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50-559: Numerous shipyards were located on the shores of Courtney Bay in the east end of Saint John Harbour where extensive mud flats dried at low tide. In 1918 it was announced that the St. John Drydock & Shipbuilding Co. would be established as a subsidiary of the Canada Dredging Co., Ltd. of Midland , Ontario and would construct the largest drydock in the world. St. John to Have Biggest Drydock. The drydock to be erected at

100-469: A Canadian corporation. Following the successful IPO, CN has recorded impressive gains in its stock price, largely through an aggressive network rationalization and purchase of newer more fuel-efficient locomotives. Numerous branch lines were shed in the late 1990s across Canada, resulting in dozens of independent short line railway companies being established to operate former CN track that had been considered marginal. This network rationalization resulted in

150-690: A blue-plate tourist service, the Rocky Mountaineer , with fares well over double what the BCR coach fares had been. CN also announced in October 2003 an agreement to purchase Great Lakes Transportation (GLT), a holding company owned by Blackstone Group for US$ 380 million. GLT was the owner of Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad , Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway (DM&I), and the Pittsburgh & Conneaut Dock Company. The key instigator for

200-467: A core east–west freight railway stretching from Halifax to Chicago and Toronto to Vancouver and Prince Rupert . The railway also operated trains from Winnipeg to Chicago using trackage rights for part of the route south of Duluth. In addition to the rationalization in Canada, the company also expanded in a strategic north–south direction in the central United States . In 1998, in an era of mergers in

250-715: A daily basis. The practice had been ongoing in Saint John since the mid-1800s. Although Saint John was not the sole Canadian municipality to dispose wastewater that was untreated into the environment, it had been unique in that its outfalls once flowed into local streams , forming open sewers that ran through the city center. Guidelines suggested for Canada indicate waters with counts of higher than 200 fecal coliform bacteria per 100 ml (3.5 imp fl oz; 3.4 US fl oz) sample cannot be touched by humans (including fishing, swimming, pet swimming and wading). Post-cleanup sampling done throughout 2014 along

300-627: A great deal of public and political attention. Canada was one of many nations to engage in railway nationalization in order to safeguard critical transportation infrastructure during the First World War . In the early 20th century, many governments were taking a more interventionist role in the economy, foreshadowing the influence of economists like John Maynard Keynes . This political trend, combined with broader geo-political events, made nationalization an appealing choice for Canada. The Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 and allied involvement in

350-405: A location on the eastern shore of Courtney Bay. The first of its long list of vessels, the ferry MV  Kipawo , which still exists, was launched on December 5, 1924. After fit-up, it went into service in 1926. The shipyard was sold in the 1950s to the industrialist K.C. Irving . The ensuing corporate restructuring saw the company renamed Saint John Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., Ltd. . By

400-613: A north–south NAFTA railway (in reference to the North American Free Trade Agreement ). CN was then feeding Canadian raw material exports into the U.S. heartland and beyond to Mexico through a strategic alliance with Kansas City Southern Railway (KCS). In 1999, CN and BNSF Railway , the second largest rail system in the U.S., announced their intent to merge, forming a new corporate entity North American Railways , headquartered in Montreal to conform to

450-462: A passenger-vehicle ferry for its Bay of Fundy service from Saint John to Digby . Similarly, the government-owned ferry operator CN Marine placed an order in the early 1980s for a passenger-vehicle ferry for its Northumberland Strait service to Prince Edward Island . By far the largest contract placed with the shipyard, and the largest single shipbuilding order ever issued in Canadian history,

500-528: A possible merger of the two companies. This was later rejected by the Government of Canada, whereupon CPR offered to purchase outright all of CN's lines from Ontario to Nova Scotia, while an unidentified U.S. railroad (rumoured to have been Burlington Northern Railroad ) would purchase CN's lines in western Canada. This too was rejected. In 1995, the entire company including its U.S. subsidiaries reverted to using CN exclusively. The CN Commercialization Act

