. for other uses see canadian pacific disambiguation . canadian pacific railway canadian pacific system map does not include dm & e trackage reporting mark cp locale canada with branches to united states cities chicago detroit milwaukee minneapolis and new york city dates of operation february 16 1881 present track gauge 1 435 mm 4 ft 8 1 2 in standard gauge headquarters calgary alberta canada website www.cpr.ca an alternative cp logo featuring a beaver canada s national animal an eastbound cpr freight train at stoney creek bridge in rogers pass the canadian pacific railway cpr formerly also known as cp rail reporting mark cp between 1968 and 1996 is a historic canadian class i railroad incorporated in 1881 . the railroad is owned by canadian pacific railway limited tsx cp nyse cp which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001 . 1 headquartered in calgary alberta it owns approximately 20 000 kilometres 12 500 mi of track all across canada and into the united states 1 stretching from montreal to vancouver and as far north as edmonton . its rail network also serves major cities in the united states such as minneapolis milwaukee detroit chicago and new york city . the railway was originally built between eastern canada and british columbia between 1881 and 1885 connecting with ottawa valley and georgian bay area lines built earlier fulfilling a promise extended to british columbia when it entered confederation in 1871 . it was canada s first transcontinental railway but currently does not reach the atlantic coast . primarily a freight railway the cpr was for decades the only practical means of long distance passenger transport in most regions of canada and was instrumental in the settlement and development of western canada . the cpr became one of the largest and most powerful companies in canada a position it held as late as 1975 . 2 its primary passenger services were eliminated in 1986 after being assumed by via rail canada in 1978 . a beaver was chosen as the railway s logo because it is the national symbol of canada and was seen as representing the hardworking character of the company . the company acquired two american lines in 2009 the dakota minnesota and eastern railroad and the iowa chicago and eastern railroad . the trackage of the ice was at one time part of cp subsidiary soo line and predecessor line the milwaukee road . the combined dme ice system spanned north dakota south dakota minnesota wisconsin nebraska and iowa as well as two short stretches into two other states which included a line to kansas city missouri and a line to chicago illinois and regulatory approval to build a line into the powder river basin of wyoming . it is publicly traded on both the toronto stock exchange and the new york stock exchange under the ticker cp . its u.s. headquarters are in minneapolis . 3 after close of markets on november 17 2015 cp announced an offer to purchase all outstanding shares of norfolk southern railway at a price in excess of the us 26 billion capitalization of the united states based railway . 4 if it had been completed this merger of the second and fourth oldest class i railroads in north america would have formed the largest single railway company on that continent reaching from the pacific coast to the atlantic coast to the gulf coast . 4 the merger effort was abandoned by canadian pacific on april 11 2016 after three offers were rejected by the norfolk southern board . 5 contents 1 history 1.1 building the railway 1881 1885 1.2 1886 1900 1.2.1 the cpr and the settlement of western canada 1.3 1901 1928 1.4 first world war 1.5 the great depression and the second world war 1929 1945 1.6 1946 1978 1.7 1979 2001 1.8 2001 to present 1.9 canadian pacific railway s north line 2 freight trains 3 passenger trains 3.1 sleeping dining and parlour car department 4 express 5 special trains 5.1 silk trains 5.2 funeral trains 5.3 royal trains 5.4 better farming train 5.5 school cars 5.6 silver streak 5.7 holiday train 5.8 royal canadian pacific 5.9 steam train 5.10 spirit train 6 non railway services 6.1 telegraph 6.2 radio 6.3 steamships 6.3.1 bc coast steamships 6.3.2 bc lake and river service 6.4 hotels 6.5 airline 7 locomotives 7.1 steam locomotives 7.2 diesel locomotives 8 corporate structure 8.1 presidents 9 major facilities 9.1 active hump yards 10 joint partnership 11 see also 12 references 13 further reading 14 external links history edit the creation of the canadian pacific railway was a task originally undertaken for a combination of reasons by the conservative government of prime minister sir john a. macdonald . british columbia had insisted upon a transport link to the east as a condition for joining the confederation of canada initially requesting a wagon road . 6 the government however proposed to build a railway linking the pacific province to the eastern provinces within 10 years of 20 july 1871 . macdonald saw it as essential to the creation of a unified canadian nation that would stretch across the continent . moreover manufacturing interests in quebec and ontario needed access to raw materials and markets in western canada . sir john a. macdonald . the first obstacle to its construction was political . the logical route went through the american midwest and the city of chicago illinois . in addition to this was the difficulty of building a railroad through the canadian rockies an entirely canadian route would require crossing 1 600 km 990 mi of rugged terrain across the barren canadian shield and muskeg of northern ontario . to ensure this routing the government offered huge incentives including vast grants of land in the west . citation needed in 1873 sir john a. macdonald and other high ranking politicians bribed in the pacific scandal granted federal contracts to hugh allan s canada pacific railway company which was unrelated to the current company rather than to david lewis macpherson s inter ocean railway company which was thought to have connections to the american northern pacific railway company . because of this scandal the conservative party was removed from office in 1873 . the new liberal prime minister alexander mackenzie ordered construction of segments of the railway as a public enterprise under the supervision of the department of public works led by sandford fleming . surveying was carried out during the first years of a number of alternative routes in this virgin territory followed by construction of a telegraph along the lines that had been agreed upon . 