Railways

The railways have formed the backbone of the Canadian transportation system for well over a century. The Canadian railway system encompasses some 50,000 route-kilometres of track between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Railway transportation continues to provide the most economical means of moving bulk commodities such as grain, coal, potash and petrochemicals over vast distances. Every year, the Canadian railway system moves over 300 million tonnes of freight to destinations throughout North America.

Railways in Canada

Unlike the public roads, which are provided and maintained collectively by local, provincial and federal governments, a railway company is responsible for its own infrastructure. Canada's two principal carriers, Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific (CP), own extensive domestic railway networks.

CN is larger of the two, with approximately 21,000 route-kilometres of track in Canada. CP operates over 15,000 route-kilometres of domestic track. Together these carriers control 72% of the national railway system:

Map of Canada's railway network      

Railways in Alberta

Alberta's railway network comprises about 7,000 route-kilometres of track and represents approximately 16% of the overall Canadian network. Carriers operating in the province include CN, CP and a number of shortline railways.

The two main carriers are linked through the Edmonton-Calgary corridor. Each company operates numerous branch lines for rail car transport of bulk commodities such as grain, lumber and petrochemicals. Container traffic passes through terminals in both major cities.

Delivery Service

Alberta railways offer second day delivery to Vancouver, Regina, Winnipeg and United States border points, fourth day delivery to Toronto and Montreal, and sixth day delivery to Halifax and other cities on the Atlantic seaboard.

Regional & Shortline Railways

In addition to the major railways, Canada is also home to some 40 smaller, regional carriers. A few, like the Algoma Central Railway and Ontario Northland have been in operation since the early 1900s. The majority, however, are newly created shortline railways.

Shortline railways in Canada provide very localized rail service and are frequently partnered with major railways. Their emergence has come chiefly from the rationalization of non-core branch line operations by both CN and CP. The operations of these regional and shortline railways now extend to over 16,000 route-kilometres of track.

Canadian Railway System Network into U.S. & Mexico

The networks of both CN and CP extend into the United States. A chief feature of their American networks is the access they provide to Chicago – the major railway hub of North America. The majority of goods moved by rail between Canada and the U.S. are exchanged between carriers in Chicago, before moving to a final destination. CP’s network also extends into the Northeast US while CN’s purchase of the Illinois Central Corporation in 1999 resulted in the addition of about 5,000 route-kilometres to its existing network. This extended the company's direct physical reach into markets as far south as the Gulf of Mexico.

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Date Updated:
RDP-1942