550-774: Is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec , which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States . CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue and the physical size of its rail network, spanning Canada from the Atlantic coast in Nova Scotia to the Pacific coast in British Columbia across approximately 20,000 route miles (32,000 km) of track. In

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600-580: Is controlled by the Canada Dredging Company, Limited of Midland, Ont. Among those connected with the organization are James Playfair, General Manager of the Great Lakes Transportation Company, Ltd.; W.H. Robertson, D.L. White, Jr., W.J. Sheppard, W.E.Phin, D.S. Pratt, George Y. Chown, R. Hobson, Colonel Thomas A. Duff, J.A. Paisley, and J.B. Craven. The new shipyard with its massive drydock opened in 1923 at

650-454: Is home to several small islands including: There are two large bridges crossing The Narrows: The harbour is managed by the Port of Saint John . The Saint John, New Brunswick harbour cleanup infrastructure project brought an end to the routine release of raw sewage into Saint John's waterways. The $ 99 million initiative involved the finishing of a third wastewater treatment plant east in

700-933: The Kingston -class coastal defence vessel as part of the Maritime Coastal Defence Vessel Project by the winning consortium led by SNC Lavalin . However, changing global economic conditions for Canada's shipbuilders during the late 1990s coupled with changes to federal government tariffs and tax policies for Canadian ship owners saw Saint John Shipbuilding left with little work after the Halifax -class frigates were completed. Kent Lines ordered several container ships and Irving Shipbuilding's shipyards in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island were kept moderately busy with repair and small contract construction, but there were no large contracts on

750-605: The CN Commercialization Act of 1995. The merger announcement by CN's Paul Tellier and BNSF's Robert Krebs was greeted with skepticism by the U.S. government's Surface Transportation Board (STB), and protested by other major North American rail companies, namely CPR and Union Pacific Railroad (UP). Rail customers also denounced the proposed merger, following the confusion and poor service sustained in southeastern Texas in 1998 following UP's purchase of Southern Pacific Railroad two years earlier. In response to

800-591: The Connecticut River valley from Quebec to Long Island Sound ; and the Berlin subdivision to Portland, Maine , known informally as the Grand Trunk Eastern , sold to a short-line operator in 1989. In 1992, a new management team led by ex-federal government bureaucrats, Paul Tellier and Michael Sabia , started preparing CN for privatization by emphasizing increased productivity. This

850-585: The Russian Revolution seemed to validate the continuing process. The need for a viable rail system was paramount in a time of civil unrest and foreign military action. Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad The B&LE was acquired with the purchase of Great Lakes Transportation and the DM&;IR. British Columbia Railway In 2003, BCOL sold to Canadian National and leased the railroad to CN for 60 years. Central Vermont Railway Central Vermont

900-421: The 1980s, it came to be known simply as Saint John Shipbuilding and was the flagship of a collection of eastern Canadian shipyards operated by Irving Shipbuilding . The shipyard was used to construct oil tankers for Irving Oil and freighters and other cargo vessels for Kent Lines , a shipping company owned by K.C. Irving. The facility also received a contract from Canadian Pacific Railway in 1969 to build

950-577: The City of Saint John, N.B., will be one of the largest in the world. The contract has already been let to the St. John Drydock and Shipbuilding Company by the Department of Public Works, Ottawa. The length of the new dock will be 1,150 feet and its width at the bottom 125 feet. It will accommodate the largest vessel, naval or mercantile, which is now afloat or planned. The St. John Drydock and Shipbuilding Company

1000-566: The Montreal commuter trains are now operated by Montreal's EXO . On November 17, 1995, the Government of Canada privatized CN. Over the next decade, the company expanded significantly into the United States, purchasing Illinois Central Railroad and Wisconsin Central Transportation , among others. The excessive construction of railway lines in Canada led to significant financial difficulties striking many of them, in

