The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited, known until 2023 as Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001.
The railway is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta. In 2023, the railway owned approximately of track in seven provinces of Canada and into the United States, stretching from Montreal to Vancouver, and as far north as Edmonton. Its rail network also served Minneapolis–St. Paul, Milwaukee, Detroit, Chicago, and Albany, New York, in the United States.
The railway was first built between eastern Canada and British Columbia between 1875 and 1885 (connecting with Ottawa Valley and Georgian Bay area lines built earlier), fulfilling a commitment extended to British Columbia when it entered Confederation in 1871; the CPR was Canada's first transcontinental railway. Primarily a freight railway, the CPR was for decades the only practical means of long-distance passenger train transport in most regions of Canada and was instrumental in the colonization and development of Western Canada. The CPR became one of the largest and most powerful companies in Canada, a position it held as late as 1975. The company acquired two American lines in 2009: the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad (DM&E) and the Iowa, Chicago and Eastern Railroad (IC&E). Also, the company owns the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad, a Hammond, Indiana-based terminal railroad along with Conrail Shared Assets Operations. CPR purchased the Kansas City Southern Railway in December 2021 for . On April 14, 2023, KCS became a wholly owned subsidiary of CPR, and both CPR and its subsidiaries began doing business under the name of its parent company, CPKC.
The CPR 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. As of March 30, 2023, the largest shareholder of Canadian Pacific stock exchange is TCI Fund Management Limited, a London-based hedge fund that owns 6% of the company.
Enabled by the CPR Act of 1874, work began in 1875 on the Lake Superior to Manitoba section of the CPR. The ceremonial sod-turning at Westfort on June 1, 1875, was prominently reported in the June 10 edition of the Toronto Globe. It noted that a crowd of "upwards of 500 ladies and gentlemen" gathered to celebrate the event on the left bank of the Kaministiquia River in the District of Thunder Bay, about four miles upriver from Fort William. Once completed in 1882 with a last spike at Feist Lake, near Vermilion Bay, Ontario, the line was turned over to the newly minted private Canadian Pacific Railway company. In 1883, the first wheat shipment from Manitoba was transported over this line to the Lakehead (Fort William and Port Arthur) on Lake Superior.
Macdonald would later return as prime minister and adopt a more aggressive construction policy; bonds were floated in London and called for tenders to complete sections of the railway in British Columbia. American contractor Andrew Onderdonk was selected, and his men began construction on May 15, 1880.
In October 1880, a new consortium signed a contract with the Macdonald government, agreeing to build the railway for $25 million in credit and of land. In addition, the government defrayed surveying costs and exempted the railway from property taxes for 20 years.
A beaver was chosen as the railway's logo in honour of Donald Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal, who had risen from factor to governor of the Hudson's Bay Company over a lengthy career in the beaver fur trade.
It was presumed that the railway would travel through the rich "fertile belt" of the North Saskatchewan River Valley and cross the Rocky Mountains via the Yellowhead Pass. However, a more southerly route across the arid Palliser's Triangle in Saskatchewan and via Kicking Horse Pass and down the Field Hill to the Rocky Mountain Trench was chosen.
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. Van Horne stated that he would have of main line built in 1882. Floods delayed the start of the construction season, but over of main line, as well as 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. By the end of 1883, the railway had reached the Rocky Mountains, just east of Kicking Horse Pass. The treacherous of railway west of Fort William was completed by Purcell & Company, headed by "Canada's wealthiest and greatest railroad contractor," industrialist Hugh Ryan.Stagg, Ronald J. (1994). "RYAN, HUGH – Volume XII (1891-1900) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography". www.biographi.ca. The University of Toronto.The Kingston Whig-Standard (13 February 1899). "Death of Hugh Ryan: Canada's Wealthiest and Greatest Railway Contractor". The Kingston Whig-Standard. Kingston, Ontario, Canada. p. 4.
