Despite an inherited debt of $1.3 billion, grossĮarnings that barely covered operating expenses, and the difficulty of keeping the government at arm ’ s length, Thornton gradually established annual surpluses while drawing remarkable personal support from among the 99,000 employees of CN. At around the same time, Sir Henry Thornton was appointed president of CN. In January 1923, the Grand Trunk Railway officially became part of this system. The government called a royal commission, which in 1917 recommended nationalization of all the railways (except the CPR) and absorption of the railways’ debts.īy 1919, the Intercolonial, Canadian Northern, National Transcontinental and Grand Trunk Pacific had become part of a government railway system known as the Canadian National Railways (CN). However, when the First World War began, credit was no longer available from the banks. Īll of these lines were financed by heavy borrowing, mostly from British banks.
In 1903, Sir Wilfrid Laurier ’s Liberal government authorized the building of the Grand Trunk Pacific from Winnipeg west to Prince Rupert, and of the National Transcontinental from Winnipeg east to Moncton. Lines in 1899 and grew into a transcontinental railway system of over 16,000 km. The Canadian Northern,įounded by William Mackenzie and Donald Mann, began as an amalgamation of two small Manitoba Railways, many of which were financially supported by the federal government. In 2016, it earned over $12 billion in revenue and employed over 22,000 people in Canada and the US.Īlthough Canada by the 1890s was traversed from sea to sea by the CPR, increased immigration and agricultural production in the West led to the developmental of new transcontinental CN is primarily a rail freight company and transports approximately $250 billion worth of goods annually. In 1995, CN was sold to private investors.
However, the core of CN was still its railway system, which had its origins in the amalgamation of five financially troubled railways during the years 1917–23: the Grand Trunk and its subsidiary, the Grand Trunk Pacific the Intercolonial the Canadian Northern and the National Transcontinental. Known as Canadian National (CN), the former Crown corporation expanded its holdings to include marine operations, hotels, telecommunications and resource industries. It is the only transcontinental rail network in North America, connecting to three coasts: Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf of Mexico. Canadian National Railway Company, incorporated 6 June 1919, is the longest railway system in North America, controlling more than 31,000 km of track in Canada and the United States.
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