International Railway of Maine - Existing Railways

Existing Railways

Some sections of a direct railway route between Montreal and Saint John already existed in the 1880s:

• The International Railway began operating in 1875 between Sherbrooke, Quebec and Lac-Mégantic, Quebec to service the forest industry. As suggested by the name of the company, its builders envisioned extending into Maine. This company was the successor to the St Francis and Megantic International Railway.

• The European and North American Railway was constructed as part of a plan to link the Maritime provinces with the North American rail network at Portland. Organized as separate companies, the E&NA had built a section from Shediac, New Brunswick west to Saint John in the late 1850s but had gone bankrupt and the colonial government had assumed its operation. The E&NA built a western extension from Saint John to the International Boundary at St. Croix, New Brunswick and Vanceboro, Maine during the 1860s, while the E&NA in Maine had built from Bangor up the Penobscot River valley and then across the lowlands of eastern Maine to the border at Vanceboro-St. Croix in 1869. Another bankruptcy at the E&NA saw the New Brunswick portion from Saint John to the border purchased by the New Brunswick Railway and the Maine portion from Bangor to the border leased by the Maine Central Railroad.