Many thousands of navvy worked on the railway. Many were immigrants. An unknown number of Stoney Nakoda also assisted in track laying and construction work in the Kicking Horse Pass region. In British Columbia, government contractors eventually hired 17,000 workers from China, known as "coolies". After months of hard labour, they could net as little as $16 ($ in adjusted for inflation) Chinese labourers 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. The exact number of Chinese workers who died is unknown, but historians estimate the number is between 600 and 800.
By 1883, railway construction was progressing rapidly, but the CPR was in danger of running out of funds. In response, on January 31, 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 March 6, 1884.
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 in the District of 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 suppressed. Controversially, the government subsequently reorganized the CPR's debt and provided a further $5 million loan. This money was desperately needed by the CPR. Even with Van Horne's support with moving troops to Qu'Appelle, the government still delayed in giving its support to CPR, due to Macdonald pressuring George Stephen for additional benefits.
On November 7, 1885, the last spike was driven at Craigellachie, British Columbia. 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. Canadian Pacific Facts and Figures (1937), p. 15.
In Eastern Canada, the CPR had created a network of lines reaching from Quebec City to St. Thomas, Ontario, by 1885 mainly by buying the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa & Occidental Railway from the Quebec government and by creating a new railway company, the Ontario and Quebec Railway (O&Q). It also launched a fleet of Great Lakes ships to link its terminals. Through the O&Q, the CPR had effected purchases and long-term leases of several railways, and built a line between Perth, Ontario, and Toronto (completed on May 5, 1884) to connect these acquisitions. The CPR obtained a 999-year lease on the O&Q on January 4, 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. Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo Railway Historical Society, Historical Outline. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
The first transcontinental passenger train departed from Montreal's Dalhousie Station, at Berri Street and Notre Dame Street, at 8 pm on June 28, 1886, and arrived at Port Moody at noon on July 4. 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, with another one added the next morning). CPR Connecting Canada, Timeline. Retrieved 8 July 2022
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 May 23, 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 Greater 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 Canada–US border at Windsor, Ontario. That line opened on June 12, 1890.Wilson, Donald M., The Ontario & Quebec Railway. Mika Publishing, Belleville, Ontario (1984). p. 72.
The CPR also leased the New Brunswick Railway in 1891 for 991 years,Dorman, Robert and Stoltz, D.E. "A Statutory History of Railways in Canada 1836-1986". The Canadian Institute of Guided Ground Transport, Queen's University, 1987, pp. 109–110, 213, 293, 374, 421. 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. on June 30, 1886]] 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 the First World War, it was not until 1983 that the "Crow Rate" was permanently replaced by the Western Grain Transportation Act, which allowed the gradual increase of grain trade 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.Canadian Pacific Railway, "Prairie & Pacific Regions Subdivision Chart and Historical Record" (1943).
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.
On November 3, 1909, the Lethbridge Viaduct over the Oldman River valley at Lethbridge, Alberta, was opened. It is long and, at its maximum, 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 (the most serious of which killed 62 men in 1910) with the Connaught Tunnel, an eight-kilometre-long (5-mile) tunnel under Mount Macdonald
that was, at the time of its opening, the longest railway tunnel in the Western Hemisphere.On January 21, 1910, a passenger train derailed on the CPR line at the Spanish River bridge at Nairn, Ontario (near Greater Sudbury), killing at least 43. "Soo train goes into the river", Evening Sentinel, 22 January 1910 "Train derailed on bridge", The Age, 25 January 1910.
On January 3, 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 CPR acquired the Quebec Central Railway on December 14, 1912.
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 into the government-owned Canadian National Railways. Pointe-au-Père Site historique maritime profike . Retrieved 27 April 2014.