1050-511: The U.S. rail industry, CN bought the Illinois Central Railroad (IC), which connected the already existing lines from Vancouver , British Columbia, to Halifax , Nova Scotia, with a line running from Chicago, Illinois, to New Orleans , Louisiana. This single purchase of IC transformed CN's entire corporate focus from being an east–west uniting presence within Canada (sometimes to the detriment of logical business models) into

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1100-480: The building is now Irving Wall board services. The train still can access the facility to remove shipments, but there is no and will not be in the foreseeable future. Courtney Bay Saint John Harbour is a large natural harbour on the Atlantic coast of New Brunswick , Canada , and within the seaport city of Saint John, New Brunswick . The harbour includes the following geographic areas: The harbour

1150-468: The city, and redirecting of the existing outfalls to lift and pumping stations. The initiative received full funding from the municipal, provincial and federal governments in 2008 and the project was completed in 2014. Saint John had in the past discharged 16,000,000 L (3,500,000 imp gal; 4,200,000 US gal) of raw sewage into the Saint John Harbour and its streams on

1200-484: The creek's lowest 400 m (1,300 ft) – which in the past had received the highest number of volume municipal wastewater that had not been treated – revealed a reduced amount of faecal bacteria counts between 95 and 99 percent from the year before. Although as of 2014 bacteria levels remained on average higher than the 200 counts/100 100 ml (3.5 imp fl oz; 3.4 US fl oz) guidelines for federal recreational water safety for every site that

1250-649: The deal was the fact that since the Wisconsin Central purchase, CN was required to use DM&I trackage rights for a short 18 km (11 mi) "gap" near Duluth, Minnesota , on the route between Chicago and Winnipeg. To purchase this short section, CN was told by GLT it would have to purchase the entire company. Also included in GLT's portfolio were eight Great Lakes vessels for transporting bulk commodities such as coal and iron ore as well as various port facilities. Following Surface Transportation Board approval for

1300-598: The government. Primarily a freight railway, CN also operated passenger services until 1978, when they were assumed by Via Rail . The only passenger services run by CN after 1978 were several mixed trains (freight and passenger) in Newfoundland , and several commuter trains both on CN's electrified routes and towards the South Shore in the Montreal area (the latter lasted without any public subsidy until 1986). The Newfoundland mixed trains lasted until 1988, while

1350-520: The horizon. The skilled workforce at Saint John Shipbuilding dwindled as welders and engineers and other trades and professionals left for work on other projects in Canada and abroad. The yard was mothballed in 2000 after it completed its last ship. Finally on June 27, 2003, Irving Shipbuilding announced that it had signed an agreement with the federal government for $ 55 million in economic readjustment funding provided that Saint John Shipbuilding be closed permanently. The Irving Group of Companies announced

1400-485: The intention of permanently decommissioning Canada's largest shipyard and building a new wallboard manufacturing plant and other businesses on the site. For Canadian National Railways : For CN Marine : For Canadian Pacific Railway : For Province of New Brunswick : Saint John Shipbuilding services has been terminated and all work has been sent to the Halifax yards. The former dry dock cranes have been removed and

1450-442: The largest single shareholder of CN stock, owning a 14.2% interest through Cascade Investment and his own Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation . From 1919 to 1978, the railway was known as "Canadian National Railways" (CNR). The Canadian National Railways (CNR) was incorporated on June 6, 1919, comprising several railways that had become bankrupt and fallen into Government of Canada hands, along with some railways already owned by

1500-468: The late 20th century, CN gained extensive capacity in the United States by taking over such railroads as the Illinois Central . CN is a public company with 22,600 employees and, as of July 2024 , a market cap of approximately US$ 75 billion. CN was government-owned, as a Canadian Crown corporation , from its founding in 1919 until being privatized in 1995. As of 2019 , Bill Gates was