7 the thunder bay section linking lake superior to winnipeg was commenced in 1875 . by 1880 around 1 000 kilometres 700 mi was nearly complete mainly across the troublesome canadian shield terrain with trains running on only 500 kilometres 300 mi of track . 8 c.p.r. locomotive and employees with macdonald s return to power on 16 october 1878 a more aggressive construction policy was adopted . macdonald confirmed that port moody would be the terminus of the transcontinental railway and announced that the railway would follow the fraser and thompson rivers between port moody and kamloops . in 1879 the federal government floated bonds in london and called for tenders to construct the 206 km 128 mi section of the railway from yale british columbia to savona s ferry on kamloops lake . the contract was awarded to andrew onderdonk whose men started work on 15 may 1880 . after the completion of that section onderdonk received contracts to build between yale and port moody and between savona s ferry and eagle pass . citation needed on 21 october 1880 a new syndicate unrelated to hugh allan s signed a contract with the macdonald government and fleming was dismissed . they agreed to build the railway in exchange for 25 million approximately 625 million in modern canadian dollars in credit from the canadian government and a grant of 25 million acres 100 000 km2 of land . the government transferred to the new company those sections of the railway it had constructed under government ownership on which it had already spent at least 25m . but its estimates of the cost of the rocky mountain section alone was over 60m . 9 the government also defrayed surveying costs and exempted the railway from property taxes for 20 years . the montreal based syndicate officially comprised five men george stephen james j. hill duncan mcintyre richard b. angus and john stewart kennedy . donald a. smith and norman kittson were unofficial silent partners with a significant financial interest . on 15 february 1881 legislation confirming the contract received royal assent and the canadian pacific railway company was formally incorporated the next day . 10 some who claimed that the government gave too large a subsidy for the proposed project but this was to incorporate uncertainties of risk and irreversibility of insurance . the large subsidy also needed to compensate the cpr for not constructing the line at a privately optimal time late in the future but rather right away when projected demand would not cover operational costs . 11 building the railway 1881 1885 edit canadian pacific railway crew laying tracks at lower fraser valley 1881 building the railway took over four years . the canadian pacific railway began its westward expansion from bonfield ontario previously called callander station where the first spike was driven into a sunken railway tie . bonfield was inducted into canadian railway hall of fame in 2002 as the cpr first spike location . that was the point where the canada central railway extension ended . 12 the ccr was owned by duncan mcintyre who amalgamated it with the cpr and became one of the handful of officers of the newly formed cpr . the ccr started in brockville and extended to pembroke . it then followed a westward route along the ottawa river passing through places like cobden deux rivi res and eventually to mattawa at the confluence of the mattawa and ottawa rivers . it then proceeded cross country towards its final destination of bonfield . duncan mcintyre and his contractor james worthington piloted the cpr expansion . worthington continued on as the construction superintendent for the cpr past bonfield . he remained with the cpr for about a year after which he left the company . mcintyre was uncle to john ferguson who staked out future north bay and who became the town s wealthiest inhabitant and mayor for four successive terms . 13 unidentified engineers of the canadian pacific railway survey 1872 . it was presumed that the railway would travel through the rich fertile belt of the north saskatchewan river valley and cross the rocky mountains via the yellowhead pass a route suggested by sir sandford fleming based on a decade of work . however the cpr quickly discarded this plan in favour of a more southerly route across the arid palliser s triangle in saskatchewan and via kicking horse pass and down the field hill to the rocky mountain trench . this route was more direct and closer to the canada us border making it easier for the cpr to keep american railways from encroaching on the canadian market . however this route also had several disadvantages . citation needed one consequence was that the cpr would need to find a route through the selkirk mountains in british columbia while at the time it was not known whether a route even existed . the job of finding a pass was assigned to a surveyor named major albert bowman rogers . the cpr promised him a cheque for 5 000 and that the pass would be named in his honour . rogers became obsessed with finding the pass that would immortalise his name . he discovered the pass in april 1881 14 15 and true