One highlight of the late 1930s, both for the railway and for Canada, was the visit of 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, the Second World War 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 and other armoured vehicles, and transported troops and resources across the country. Additionally, 22 of the CPR's ships went to war, 12 of which were sunk. Canadian Pacific: Our History , cpr.ca. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
In 1968, as part of a corporate reorganization, each of the 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 slogan was: "TO THE FOUR CORNERS OF THE WORLD". The company discarded its beaver logo, adopting the new Multimark (which, when mirrored by an adjacent "multi-mark" creates a diamond appearance on a globe) that was used – with a different colour background – for each of its operations.Garden, John F., "Nicholas Morant's Canadian Pacific", Footprint Publishing, 1992, p. 55,
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 February 21, 1985, the Soo Line obtained a controlling interest in the bankrupt Milwaukee Road, merging it into its system on January 1, 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, adding the "System" to the former's name, 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 Milwaukee Road as part of its historically logical route) and New York City (via the D&H). Canadian Pacific Subsidiaries website . Retrieved 27 April 2014.
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 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, (on Norfolk Southern lines from Detroit) 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 money-losing track to short lines, instituted scheduled freight service, and produced an unexpected turn-around in profitability. On 1 January 2001 the StL&H was formally amalgamated with the CP Rail system.
Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. trains resumed regular operations on June 1, 2012, after a nine-day strike by some 4,800 locomotive engineers, conductors and traffic controllers who walked off the job on May 23, stalling Canadian freight traffic and costing the economy an estimated (). The strike ended with a government back-to-work bill forcing both sides to come to a binding agreement. Strike ends at Canadian Pacific Railway , Reuters, 1 June 2012. "CBC coverage of rail strike at Canadian Pacific", Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1 June 2012.
On July 6, 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. Quebec targets CP Railway for Lac-Mégantic cleanup costs. The Globe and Mail (14 August 2013). Retrieved 2013-10-05. On August 14, 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-Mégantic derailment. On July 15, the press reported that CP would appeal the legal order.
On October 12, 2014, it was reported that Canadian Pacific had tried to enter into a merger with American railway CSX, but was unsuccessful.
In 2015–16 Canadian Pacific sought to merge with American railway Norfolk Southern. "Canadian Pacific Railway, Norfolk Southern don't agree on much", Chicago Business Journal, 10 February 2016 and wanted to have a shareholder vote on it. "Canadian Pacific argues for Norfolk Southern takeover in new report". CYV NewsNews, ABC. "Business Index". ABC News "CP to seek shareholder support for Norfolk takeover talks". 10 February 2017 – Reuters.com CP ultimately terminated its efforts to merge on April 11, 2016.
On February 4, 2019, a loaded grain train ran away from the siding at Partridge just above the Upper Spiral Tunnel in Kicking Horse Pass. The 112-car grain train with three locomotives derailed into the Kicking Horse River just after the Trans Canada Highway overpass. The three crew members on the lead locomotive were killed. The Canadian Pacific Police Service (CPPS) investigated the fatal derailment. It later came to light that, although Creel said that the RCMP "retain jurisdiction" over the investigation, the RCMP wrote that "it never had jurisdiction because the crash happened on CP property". On January 26, 2020, Canadian current affairs program The Fifth Estate broadcast an episode on the derailment, and the next day the Canadian Transportation Safety Board (TSB) called for the RCMP to investigate as lead investigator Don Crawford said, "There is enough to suspect there's negligence here and it needs to be investigated by the proper authority".
On February 4, 2020, the TSB demoted its lead investigator in the crash probe after his superiors decided these comments were "completely inappropriate". The TSB stated that it "does not share the view of the lead safety investigator". The CPPS say they did a thorough investigation into the actions of the crew, which is now closed and resulted in no charges, while the Alberta Federation of Labour and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference called for an independent police probe.
On November 20, 2019, it was announced that Canadian Pacific would purchase the Central Maine and Quebec Railway from Fortress Transportation and Infrastructure Investors. The line has had a series of different owners since being spun off of the Canadian Pacific in 1995. The first operator was the Canadian American Railroad a division of Iron Road Railways. In 2002 the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic took over operations after CDAC declared bankruptcy. The Central, Maine and Quebec Railway started operations in 2014 after the MMA declared bankruptcy due to the Lac-Mégantic derailment. On this new acquisition, CP CEO Keith Creel remarked that this gives CP a true coast-to-coast network across Canada and an increased presence in New England. On June 4, 2020; Canadian Pacific bought the Central Maine and Quebec.
