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'''Storia delle ferrovie in Canada'''
=== Premesse ===
La storia delle ferrovie in Canada ebbe inizio nel periodo in cui non era ancora stata istituita l'entità di stato confederale.
I singoli stati (provinces) dipendevano da quanto in realtà veniva ratificato o finanziato o istituito nel Regno Unito.
[[File:Samsonloco.jpg|thumb|left|locomotiva pionieristica "Samson" preservata al Museum of Industry di Stellarton, Nova Scotia.]]
La costruzione delle ferrovie fu essenziale e legata allo sviluppo di ciascun singolo territorio; inizialmente si trattò di singole brevi linee costruite per collegare le vie d'acqua fluviali e marittime tra porto e porto. Negli anni successivi prese tuttavia consistenza la costruzione di ferrovie più lungo intese ancora come supplementi terrestri alla navigazione sul San Lorenzo.
Fu lo sviluppo della produzione di grano, l'estrazione di minerali e l'inizio della produzione industriale a spingere ad una nuova fase di costruzione di linee brevi e diramate.
=== Nascono le prime linee ===
The first Canadian railway, the [[Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad]], was opened in 1836 outside of [[Montreal]], a seasonal portage railway to connect river traffic. It was followed by the Albion Railway in [[Stellarton, Nova Scotia]] in 1840, a collier railway connecting coal mines to a seaport.
Heavy expansion of the rail system did not get under way until the [[Guarantee Act]] of 1849 that guaranteed bond returns on all railways over 75 miles. This led to rapid expansion of railway in the Canadas, sometimes excessive growth as uneconomic lines were built since the government guaranteed profits.
This proved disastrous for government finances, however, and the Canadas were all but bankrupted by the subsidies. The largest rail project of this period was also a disaster. The [[Grand Trunk Railway]] linking Montreal to [[Sarnia, Ontario|Sarnia]] was finished in 1860, but was vastly mired in debt. In exchange for bailing out the company the government escaped its guarantee on the railway bonds.
[[Canadian confederation]] was in part brought about by the railways. The local governments had all but emptied their treasuries building railways, and a new and more stable method of financing them was required. It was also believed that union would allow for the needed construction of railroads linking [[British North America]]. The [[Maritimes]] joined largely because of promises to build the [[Intercolonial Railway]], and [[British Columbia]] only because of a promise to build a transcontinental railroad.
Inizialmente si collegarono insieme le province lontane incentivando il commercio all'interno del Canada e minimizzando quello con gli Stati Uniti per evitare di diventarne economicamente dipendenti. La scelta dello scartamento obbediva infatti a tale logica.
[[File:Locomotive Trevithick Grand Tronc 1859.jpg|thumb|Locomotiva ''Trevithick'' della Grand Trunk sul ponte Victoria di Montreal nel 1859]]
Nel 1851 il Railway Guarantee Act del 1849 venne modificato allo scopo di garantire interessi solo alle ferrovie che costruivano linee di almeno 75 km usando lo [[scartamento largo]] (che non era usato negli Stati Uniti d'America e che quindi proteggeva militarmente e commercialmente le colonie inglesi). GTR costruì quindi le sue ferrovie adottando il cosiddetto ''Provincial Gauge'' per usufruire degli incentivi<ref name="cogeco">{{cita web|titolo=Niagara Rails, CN Lines (cogeco.ca) Grand Trunk Railway |url=http://home.cogeco.ca/~trains/rrcn.htm#gt|accesso=14 aprile 2015}}</ref>.
Le mutate condizioni tra gli stati e nel 1854 il ''Canadian-American Reciprocity Treaty'' che rimuoveva le barriere tariffarie e doganali sulle merci agricole e sulle risorse primarie incrementarono i traffici rendendo il differente scartamento un impedimento. Il ''Railway Guarantee Act'' venne abolito nel 1870 facendo perdere ogni agevolazione alla compagnia che, tra 1872 e 1885, per facilitare la circolazione e l'interscambio con le ferrovie statunitensi attuò gradualmente la riconversione delle sue linee a [[scartamento normale]]. La GTR sperimentò anche altri sistemi per ovviare a questo divario quali gli assi a scartamento variabile ma vennero presto abbandonati perché troppo macchinosi<ref name="cogeco" />.[[Grand Trunk Railway]] collegò Toronto e Montreal nel 1853, poi attivò una linea su Portland, nel Maine, per disporre di un porto sempre libero dai ghiacci e in seguito linee sul Michigan e Chicago. Dal 1870 fu la più lunga linea ferroviaria del mondo. La Intercoloniale, finita nel 1876, collegava le Maritimes a [[Quebec]] e [[Ontario]] legandole alla nuova Confederazione.
Gli imprenditori inglesi di [[Montreal]] cercarono di costruire linee dirette per gli Stati Uniti anziché connessioni con le colonie marittime con l'obiettivo di competere con le linee ferroviarie americane in direzione ovest verso il Pacifico.
