Travel to Nova Scotia

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As much as we would like to believe that the car was responsible for the falling fortunes of the passenger train it happened a lot before that. Passenger trains were doing a booming business for both the CPR (Canadian Pacific Railroad) and the CNR (Canadian National Railroad) until 1914. The First World War put such a demand on the trains that the government of the day advised passengers not to take the trains unless absolutely necessary. This policy sunk two smaller lines, the Canadian Northern Railway and Grand Trunk Pacific because, although the demand was up, the government didn’t pay well.

The Second World War actually came along when passenger trains were slowly going down. And even tough the government paid well this time the war just reversed, for a while, the sagging fortunes.

At the end of the war the Canadian National Railroad began switching to diesel locomotives and the industry completely changed. Fireman to stoke the boilers were no longer need nor were the huge roundhouses and maintenance sheds. And even though the railways saved huge amounts of money on this end it could not stem the sagging demand.

At this juncture t would have taken a political will to change things around, like we are seeing today with the promotion of hybrid cars. The automobile industry had huge lobbying power and planes got passengers to where they wanted to go faster. Gas was cheap and almost everyone in the 1950′s could afford a car.

Again we are at a junction in the country’s history. We have a huge country and every large city has a light-rail transit or commuter train system. So, what would it take to extend this from coast-to-coast? It would take a huge advertising campaign to get people used to the idea and a lot of seed money.

The question is for us: Are we willing to make the sacrifice for long-term gain?

automobile industry, canadian national railroad, canadian northern railway, canadian pacific railroad, grand trunk pacific, hybrid cars, light rail transit, passenger trains

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“Since we can’t export the scenery, we’ll have to import the tourists.”

- William Cornelius Van Horne: General Manager

of the Canadian Pacific Railroad

After the Second World War the giant manufacturing power of the big car companies went from making tanks, jeeps and ships back to cars for the families blossoming families. In less than ten year hundreds of thousands of miles of roads were built and paved all over North America giving the automobile a range of freedom that had been thought impossible only ten years earlier.  In addition the trucking business took off and much  of the freight that used to travel by rail began instead going by truck.

This affected travel and tourism in North America in a big way. Many of the movies of the 1940′s showed big bands, circuses, tour groups and baseball teams traveling by train. Buses were shown taking routes that trains never serviced, and they were seen a s slow slow and bumpy, and the roads were dusty. Highways solved the dilemma of the buses and soon a new generation of tourist travel was born.

When the Canadian Pacific Railroad , or CPR, was completed in the late 1800′s it had done so by the skins of many politicians’ combined teeth and the fall and unbelievable second rising of a government. Needing other sources of income besides immigrants and mail Canadian tourism as we all know it was born.

William Cornelius Van Horne, a transplanted American railroad man and new general manager of the CPR extorted, “Since we can’t export the scenery, we’ll have to import the tourists.” He immediately set about to attract the peoples of money from Europe and the United States to see the wilds of western Canada. And to house them he built a chain of “mountain castles,” the gem of which was the Chateau Lake Louise. Passengers traveling from Calgary through the Rocky Mountains were treated to open-air cars so they could embrace the awesome, rugged beauty of the huge mountains and the abundant wildlife.

As cars became more popular in the 1950′s people could drive to Banff and Lake Louise without having to wait for people on the trains to embark and disembark. They also could trvel on their own timetables. However, car tourists could only go for a part of the day without find a place to sleep so the motel was born and this created a who;e new indutry in  North America separate from hotels called “the motor inn.” These types of accommodations were a cross between the freestyle motel and the classy but rigid hotel. Car travelers could enjoy a good restaurant, lounge and nicely-appointed hotel suite while basking by an outdoor pool and having their mode of transportation waiting right outside the door.

As more cars were made and sold more train tickets were not. Soon the schedules of the trains in large cebters were being cut back from once an hour to twice a day. The train was still the driving forve in transportation but cars, buses and a nuisance called an airplane wwere slowly chipping away at the engines that built a nation. In the 1960′s passenger trains began disppearing from small town Canada. You could still take a train from Vancouver to Halifax but service was not every day.

Today, while the other countries of the world are increasing their train systems canad and the U.S. stand firmly behind their cars. However, I for one would love to take a train to Montreal on Friday stay two nights and come back Sunday night. Or take the Express from Halifax on Monday morning and get into Vancouver on Saturday afternoon.

american railroad, canadian pacific railroad, canadian tourism, chateau lake louise, rocky mountains, william cornelius van horne

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There are few stories in history that rival the building of the Canadian Pacific Railroad. It’s not just national pride speaking but the laying down of track from Bonfield, Ontario to Vancouver, British Columbia’s was the engineering marvel of the century.

The greatest obstacle of the rail line was in Kicking Horse Pass in the Rocky Mountains between British Columbia and Alberta where the line dropped 1,150 feet within 4 1/2 miles. The Roger’s Pass was another obstacle that required amazing engineering skills in the building of snow sheds and getting the gradient shallow enough for trains to pass in the winter. Along the way was a huge system of trestles.

As with the Union Pacific in the United States the Canadian Pacific Railroad opened up the country allowing immigrants to come in and settle the prairies. It also joined British Columbia to the rest of Canada and stopped any thought of American expansion through the western province to join with Alaska. In addition, it was built using some of the finest engineering minds in the world by a country newly-independent from Great Britain.

With the building of the railroad came a new class of visitor – the tourist. People flocked to the Canadian west to see buffalo, mountain beauty and “wild Indians” (natives in traditional garb)

The downside was how the Chinese workers were treated. They worked for meager wages and given the most dangerous jobs: carrying nitroglycerin, building the high trestles and working in raging rivers. In addition many were ordered to go back to China after the railroad was completed.

Three Questions:

1. With this history why have successive governments since the 1960′s slowly squeezed the life out of the two great railroads – the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National – when the rest of the world has increased their rail service and are working on newer, better and more environmentally-friendly trains?

2. Why does Canada built some of the best railway cars and locomotives in the world and the VIA line runs with 60 year-old passenger cars?

3.  Why is the originator of the tourism industry in Canada now an expensive “milk run” across Canada that goes through the best scenery at night?

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