However, a competing cash and stock offer was later made by Canadian National Railway (CN) on April 20 at $33.7 billion. On 13 May, KCS announced that they planned to accept the merger offer from CN, but would give CP until May 21 to come up with a higher bid. On May 21, KCS and CN agreed to a merger. However, CN's merger attempt was blocked by a STB ruling in August that the company could not use a voting trust to assume control of KCS, due to concerns about potentially reduced competition in the railroad industry.
On September 12, KCS accepted a new $31 billion offer from CP. Though CP's offer was lower than the offer made by CN, the STB permitted CP to use a voting trust to take control of KCS. The voting trust allowed CP to become the beneficial owner of KCS in December, but the two railroads operated independently until receiving approval for a merger of operations from the STB. That approval came on March 15, 2023, which permitted the railroads to merge as soon as April 14. On April 14, 2023, KCS officially became a subsidiary of CPR, and CPR with its subsidiaries began conducting business under the name of its parent company, Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC).
Grain is hauled by the CPR from the 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 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 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 stretch of double track mainline which runs from Smiths Falls, Ontario, through downtown Montreal which runs through many rural farming communities. However, CPR was, as of 2020, partially dismantling the stretch of double track mainline on the Winchester Sub.
The CPR also had a line of Great Lakes ships integrated into its transcontinental service. From 1884 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 1907 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 Assiniboia, carrying on in freight service for two more years before being sold. Planned to be a floating restaurant, "Assiniboia" caught fire during renovations in 1969 and was subsequently scrapped. Meanwhile "Keewatin" which was laid up in 1966 and scheduled to be scrapped, was purchased by RJ and Diane Peterson in 1967 and towed to their marina in Douglas, Michigan to serve as a marine museum. Forty-five years later Skyline International CEO Gil Blutrich purchased "Keewatin" and engaged former crewman Eric Conroy to repatriate "Keewatin" to Port McNicoll and operate her as an historical attraction, which he did in 2012 through 2019. "Keewatin" was closed to visitors in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and did not reopen in Port McNicoll. In 2023 "Keewatin" was donated by Skyline to the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston, and towed to Hamilton shipyards for restoration before proceeding to Kingston, where it reopened to visitors in 2024. "S.S. Keewatin fires up its engine" , CTVnews.ca. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
After the Second World War, passenger traffic declined as automobiles and airplanes became more common, but the CPR continued to innovate in an attempt to keep passenger numbers up. Beginning November 9, 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 totalling 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 April 24, 1955, the CPR introduced a new luxury transcontinental passenger train, The Canadian. The train provided service between Vancouver and Toronto or Montreal (east of Greater 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.Mitchell, David J., "All aboard! The Canadian Rockies by Train". Douglas & McIntyre, 1995. p. 134. This service was initially heavily promoted by the company and many images of the train, especially as it traversed the Canadian Rockies, were captured by CPR's official photographer Nicholas Morant. Featured in numerous advertising promotions worldwide, several such images have gained iconic status.
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 October 29, 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 January 15, 1990. This ended service by The Canadian over CPR rails, and the train was rerouted on the former Super Continental route via Canadians National without a change of name. Where both trains had been daily prior to January 15, 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 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 Bilevel car here in 1970. On October 1, 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 operates two commuter services under contract. [[GO Transit]] contracts CPR to operate 10 return trips between Milton and central Toronto in Ontario. In Montreal, 59 daily commuter trains run on CPR lines from Lucien-L'Allier Station to Candiac, Hudson and Blainville–Saint-Jérôme 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. Although CP Rail no longer owns the track nor operates the commuter trains, it handles dispatching of [[Metra]] trains on the Milwaukee District/North and Milwaukee District/West Lines in Chicago, on which the CP also provides freight service via trackage rights.
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 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 Pacific Express Company on September 1, 1926, and the headquarters moved from Winnipeg, to Toronto, and the company also handled the establishment of the first money order system in Canada. It was operated as a separate company with the railway charging them to haul express cars on trains, and was initially highly profitable.