[[Joseph Howe]], [[Charles Tupper]] e altri leader di [[Nuova Scozia]] usarono la retorica della "missione civilizzatrice" (centrata sui loro patrimoni britannici); i loro progetti ferroviari finalizzati alla costa Atlantica infatti promettevano di rendere il porto di Halifax il capolinea orientale di un sistema ferroviario intercoloniale collegato a Londra. [[Leonard Tilley]] uno dei promotori più ardenti di una ferrovia nel New Brunswick, propugnò la causa del "progresso economico", sottolineando che i canadesi dell'Atlantico avevano necessità di perseguire i collegamenti di trasporto più economici possibili, se volevano espandere la loro influenza al di là dei mercati locali.
Sostenendo una connessione Intercoloniale in Canada e un prolungamento occidentale verso i più grandi mercati americani del Maine e oltre, gli imprenditori del New Brunswick promossero in primo i collegamento con gli Stati Uniti e solo in seconda quelli con Halifax e in ultimo quelli con il Canada centrale. Le rivalità tra Montreal, Halifax e Saint John portato quindi il Canada a costruire più linee ferroviarie pro capite rispetto a qualsiasi altra nazione industrializzata nonostante mancassero risorse di capitale e avessero troppo poco traffico merci e passeggeri per consentire ai sistemi di ottenere un consistente profitto<ref>A.A. den Otter, ''The Philosophy of Railways: The Transcontinental Railway Idea in British North America'' (1997)</ref>.
The government had learnt its lesson and these railways were not funded by guarantees. Rather, the construction of the Intercolonial was fully controlled by the government under the skilled direction of [[Sir Sandford Fleming]].
=== Dal 1885 ===
Nel 1885 erano già state realizzate ampiamente le reti nelle zone dell'est, prevalentemente in Ontario e in Quebec e unificate la Great Western e la Grand Trunk; la Intercolonial collegava le Marittime e il San Lorenzo e la prima intercontinantale aveva preso forma. <ref>M. L. Bladen, Construction of Railways in Canada to the Year 1885," ''Contributions to Canadian Economics'' Vol. 5 (1932), pp. 43–60; [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0383-6258%281932%295%3C43%3ACORICT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-V in JSTOR]</ref>
The railway to the Pacific, the [[Canadian Pacific Railway]], was financed by private funds and through massive land grants in the [[Canadian prairies]], much of it of little value until the railway arrived, $25 million in cash and a guaranteed monopoly. The railway, an engineering marvel that was then the longest in the world, was completed in 1885 to great fanfare.
The booming Canadian economy after 1900 led to plans to build two new transcontinental railways. The Canadian Northern, a successful system covering the northern part of the prairies, and the Grand Trunk (through its Grand Trunk Pacific subsidiary) both launched ambitious plans to expand. The government at first encouraged the two to come to some arrangement and only have one new line, but in the end no agreement was made and the government supported the expansion of both lines. The federal government itself built the [[National Transcontinental Railway]], a line from [[Moncton]] to [[Winnipeg]], passing through the vast and uninhabited hinterland of the [[Canadian Shield]].
Den Otter (1997) challenges popular assumptions that Canada built transcontinental railways because it feared the annexationist schemes of aggressive Americans. Instead Canada overbuilt railroads because it hoped to compete with, even overtake Americans in the race for continental riches. It downplayed the more realistic Maritimes-based London-oriented connections and turned to utopian prospects for the farmlands and minerals of the west. The result was closer ties between north and south, symbolized by the Grand Trunk's expansion into the American Midwest. These economic links promoted trade, commerce, and the flow of ideas between the two countries, integrating Canada into a North American economy and culture by 1880. About 700,000 Canadians migrated to the U.S. in the late 19th century.<ref>Den Otten (1997); Bill Waiser, ''Saskatchewan: A New History'' (2005) p. 63</ref> The Canadian Pacific, paralleling the American border, opened a vital link to British Canada, and stimulated settlement of the Prairies. The CP was affiliated with [[James J. Hill]]'s American railways, and opened even more connections to the South. The connections were two-way, as thousands of American moved to the Prairies after their own frontier had closed.
Two additional transcontinental lines were built to the west coast—three in all—but that was far more than the traffic would bear, making the system simply too expensive. One after another, the federal government was forced to take over the lines and cover their deficits.
=== Dopo la prima guerra mondiale ===
The years after the First World War saw only moderate expansion of the rail network and the age of the great railways were over in Canada
In 1923 the government merged the Grand Trunk, Grand Trunk Pacific, Canadian Northern and National Transcontinental lines into the new the Canadian National Railways system. Since most of the equipment was imported from Britain or the U.S., and most of the products carried were from farms, mines or forests, there was little stimulation to domestic manufacturing. On the other hand, the railways were essential to the growth of the wheat regions in the Prairies, and to the expansion of coal mining, lumbering, and paper making. Improvements to the St. Lawrence waterway system continued apace, and many short lines were built to river ports.<ref>M. L. Bladen, Construction of Railways in Canada to the Year 1885," ''Contributions to Canadian Economics'' Vol. 5 (1932), pp. 43–60; [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0383-6258%281932%295%3C43%3ACORICT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-V in JSTOR]; Bladen, "Construction of Railways in Canada Part II: From 1885 to 1931," ''Contributions to Canadian Economics'' Vol. 7 (1934), pp. 61–107; [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0383-6258%281934%297%3C61%3ACORICP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-R in JSTOR]</ref>
This aggressive expansion proved disastrous when immigration and supplies of capital all but disappeared with the outbreak of the [[First World War]]. The [[Canadian Northern]], [[Grand Trunk Pacific]], and Grand Trunk were nationalized by the federal government, which absorbed the debt of over two billion dollars. All three railways, along with the [[Canadian Government Railways]] (formed by the Intercolonial, [[National Transcontinental]], and several smaller lines) were then merged into the [[Canadian National Railways]] in 1923.
