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The Canadian National Railway

Today, CN is the largest railroad network in Canada and the only transcontinental railroad in North America. In the Great Depression, the CN was a major source of income for the federal government.

After the 1980's CN began to eliminate redundant secondary trackage and purchase second-hand streamlined equipment. This helped CN to compete with Canadian Pacific.

History

CN faced a financial collapse in the aftermath of World War I, as its debts grew while the volume of freight it carried decreased. The federal government stepped up and purchased the railway along with Grand Trunk and canadian national railway mds (https://sites.google.com/view/railroadcancersettlements) Northern to ensure that they did not default on CAD 1.3 million in loans. The merger created the world's second largest railway system, and resulted in CN a profitable company for the first time in its history.

The new management team was headed by former federal bureaucrats, and focused on increased productivity. They reorganized their operations, reducing the number of managers to a handful; reduced staff levels by a quarter, and closed money-losing branches. Technology was a major factor in the process, because automation of train controls and clerical functions decreased the need for staff, and diesel locomotives and higher-capacity freight cars enabled CN to operate longer trains with less personnel. While unions fought for their job, technology enabled CN to run longer trains using fewer personnel.

The company has developed into a conglomerate of transportation with interests ranging anywhere from coal to newspaper. It owned the Toronto CN Tower, which was the highest freestanding structure, until 1976. In the 1970s, CN started to divest its non-rail business such as hotels and real estate and in 1988, it split off its trucking operations into a separate Crown corporation called CNX/CN Trucking. The company also expanded into air and maritime services, with Air Canada (incorporated in 1937) becoming a subsidiary of CN and VIA Rail (which took over passenger train operations from CN in 1978) as a separate Crown corporation.

Passenger Service

CN was established to provide express and local trains to commuters. Its network spanned from Atlantic Canada to the West, connecting Moncton, New Brunswick with Toronto, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec.

The company was nationalized in 1919 after a financial crisis put the Grand Trunk and Canadian Northern railways at risk of bankruptcy. The government owned the two systems and they merged into the second largest railroad system in the United States.

In 1932, traffic volumes had been slashed by the Great Depression. Passenger train routes were either moved or eliminated in order to concentrate on freight service. When this time was over, passenger numbers was down by 45%.

In an effort to recover lost traffic, CN began offering lower-priced passenger trains. It also upgraded its stations and opened Spadina Roundhouse, a Toronto facility that was designed to keep passengers on the train services moving between trips.

Donald Gordon, CN's dynamic president, led the company to significant growth in the 1970s. Gordon rationalized the subsidiary companies of 80 down to 30 and modernized its locomotive fleet by converting to diesel engines. He also emphasized increasing efficiency and autonomy, by establishing profit centers to increase managerial accountability and identifying areas of government-imposed losses. The company also expanded into hotels and telecommunications, diversifying its business. This took the pressure off of its slowing railway operations. The railway is a major provider of transportation and logistics services including intermodal and containerized freight including petroleum and chemicals, Canadian national Railway Mds grain and forest products, as well as metals, and automotive components.

Locomotives

In the 1920s, CN began modernizing its passenger train equipment. A two-way radio system for train passengers enabled them to make phone calls with the same quality as a regular phone. The system was tested on the journey through Toronto by the International Limited train, which was commanded by a 4-8-4 Mountain type locomotive 6028.

In the 1950s, the railroad still tried to balance its cargo and passenger traffic. However, the growing competition from airlines made the air travel more difficult to compete. In the late 1960s the liberalization of the transportation industry helped CN get back to profitability.

Today, CN operates the largest railroad network in North America. It is mostly a freight carrier, and Canadian National Railway Mds it is focused on cargo with high value, such as automobiles, grain, and steel. Its network spans more than 32 800 kilometers long.

CN operates numerous models of diesel locomotives. It utilizes a variety of wagons and boxcars to transport huge quantities of grain between rural areas and big ports and cities. This CN locomotive, which is dubbed 4803 and painted in pre-1960 livery it is on display at the railway museum in Toronto. It's a GE Dash 8-40CW, built in London, Ontario in 1974.

Management

After World War II, rail passenger travel decreased dramatically as aviation and highways expanded. CN's privately-owned rival CPR significantly reduced its service however, the government-owned CN continued to provide a variety of its passenger services. It even introduced new schemes. The "Red Blue, White, and Blue" fare structure, which provided deep discounts during off-peak hours was credited for an increase in the number of passengers.

During the 1970s, CN's management focused on enhancing the railroad's autonomy and its profitability. It changed profit centers and began to abandon money-losing branch lines. The network of branches was dramatically reduced, with thousands of kilometers of track being abandoned. This included entire track systems in Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, southern Ontario, the Prairie provinces, and the northern regions of British Columbia.

In 1998, CN bought the Illinois Central Railroad, which allowed the company to establish an north-south presence in the United States. In an era in which rail ownership was consolidated, the purchase transformed CN into a single system that operated in both Canada as well as the United States.

The company was privatized in 1995 and a large portion of the shares being purchased by American shareholders. Controversy arose in 2003 when the company was forced not to refer to its Canadian heritage, and now it simply refers to itself under the name CN.