Express operations consisted of separate cars included on existing Canadian Pacific routes, were typically charged on a less-than-carload basis, and transported a wide range of goods, including fresh goods like dairy or flowers, refrigerated goods such as fish, transport of cash and jewellery, livestock with handlers and in some cases goods that took an entire carload, such as automobiles.
The company later expanded to shipping by transport truck. The company eventually became unprofitable, possibly due to competition from trucking companies, was purchased by an employee buyout in 1994 and renamed itself Interlink Systems. The company failed quickly, and went into receivership in 1997.
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. All donations collected in a community remain in that community for distribution.
There are two Holiday Trains that cover 150 stops in Canada and the United States Northeast and Midwest. "CP holiday train on track Springwater". By Ian McInroy, Barrie Examiner, 1 December 2015 Each train is roughly in length with brightly decorated railway cars, including a modified box car that has been turned into a travelling stage for performers. They are each decorated with hundred of thousands of LED Christmas lights. In 2013 to celebrate the program's 15th year, three signature events were held in Hamilton, Ontario, Calgary, Alberta, and Cottage Grove, Minnesota, to further raise awareness for hunger issues.
The trains feature different entertainers each year; in 2016, one train featured Dallas Smith and the Odds, while the other featured Colin James and Kelly Prescott. After its 20th anniversary tour in 2018, which hosted Terri Clark, Sam Roberts Band, The Trews and Willy Porter, the tour reported to have raised more than and collected more than of food since 1999.
The locomotive was fired up on November 13, 2020, for a steam test and moved around the Ogden campus yard. At the time, CP had plans to utilize the locomotive only for a special Holiday Train at Home broadcast, after which it was put in storage. However, in mid-2021, CEO Keith Creel announced intentions to bring 2816 back to full operational status, for a tour from their Calgary headquarters to Mexico City, if the merger with Kansas City Southern Railway was approved by the Surface Transportation Board in the United States. Work on the needed overhaul began in earnest in late 2021 for a planned date in 2023. On April 24, 2024, No. 2816 began its Final Spike Steam Tour for the Canadian Pacific Kansas City, running from Calgary to Mexico City.
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 agency, ticker quotations for share capital and eventually . All were faster than mail and very important to business and the public alike for many decades before 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.Burnet, Robert. "Canadian Railway Telegraph History". Telegraph Key & Sounder, Etobicoke, 1996. p. 181
CPR programming included a series of concert broadcasts from Montreal with an orchestra conducted by Douglas Clarke and a series called Concert Orchestra broadcast from the Royal York Hotel featuring conductor Rex Battle, and another series of concerts, this time sponsored by Imperial Oil and featuring conductor Reginald Stewart with a 55-piece orchestra and some of the leading soloists of the day, also performing at the Royal York.
In 1883, CPR began purchasing sailing ships as part of a railway supply service on the Great Lakes. Over time, CPR became a railway 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 railway which operated two transoceanic services which connected Canada with Europe and with Asia. The range of CPR services were aspects of an integrated plan.Smith, Joseph Russell (1908).
Once the railway was completed to British Columbia, the CPR chartered and soon bought their own passenger steamships as a link to the Orient. These sleek steamships were of the latest design and christened with "Empress" names (e. g., RMS Empress of Britain, Empress of Canada, Empress of Australia, and so forth). 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 linking the various parts of the British Empire.
The other ocean part was the Atlantic service to and from the United Kingdom, 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, 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.Musk, George. Canadian Pacific The Story of the Famous Shipping Line. David & Charles Publishers plc, 2nd edition (1989), pp. 47–55, 101–123, 130, 213.
There were also a number of Train ferry operated over the years as well including, between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit 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 September 18, 1958, thus ending the service.
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 September 25, 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 railway 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. Hapag-Lloyd website , "Breakthrough of the container". Retrieved 27 April 2014.
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 railway 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. Kootenay Lake Historical Society . Retrieved 27 April 2014. SS Sicamous Heritage Society website. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
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. The 2800s, as the Hudson type was known, ran from Toronto to Fort William, a distance of , while another lengthy engine district was from Winnipeg to Calgary . Especially notable were the semi-streamliner H1 class , 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 Saint-Constant, 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.