1550-777: The northernmost trackage of the contiguous North American railway network. Since being purchased by CN in 2006, it has been officially known as the Meander River Subdivision. Newfoundland Railway On 31 March 1949, CNR acquired the assets of the Newfoundland Railway , which in 1979 were reorganized into Terra Transport . CN officially abandoned its rail network in Newfoundland on 1 October 1988. Savage Alberta Railway On December 1, 2006, CN announced that it had purchased Savage Alberta Railway for $ 25 million and that it had begun operating

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1600-501: The owner of EWS , the principal freight train operator in the United Kingdom. On May 13, 2003, the provincial government of British Columbia announced the provincial Crown corporation , BC Rail (BCR), would be sold with the winning bidder receiving BCR's surface operating assets (locomotives, cars, and service facilities). The provincial government is retaining ownership of the tracks and right-of-way. On November 25, 2003, it

1650-771: The rail industry, shippers, and political pressure, the STB placed a 15-month moratorium on all rail-industry mergers, effectively scuttling CN-BNSF plans. Both companies dropped their merger applications and have never refiled. After the STB moratorium expired, CN purchased Wisconsin Central (WC) in 2001, which allowed the company's rail network to encircle Lake Michigan and Lake Superior , permitting more efficient connections from Chicago to western Canada. The deal also included Canadian WC subsidiary Algoma Central Railway (ACR), giving access to Sault Ste. Marie and Michigan's Upper Peninsula . The purchase of Wisconsin Central also made CN

1700-918: The railway the same day. TransX Group of Companies In 2018, CN acquired the Winnipeg-based TransX Group of Companies. Transx continues to operate independently. Wisconsin Central Railroad In January 2001, CN acquired the WC for $ 800 million. CN's railway network in the late 1980s consisted of the company's Canadian trackage, along with the following U.S. subsidiary lines: Grand Trunk Western Railroad (GTW) operating in Michigan , Indiana , and Illinois ; Duluth, Winnipeg and Pacific Railway (DWP) operating in Minnesota ; Central Vermont Railway (CV) operating down

1750-572: The sale of BC Rail. Also contested was the economic stimulus package the government gave cities along the BC Rail route. Some saw it as a buy-off to get the municipalities to cooperate with the lease, though the government asserted the package was intended to promote economic development along the corridor. Passenger service along the route had been ended by BC Rail a few years earlier due to ongoing losses resulting from deteriorating service. The cancelled passenger service has subsequently been replaced by

1800-411: The shoreline's vegetation. Those outfalls were decommissioned as part of the cleanup project. 47°47′46″N 66°01′50″W  /  47.7961°N 66.0306°W  / 47.7961; -66.0306  ( Saint John Harbour ) Canadian National Railways The Canadian National Railway Company ( French : Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada ) ( reporting mark CN )

1850-423: The system was more or less finalized at that point. However, certain related lawsuits were not resolved until as late as 1936. Canadian National Railways was born out of both wartime and domestic urgency. Until the rise of the personal automobile and creation of taxpayer-funded all-weather highways, railways were the only viable long-distance land transportation available in Canada. As such, their operation consumed

1900-414: The transaction shortly thereafter. The EJ&E lines create a bypass around the western side of heavily congested Chicago-area rail hub and its conversion to use for mainline freight traffic is expected to alleviate substantial bottlenecks for both regional and intercontinental rail traffic subject to lengthy delays entering and exiting Chicago freight yards. The purchase of the lightly used EJ&E corridor

1950-460: The transaction, CN completed the purchase of GLT on May 10, 2004. On December 24, 2008, the STB approved CN's purchase for $ 300 million of the principal lines of the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway Company (EJ&E) ( reporting mark EJE) from the U.S. Steel Corporation , originally announced on September 27, 2007. The STB's decision was to become effective on January 23, 2009, with a closure of

2000-623: The two railroads were formally amalgamated into the CN system. Iowa Northern Railway In 2023, CN acquired the Iowa Northern Railway , but the transaction is awaiting approval by the Surface Transportation Board (STB). Mackenzie Northern Railway In 2006, CN acquired Mackenzie Northern Railway , previously purchased by RailAmerica . This purchase allowed CN to increase their network footprint and hold