. The automobile provided strong competition by the 1920s, and after the [[Second World War]] most passenger service was lost to [[airlines]]. During the post-war period several large resource lines were opened in Quebec, Labrador, and British Columbia – several of which are not directly connected to the main North American network.
In 1978 the government created [[Via Rail]] which took over all national passenger service in the country. In November 1995 the government privatized CN.
==Note==
<references/>
== Bibliografia ==
* Andreae, Christopher. ''Lines of Country: An Atlas of Railway and Waterway History in Canada'' (1996)
* Baskerville, Peter. "On the Rails: Trends in Canadian Railway Historiography," ''American Review of Canadian Studies'' (1979) 9#1 pp 63–72.
* Baskerville, Peter. "Hickson, Sir Joseph," [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=40281 ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online'']
* Baskerville, Peter. "[http://www.jstor.org/pss/3114127 Americans in Britain’s backyard: the railway era in Upper Canada, 1850–1880]," ''Business History Review'' 55 (1981): 314–36
* Berton Pierre. '' The Last Spike: The Great Railway, 1881-1885'' (2001) [http://www.amazon.com/Last-Spike-Great-Railway-1881-1885/dp/0385658419/ excerpt and text search], popular history
* Brown, Ron. ''[http://books.google.ca/books?id=z35PdcMobIYC The Train Doesn't Stop Here Any More]'' (1998) an illustrated history of railway stations in Canada
* Currie, A. W. ''The Grand Trunk Railway of Canada.'' University of Toronto Press, 1957. 556 pp, the standard history
* Eagle, J. A. ''The Canadian Pacific Railway and the Development of Western Canada, 1896-1914.'' McGill-Queen's University Press 1989
* Fleming, R. B. ''[http://books.google.ca/books?id=0q5-xbNUbQwC The Railway King of Canada: Sir William Mackenzie, 1849-1923]'' University of British Columbia Press, 1991
* Fournier, Leslie T. ''[http://books.google.ca/books?id=ewnzgC1EzC8C Railway Nationalization in Canada: The Problem of the Canadian National Railways]'' (1937)
* Fournier, Leslie T. "[http://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/jpolec/v39y1913p369.html The Canadian National Railway versus the Canadian Pacific: A Comparative Study]," ''The Journal of Political Economy'' Vol. 39, No. 3 (Jun., 1931), pp. 369–389 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1822288in JSTOR]
* Freeman, Kenneth D. et al. ''The Growth and Performance of the Canadian Transcontinental Railways 1956-1981'' (1987)
* Hertel; D. W. ''History of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees: Its Birth and Growth, 1887-1955'' (1955) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=684425 online]
* Hofsommer, Don L. ''Grand Trunk Corporation: Canadian National Railways in the United States, 1971-1992.'' 1995. 227 pp. [http://books.google.ca/books?id=28PLpNLQ3x4C online]
* Kaye, Lamb W. ''History of the Canadian Pacific Railway''. (1977).
* Leonard, Frank. ''[http://www8.cpr.ca/cms/nr/cprinternet/images/cprchildrenshistory.pdf A Thousand Blunders: The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway and Northern British Columbia]'' University of British Columbia Press, 1996
* {{citation |last =Murray |first = Tom |coauthor= |year =2011 |title =Rails Across Canada The History of Canadian Pacific and Canadian National Railways. |url =http://books.google.ca/books?id=vf7efnxi1XwC& |publisher= Voyageur Pr |isbn=978-0-7603-4008-0 }}
* den Otter, A.A. ''The Philosophy of Railways: The Transcontinental Railway Idea in British North America'' University of Toronto Press, 1997.
* Regehr, Theodore D. "Hays, Charles M." [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=41552 ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online'']
* Regehr, T. D. ''The Canadian Northern Railway'' Macmillan of Canada 1976
* Stevens, G. ''History of the Canadian National Railways'' Macmillan Company 1973
* Underwood, Jay. ''Built for War: Canada's Intercolonial Railway,'' (2006)
* Weaver, R. Kent. ''[http://www.questia.com/library/book/the-politics-of-industrial-change-railway-policy-in-north-america-by-r-kent-weaver.jsp The Politics of Industrial Change: Railway Policy in North America]'' (1985)
* Willson, Beckles. ''[http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=6405240 The Life of Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal]'' 1915.
== Voci correlate ==
*[[Storia del Canada]]
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[[categoria:storia delle ferrovie]]</nowiki>
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