Canadian Northern Railway - Nationwide Expansion

Nationwide Expansion

Mackenzie and Mann began their first significant expansion outside of the prairies with the purchase of Great Lakes steamships, railways into northern Quebec's Saguenay region and the acquisition of branchlines in southwestern Nova Scotia (the Halifax and Southwestern Railway) and western Cape Breton Island. Other acquisitions were in southern Ontario and a connecting line was built from Toronto to Parry Sound.

In 1905, CNoR reached Edmonton, which had just been named capital of the newly formed province of Alberta.

In Eastern Canada, in 1908, a line was built east from a connection at Capreol, Ontario, on the Toronto – Parry Sound line to Ottawa and on to Montreal. In 1910 a direct Toronto–Montreal line was built. In 1911, federal funding was made available for construction of the line Montreal – Ottawa – Capreol – Port Arthur. In 1912, with GTR and CPR holding the ideal southern routes around Mount Royal to downtown Montreal, CNoR started building a double-tracked mainline north by building the Mount Royal Tunnel under the mountain.

In western Canada, in 1910 construction was started on the line west of Edmonton through Yellowhead Pass to Vancouver, thanks to subsidies provided by the government of British Columbia. In 1911, work was started on a new townsite named Port Mann on the Fraser River that would accommodate the new car shops and from where lines would extend to Vancouver and to the delta of the Fraser River