism and passenger ridership the Canadian Pacific
established a series of first class hotels. These hotels became
landmarks famous in their own right. They include
The Algonquin in
St. Andrews,
Château Frontenac in
Quebec,
Royal York in Toronto, Minaki Lodge in Minaki Ontario,
Hotel Vancouver,
Empress Hotel in
Victoria and the
Banff Springs Hotel and
Chateau Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies. Several signature hotels were acquired from its competitor
Canadian National
during the 1980s, including the Jasper Park Lodge. The hotels retain
their Canadian Pacific heritage but are no longer operated by the
railroad. In 1998
Canadian Pacific Hotels acquired
Fairmont Hotels, an American company, becoming
Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, Inc.;
the combined corporation operated the historic Canadian properties as
well as the Fairmont's U.S. properties until merged with Raffles Hotels
and Resorts and Swissôtel in 2006.
[79]
Airline
Canadian Pacific Airlines, also called CP Air, operated from 1942 to
1987 and was the main competitor of Canadian government-owned
Air Canada. Based at
Vancouver International Airport, it served Canadian and international routes until it was purchased by
Pacific Western Airlines which merged PWA and CP Air to create
Canadian Airlines.
Locomotives
Steam locomotives
In the CPR's early years, it made extensive use of
American Standard 4-4-0 steam locomotives and an example of this is the
Countess of Dufferin. Later, considerable use was also made of the
4-6-0 type for passenger and
2-8-0 type for freight. Starting in the 20th century, the CPR bought and built hundreds of
Ten-Wheeler type
4-6-0s for passenger and freight service and similar quantities of
2-8-0s and
2-10-2s for freight. 2-10-2s were also used in passenger service on mountain routes. The CPR bought hundreds of
4-6-2 Pacifics between 1906 and 1948 with later versions being true dual purpose passenger and fast freight locomotives.
[80]
The CPR built hundreds of its own locomotives at its shops in Montreal, first at the
New Shops
as the DeLorimer shops were commonly referred to and at the massive
Angus Shops that replaced them in 1904. Some of the CPR's best-known
locomotives were the
4-6-4 Hudsons.
First built in 1929 they began a new era of modern locomotives with
capabilities that changed how transcontinental passenger trains ran,
eliminating frequent changes en route. What once took 24 changes of
engines in 1886, all of them 4-4-0s except for two of 2-8-0s in the
mountains, for 2,883 miles (4,640 km) between Montreal and Vancouver
became 8 changes. The 2800s (Twenty Eight Hundreds) as the Hudson type
was known, ran from Toronto to Fort William a distance of 811 miles
(1,305 km), while another lengthy engine district was from Winnipeg to
Calgary 832 miles (1,339 km). Especially notable were the semi-
streamlined H1 class
Royal Hudson,
locomotives that were given their name because one of their class
hauled the Royal Train carrying King George VI and Queen Elizabeth on
the 1939 Royal Tour across Canada without change or failure. That
locomotive, No. 2850, is preserved in the Exporail exhibit hall of the
Canadian Railway Museum in St. Constant (Delson) Quebec. One of the class, No. 2860, was restored by the
British Columbia government and used in excursion service on the
British Columbia Railway between 1974 and 1999.
In 1929, the CPR received its first
2-10-4 Selkirk locomotives,
the largest steam locomotives to run in Canada and the British Empire.
Named after the Selkirk Mountains where they served, these locomotives
were well suited for steep grades. They were regularly used in passenger
and freight service. The CPR would own 37 of these locomotives,
including number 8000, an experimental high pressure engine. The last
steam locomotives that the CPR received, in 1949, were Selkirks,
numbered 5930–5935.
Diesel locomotives
In 1937, the CPR acquired its first
diesel-electric locomotive,
a custom built one-of-a-kind switcher numbered 7000. This locomotive
was not successful and was not repeated. Production model diesels were
imported from
American Locomotive Company (Alco) starting with five model
S-2 yard switchers in 1943 and followed by further orders. In 1949, operations on lines in
Vermont were dieselized with
Alco FA1 road locomotives (8 A and 4 B units), 5
Alco RS-2 road switchers, 3 Alco S-2 switchers and 3
EMD E8 passenger locomotives. In 1948
Montreal Locomotive Works began production of ALCO designs.
[81]
In 1949, the CPR acquired 13
Baldwin designed locomotives from the
Canadian Locomotive Company for its isolated
Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway, and
Vancouver Island
was quickly dieselized. Following that successful experiment, the CPR
started to dieselise its main network. Dieselization was completed 11
years later, with its last steam locomotive running on 6 November 1960.
The CPR's first-generation locomotives were mostly made by
General Motors Diesel and
Montreal Locomotive Works, (
American Locomotive Company designs), with some made by the
Canadian Locomotive Company to
Baldwin and
Fairbanks Morse designs. CP was the first railway in North America to pioneer
AC traction diesel-electric locomotives, in 1984. In 1995 CP turned to General Electric
GE Transportation Systems
for the first production AC traction locomotives in Canada, and now has
the highest percentage of AC locomotives in service of all North
American Class I railways. The fleet includes these types:
Corporate structure
Canadian Pacific Railway Limited (
TSX:
CP NYSE:
CP)
is a Canadian rail transportation company that operates the Canadian
Pacific Railway. It was created in 2001 when the CPR's former parent
company,
Canadian Pacific Limited, spun off its railway operations. On 3 October 2001, the company's shares began to trade on the
New York Stock Exchange and the
Toronto Stock Exchange
under the "CP" symbol. During 2003, the company earned $3.5 billion
(Canadian dollars) in freight revenue. In October 2008, Canadian Pacific
Railway Ltd was named one of "
Canada's Top 100 Employers" by Mediacorp Canada Inc., and was featured in
Maclean's. Later that month, CPR was named one of
Alberta's Top Employers, which was reported in both the
Calgary Herald[82] and the
Edmonton Journal.
[83]
Presidents
Major facilities
CP owns a large number of large yards and repair shops across their system, which are used for many operations ranging from
intermodal terminals to
classification yards. Below are some examples of these.
Active hump yards
Hump yards
work by using a small hill over which cars are pushed, before being
released down a slope and switched automatically into cuts of cars,
ready to be made into outbound trains. Many of these yards were closed
in 2012 and 2013 under Hunter Harrison's company-wide restructuring,
only the St. Paul Yard hump remains open.
- Calgary, Alberta – 168-acre (0.68 km2) Alyth Yard; handles 2200 cars daily (closed)
- Chicago, Illinois – Bensenville Yard (closed)
- Montreal, Quebec – St. Luc Yard; active since 1950. Flat switching since the mid-1980s. (closed)
- St. Paul, Minnesota – Pig's Eye Yard / St. Paul Yard[84]
- Toronto, Ontario – Toronto Yard (also known as "Toronto Freight Yard or Agincourt Yard"); opened in 1964 (closed)
- Winnipeg, Manitoba – Rugby Yard (also known as "Weston Yard") (closed)
Joint Partnership
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