Re: Electrification (was Re: CPR D-10 from sunset)
- From: Derek Boles <derekboles@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: cpsig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:00:00 -0500
1.4. Re: Electrification (was Re: CPR D-10 from sunset)
Posted by: "dave hill" techill@xxxxxxxxxx dave65354
Date: Tue Feb 10, 2009 3:00 pm ((PST))
now there is a real big what if Canadian Northern had not had the Quebec
Bridge collaspse and survived the bussiness slowdown of World War One .They
proably would have electified around Toronto and established commuter trains
. like why was CPR in the commuter bussiness in Montreal but it did not
happen in Toronto till GO Transit
The Canadian Northern was not involved with the Quebec Bridge, which
was built for the National Transcontinental Railway, later Canadian
Government Railways, finally Canadian National. The CNoR already had
access to Quebec City via the north shore of the St. Lawrence River
so they had no reason to build such a bridge.
There is a general perception that Toronto had little or no commuter
train service prior to the inception of GO Transit in 1967. Canadian
National maintained two rush hour trains in each direction between
Toronto and Hamilton until GO began.
A little known fact is that there was quite an extensive commuter
rail system in Toronto in the late 19th century. In 1878, the Great
Western Railway established such an operation between Toronto and
Mimico. The Grand Trunk later took over this service and it was on
one of these trains that Toronto experienced its worst rail disaster
in January 1884 when 29 people died in a collision near High Park.
The Grand Trunk also had an extensive commuter operation that
extended from York (Danforth) in the east to Weston in the west,
using Union Station as a hub, much like the Lakeshore GO trains do
today. In 1892, there were seven trains a day in each direction.
Then, of course, there was the Toronto Belt Line which was
exclusively a commuter operation from 1892 to 1894, with a limited
resumption of service in 1895 and possibly 1896.
Most of these trains were gone by the turn of the 20th century. I'm
not aware that Canadian Pacific ever established a dedicated commuter
operation in Toronto although I'm sure that many people used
conveniently scheduled local CP trains to commute back and forth to
jobs just as some commuters use VIA today.
Derek Boles
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