The Fall of the Canadian Train System – The Demise Was a Lot Earlier
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?
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