INTERCOLONIAL RAILWAY. This railway and the Prince Edward Island Railway are owned and operated by the government of Canada as part of the government railways. They are under the charge of the Department of Railways and Canals, which is presided over by the Minister of Railways and Canals, who is a cabinet minister. The intercolonial extends through the provinces of Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, connecting the cities of Montreal and Quebec with the cities of Saint John, Halifax and Sidney on the Atlantic Coast. Its length, including branches, is 1,562 miles.
The history of the Intercolonial is interest ing, but there is space here for only a brief out line. The construction of a railway from the Atlantic Ocean to the Saint Lawrence River at Quebec, through the British provinces, was proposed in 1832. An exploratory survey from Point Levis, opposite Quebec, to Saint Andrews on the Bay of Fundy, was made, with the assistance of the British government, in 1836, and a practicable route was found, but nothing further was done at that time because of representations from the United States gov ernment that part of the surveys were in ter ritory claimed by the State of Maine. Other explorations were subsequently made until 1846, when the Royal Engineers, under instructions from the British government, commenced the survey of several routes from Halifax to Que bec. These surveys were completed in 1848, and the route recommended by the engineers was, generally speaking, that adopted when the Intercolonial was constructed many years after ward. The surveys showed that there were sev eral routes by which such a railway could be constructed, but the provinces considered that the work was too great and costly for their unaided resources; under these circumstances the greater project was laid aside for a time and each of the provinces in its own way, and independently of the others, turned its atten tion to the construction of railways which were destined afterward to form parts of the Inter colonial.
The province of Canada in 1849 passed an act affording assistance to railway companies by guaranteeing their bonds, and the Halifax and Quebec Railway was particularly mentioned in this act. In 1852 the Grand Trunk Railway Company was incorporated and subsidized. An other company was also incorporated and sub sidized, in the same year, to build a railway from opposite Quebec to Trois Pistoles. This company was amalgamated with the Grand Trunk Railway Company, and the latter built the line from Point Levis, opposite Quebec, to Riviere du Loup, 126 miles, which was opened in 1860. The company did not build as far eastward as Trois Pistoles.
The province of New Brunswick in 1853 also commenced railway construction, and built, as a government work, a line from Saint John to Point du Chene on the Gulf of Saint Law rence, 108 miles. It was opened in 1860, and was called the European and North American Railway. In 1865 the province entered into a contract for an extension of this railway east ward to the boundary of Nova Scotia, and this was completed and opened in December 1870.
The province of Nova Scotia commenced in June 1854 the construction of a government railway, and in December 1858 it was opened from Halifax to Truro, 61 miles, with a branch to Windsor, 32 miles. It was called the Nova
Scotia Railway. The province afterward ex tended this railway from Truro to Pictou on the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, 52 miles, this ex tension being opened in May 1867.
The people still desired complete railway communication between the provinces, and in 1864 and 1865 a survey was made of a route to connect Truro, Nova Scotia, with Riviere du Loup, Quebec, the link which remained to be constructed.
On 1 July 1867 the provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were, by an act of the Parliament of Great Britain, united in a confederation called the Dominion of Canada. By that act the railways already men tioned, owned by the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, became the property of the Dominion. That act also provided that an intercolonial railway connecting the river Saint Lawrence with the city of Halifax should be immediately Constructed by the government of Canada ; and by another act of the same Parlia ment, in the same year, the British government was authorized to guarantee the interest on a loan, not exceeding f3,000,000 sterling, to be raised by Canada, for the purpose of construct ing the railway between Riviere du Loup and Truro. These arrangements were carried out, the work of construction of the Intercolonial was commenced without delay and prosecuted without intermission, and on 9 Nov. 1872 the division extending from Truro to Amherst, 76 miles, was opened. This division formed the connection between the Nova Scotia Railway and the European and North American Railway, and completed railway communication between Halifax and Saint John. The three railways, a total of 370 miles, were on the above date consolidated under the name of the Inter colonial Railway. These three railways form ing the Intercolonial had been built with a gauge of 5 feet 6 inches, and they remained that gauge until 18 June 1875, when they were changed to 4 feet 8IA inches, the gauge in general use on this continent, and which had been adopted for the Intercolonial. Other extensions have been made from time to time, the following being the lines taken over within recent years: In 1911, the line from Ferrona Junction to Sunny Brae (Nova Scotia) was purchased (13 miles); in 1914, the New Bruns wick and Prince Edward Island Railway (36 miles) began to be operated in connection with the Intercolonial; and in 1915, the Saint John and Quebec Railway, from Gagetown to Cen terville, New Brunswick (105 miles). The Intercolonial Railway of New Brunswick, from Campbellton to Saint Leonards, New Bruns wick, and the Maine border, has been operated since 1914 by the Intercolonial with the option of purchase within a five-year period. Receipts for year to 30 June 1915: Passengers, $3,947, 891; freight $7,187,449; gross receipts, $11,259, 710; operating expenses, $11,348,756. At 30 June 1915 the system had 411 locomotives, 500 passenger cars and 13,407 freight cars. The total cost of lines was $109,221,0W.
The Intercolonial Railway was built, not as a commercial but as a political undertaking, and it has never paid, and was never expected to pay, interest on the capital investment. It has the disadvantage of having a circuitous route nearly 250 miles longer than that of the Canadian Pacific between Montreal and Saint John.