The CPR also made many of their older 2-8-0s, built in the turn of the century, into 2-8-2s.
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.
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 dieselize 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 alternating current (AC) traction diesel-electric locomotives in 1984. In 1995, CP turned to GE Transportation 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.
On September 16, 2019, Progress Rail rolled out two SD70ACU rebuilds in Canadian Pacific heritage paint schemes; 7010 wears a Tuscan red and grey paint scheme with script writing, and the 7015 wears a similar paint scheme with block lettering.
On November 11, 2019, five SD70ACU units with commemorative military themes were unveiled during CPR's Remembrance Day ceremony. These units are numbered 7020–7023, with 7024 being renumbered to 6644 to commemorate the date of D-Day: June 6, 1944.
In 2021, Canadian Pacific repainted two locomotives orange: ES44AC 8757 which was unveiled for National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in September 2021, and ES44AC 8781 to commemorate shipper Hapag-Lloyd.
The fleet includes these types:
Acquired 1998, used on the Royal Canadian Pacific | ||||||
Acquired 1998, used on the RCP | ||||||
EMD | GP40-3 | 3000 | 1966–1968 | 2 | 4007–4008 | Ex-Milwaukee Road/SOO |
Acquired 2006, used on the RCP | ||||||
Acquired 1990, ex-SOO, 4500 series are ex-MILW | ||||||
EMD | GP39-2 | 2300 | 1978 | 1 | 4599 | Ex-KCCX/SOO |
Rebuilt 2017 | ||||||
Acquired 1990, ex-SOO | ||||||
Acquired 1990, ex-SOO | ||||||
Rebuilt 2017, ex-SOO | ||||||
EMD | SD40-2 | 3000 | 1972–1984 | 23 | 6601–6623 | Ex-SOO |
Many sold to CMQ. After the purchase of CMQ in June 2020, the remaining SD40-2Fs returned to CP Property. | ||||||
Rebuilt 2019–2020 from SD90MACs, 7010–7019 in heritage paint schemes. 6644, 7020–7023 in five distinct commemorative military paint schemes. | ||||||
Acquired 1991, ex-DH | ||||||
Rebuilt 2017–2021. | ||||||
8757 painted into an Every Child Matters livery for National Day for Truth & Reconciliation |
Renumbered from 4099 to 4103 |
1800 and 1802 sold to Via Rail |
Many sold to Via Rail |
Many sold to Via Rail |
Order cancelled before completion |
4200 originally numbered 8300 |
Rebuilt in 1984 as an AC Traction test unit |
Originally numbered 8200–8201 |
Some converted to control cabs |
6711 used as a track mobile |
Many rebuilt into SW1200RSUs in the 1980s |
Many rebuilt into GP7Us in the 1980s |
Many rebuilt into GP9Us in the 1980s |
Many rebuilt into RS18Us in the 1980s |
8905 Preserved at the Canadian Railway Museum |
Preserved at Elgin County Railway Museum |
Scrapped, the rest not numbered here went to Central Maine and Quebec Railway |
Many sold to Via Rail |
Many sold to Via Rail |
Rebuilt into SD70ACUs |
Many sold to Via Rail |
Sold to Via Rail |
Many sold to Via Rail |
All have been scrapped |
Sir George Stephen United Kingdom/Canada |
Sir William Cornelius Van Horne United States/Canada |
The Lord Shaughnessy United States/Canada |
Sir Edward Wentworth Beatty Canada |
D'Alton Corry Coleman Canada |
William Neal Canada |
William Allen Mather Canada |
Buck Crump Canada |
Robert A. Emerson Canada |
Ian David Sinclair Canada |
Fred Burbidge Canada |
William W. Stinson Canada |
Russell S. Allison Canada |
Robert J. Ritchie Canada |
Fred Green Canada |
Stephen Tobias (Interim) United States |
E. Hunter Harrison United States |
Keith Creel United States |
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