История железных дорог Канады

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This article is part of the history of rail transport by country series. The history of rail transport in Canada began in the early 19th century. The Canadian railway system saw several expansion "booms" throughout history, as well as a major change from broad to standard gauge which occurred in the 1870s. An initially disconnected system was gradually integrated with the American railway network, as Canadian and American railway companies built lines and bought smaller companies in each other's country. The Intercolonial Railway, a product of Canadian Confederation, was Canada's first major experiment in railway nationalization, and following Confederation, several transcontinental railways were built. Many Canadian railways were gradually brought together under large conglomerates, but by the end of the First World War, the sudden and decisive financial collapse of these conglomerates created a deep threat to Canadian infrastructure and economy, leading to their nationalization under the Dominion government. This nationalization and consolidation process produced the Canadian National Railways (CNR), which was owned by the Canadian federal government until 1995. The Great Depression led to a decline in rail traffic, and the sudden reversal of this during the Second World War left railways with overtaxed, aging, and poorly maintained infrastructure. Toward the end of the 1950s, railways began to transition toward diesel trains. Ridership on passenger trains declined postwar, leading to railways to pursue their abandonment. Nationally, most passenger services were transferred to a new crown agency, Via Rail.

Canada coalesced into a state following millennia of First Nations habitation, as well as centuries of habitation by European settlers. Different parts of the country were settled at different times, with their transport systems laid out in reflection of the era. Early transport patterns of indigenous peoples and voyageurs followed large natural waterways such as the Great Lakes waterway system, the Saint Lawrence River, and the Ottawa River. This was suitable for the fur trade, which involved the transport of light, high value commodities by boat early in its history. The earliest recognizably railway like system in recorded Canadian history was an industrial tramway on Cape Breton Island, which is said to have been built around 1720. The existence of a tramway, as opposed to simply a road, is poorly attested in written and archaeological records, but was present in local oral history in the early 20th century. This tramway has been cited in various sources as an example of a pre steam railway in North America, despite a lack of evidence confirming its existence. Remaining physical evidence has led to the belief that it was used for transporting coal to the Fortress of Louisbourg from mines on the island, during a period when the island was under French control. There is also some speculation that it was used in the construction of the fortress. Several other tramway systems were constructed before the 1830s. The first was a combined wagonway and incline tramway near Niagara Falls along what is now the American side of the Canada–United States border. It was built by the British in 1762 near the end of the French and Indian War. The challenging geography of the Niagara Peninsula meant that until the later construction of canals, there was no navigable water route between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, so transport between the two required the use of a portage. The French had long sought to take control of the portage trail from the Seneca, who had taken control of it from the Neutral Nation in the mid 17th century, amidst the Beaver Wars. The French tried to control this key point with repeated military expeditions and fortifications throughout the 17th and early 18th centuries, including Fort Conti in 1679, Fort Denonville in 1687, and Fort Niagara in 1726. The CNR experimented with self propelled "oil electric" cars starting in 1924. Diesels slowly became more prominent as yard switchers in the following decades.

The National Transportation Act of 1967 was an attempt at comprehensive transportation reform. It provided government subsidies for branch lines and passenger services, which at the time were still operated primarily by Canadian National and Canadian Pacific. In 1978, Canadian National passenger services were transferred to a new federal agency, Via Rail. CN was privatized in November 1995.