What are Canada's transcontinental railways?

Canada has two principal transcontinental freight railways: the Canadian National Railway (CN, founded 1919 as a federal Crown corporation, privatised in 1995) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC, formed by the April 14, 2023 merger of Canadian Pacific Railway with Kansas City Southern Railway). Federal passenger service is provided by VIA Rail Canada (a Crown corporation founded in 1977). Together the two main freight railways operate about 49,400 kilometres of track in Canada, the United States, and Mexico, carrying about 70 per cent of Canadian intercity freight by tonne-kilometre.

The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) was the original transcontinental railway and a foundational element of Canadian Confederation. The CPR was authorised by the Canadian Pacific Railway Act of 1881 (after Sir John A. Macdonald's federal government nearly fell over the 1873 Pacific Scandal) and its main line was completed with the driving of the last spike at Craigellachie, British Columbia on November 7, 1885 by Donald Smith. The CPR's east-west backbone runs from Saint John, New Brunswick through Montreal, Toronto (with a Detroit-Sault Ste. Marie alternate), Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary, and Banff to Vancouver. The 2023 KCS merger added Mexico City and Houston connections.

The Canadian National Railway was created on June 6, 1919 by the federal government to consolidate the bankrupt Grand Trunk, Grand Trunk Pacific, Canadian Northern, National Transcontinental, and Intercolonial Railways. CN remained a Crown corporation until privatisation through the Canadian National Commercialization Act of 1995 and a public share offering on November 17, 1995. CN's network is the largest railway in Canada by track and revenue, running from Halifax in the east through Montreal, Toronto, North Bay, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Jasper, and Prince George to Prince Rupert, BC, plus extensive US connections that reach to New Orleans (acquired through the 1998 purchase of Illinois Central Railroad).

VIA Rail Canada operates federal passenger service on leased CN and CPKC track. The principal VIA routes are the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (the busiest service, with up to 28 trains a day between Toronto and Montreal); The Canadian (the long-distance Toronto-Vancouver service via Sudbury, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton, and Jasper, taking 4 days); The Ocean (Montreal to Halifax via Moncton, with three round trips per week, the oldest continuously operating named train in North America since 1904); the Hudson Bay (Winnipeg to Churchill, Manitoba, with two round trips per week); and several regional and remote services. Federal high-frequency rail (HFR) investment of about $5 billion is currently planned for the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor, with first service expected by 2032. Several urban commuter rail operators (GO Transit in the Toronto area, Exo in Montreal, West Coast Express in Vancouver) operate on shared track with the freight railways.