2050-555: The years leading up to 1920: The Canadian National Railway Company then evolved through the following steps: GTR management and shareholders opposed to nationalization took legal action, but after several years of arbitration, the GTR was finally absorbed into the CNR on January 30, 1923. Although several smaller independent railways would be added to the CNR in subsequent years as they went bankrupt or it became politically expedient to do so,

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2100-435: Was achieved largely through aggressive cuts to the company's management structure, widescale layoffs in its workforce and continued abandonment or sale of its branch lines. In 1993 and 1994, the company experimented with a rebranding that saw the names CN , Grand Trunk Western , and Duluth, Winnipeg, and Pacific replaced under a collective CN North America moniker. In this time, CPR and CN entered into negotiations regarding

2150-488: Was announced CN's bid of CA$ 1   billion would be accepted over those of CPR and several U.S. companies. The transaction was closed effective July 15, 2004. Many opponents – including CPR – accused the government and CN of rigging the bidding process, though this has been denied by the government. Documents relating to the case are under court seal, as they are connected to a parallel marijuana grow-op investigation connected with two senior government aides also involved in

2200-409: Was enacted into law on July 13, 1995, and by November 28, 1995, the Government of Canada had completed an initial public offering (IPO) and transferred all of its shares to private investors. Two key prohibitions in this legislation include, 1) that no individual or corporate shareholder may own more than 15% of CN, and 2) that the company's headquarters must remain in Montreal , thus maintaining CN as

2250-576: Was for the Royal Canadian Navy 's Halifax -class frigate program, which saw nine warships built at Saint John during the early 1990s. Flush with revenues during this contract, Irving Shipbuilding went on a buying spree of several bankrupt or failing shipyards in eastern Canada as part of a strategy to assist with spreading the work at its overcrowded shipyard in Saint John. The East Isle Shipyard in Georgetown , Prince Edward Island

2300-607: Was merged with Central Vermont in 1971 with the creation of the Grand Trunk Corporation. In 1991 the GTW was merged with CN under the "North America" consolidation program. Many of GTWs locomotives and rolling stock would be repainted and the motive power would get the new CN scheme. Illinois Central Railroad In 1998, IC was purchased by CN, which also acquired the Chicago Central in the deal. A year later,

2350-645: Was nationalized in 1918 and consolidated into the Grand Trunk Western in 1971 with the creation of the Grand Trunk Corporation. Duluth Missabe & Iron Range Railroad The DM&IR was purchased by Great Lakes Transportation and in 2011 the DM&IR was merged into CN's Wisconsin Central Subsidiary. The DM&IR was acquired at the same time as the Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad. Duluth Winnipeg & Pacific Railroad The DWP

2400-570: Was nationalized with CN in 1918 and became a part of CN's Grand Trunk Corporation in 1971. In 2011 the DWP was merged into the larger Wisconsin Central Subsidiary of CN. Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway In 2009, CN acquired the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway to assist with traffic congestion in Chicago and the surrounding area. In 2013 EJ&E was merged into the greater Wisconsin Central Subsidiary of CN. Grand Trunk Western Railroad The GTW

2450-645: Was purchased from the provincial government and used to construct modules for the Halifax -class frigates. Similarly, Irving Shipbuilding purchased the Shelburne Ship Repair shipyard in Shelburne and the Pictou Shipyard in Pictou to support the Halifax -class project. Irving Shipbuilding also purchased Halifax Dartmouth Industries after that shipyard was sub-contracted in 1992 to build

2500-495: Was tested, and improved water quality. Previously, in several places, Harbour Passage walking trail in Saint John came close to outfalls that had contaminated the harbour with waste that humans could not touch. A University of New Brunswick study had also discovered the raw sewage contaminated fish in the waterways, causing handling to become a human health risk. Personal hygiene products such as condoms, tampons and toilet paper were sometimes seen on beaches and hanging from along

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