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40 Connecting Canada
Construction of Canadian National Railway near Beynon, Alberta.
Connecting Canada
Land transportation in British North America, before the first passenger train, proved to be a gruelling experience. Reports from those early years, in the form of journal entries and diaries, tell of difficult treks by wagon, sleigh, coach, foot or a mixture of these methods with travel by water. There were very few roads. Of those that existed, mud proved to be a frequent problem, especially in spring.
TfffffffTfTTTThe use of logs or planks of wood only made wagon travel more difficult. Roads using the macadam technique — layers
of small stones combined with asphalt or tar — proved to be easier to travel, but costly on the upkeep. Travel by stagecoach between Toronto and Montréal took
36 hours or more. The Grand Trunk Railway greatly improved on that time. More distant locations were impractical to reach — places like British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, the Arctic or the Klondike.
The idea of overcoming these difficulties of travel using railroads created its own craze from time to time. Starting in 1836 with the first Canadian railway, more and more people wanted the railroad to run
through their town. Not only did such ease of transport bring regions closer together, goods and services were traded with greater efficiency. That meant more profit, growth and advancement. Not only that, building railways and the trains to run on them created new jobs. More and more, politicians were convinced that a railway through their region would create prosperity for all and make their constituents happy.
Even though railroads were popular, most railway companies suffered frequent financial difficulties. If they did not go bankrupt, they were eventually taken over by more successful enterprises. When governments helped to back railway projects, often they were left holding the unprofitable