Atlantic (passenger train) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

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The Atlantic was a passenger train operated by Via Rail

VIA Rail

Via Rail Canada is an independent crown corporation offering intercity passenger rail services in Canada. It is headquartered near Montreal Central Station at 3 Place Ville-Marie in Montreal, Quebec....

, serving both Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

and U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

territory between Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

and Halifax, Nova Scotia

City of Halifax

Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...

. It was previously operated by Canadian Pacific Railway

Canadian Pacific Railway

The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...

as The Atlantic Limited between Montreal and Saint John, New Brunswick

Saint John, New Brunswick

City of Saint John , or commonly Saint John, is the largest city in the province of New Brunswick, and the first incorporated city in Canada. The city is situated along the north shore of the Bay of Fundy at the mouth of the Saint John River. In 2006 the city proper had a population of 74,043...

. It formed part of the transcontinental

Transcontinental railroad

A transcontinental railroad is a contiguous network of railroad trackage that crosses a continental land mass with terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single railroad, or over those owned or controlled by multiple railway companies...

service for both systems.

The Atlantic and its predecessor The Atlantic Limited (along with several other CPR local trains) was the only passenger rail service in the U.S. state of Maine

Maine

Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

from the late 1960s until discontinuance of operations in December 1994. (Maine is now served by Amtrak

Amtrak

The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971, to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union...

's Downeaster

Downeaster

The Downeaster is a 116-mile regional passenger train service managed by the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority and operated by Amtrak, connecting North Station in Boston, Massachusetts, to Portland, Maine...

.) The Atlantic also holds a unique spot in U.S. railroading history as it operated the last regular-service steam-heated passenger train in the United States until Via converted its trainsets to "head end power" in 1993.

Since its cancellation, citizen's groups in southern New Brunswick

New Brunswick

New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...

and the Eastern Townships

Eastern Townships

The Eastern Townships is a tourist region and a former administrative region in south-eastern Quebec, lying between the former seigneuries south of the Saint Lawrence River and the United States border. Its northern boundary roughly followed Logan's Line, the geologic boundary between the flat,...

of Quebec

Quebec

have periodically organized petitions or lobbied to have the Via Atlantic service reinstated.

The Atlantic Limited

Inaugurated by the Canadian Pacific Railway

Canadian Pacific Railway

(CPR) as a "limited stop" service on September 25, 1955, The Atlantic Limited used numbers 41/42 (westbound/eastbound) and took the schedule and equipment for what were previously numbered trains between Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, Quebec

Quebec

(Windsor Station

Windsor Station (Montreal)

Windsor Station is a former train station in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, formerly serving as the city's Canadian Pacific Railway Station.Windsor Station was the Canadian Pacific Railway's headquarters built between 1887 and 1889. The Romanesque Revival building was designed by New York architect...

) and Saint John, New Brunswick

Saint John, New Brunswick

(Union Station). The service operated overnight using the CPR's former International Railway of Maine line which formed the direct route between Saint John and Montreal. Although this was CPR's first named passenger train to the Maritimes, daily passenger service had been offered since 1889.

The Atlantic Limited saw the first major change to its route around 1970 when the Saint John Union Station was demolished and CPR's Mill Street yard redeveloped to accommodate the Saint John Throughway and associated urban redevelopment. A new passenger station was built on the city's west side in the former city of Lancaster

Lancaster, New Brunswick

Lancaster was a small city on the west side of the Saint John River at its mouth into the Bay of Fundy. It was amalgamated into Saint John, New Brunswick in 1967.-External links:*...

where new rail yards were developed. During the 1970s, CPR operated the service at minimal levels with usually a single 1800-class E8

EMD E8

The EMD E8 was a , A1A-A1A passenger train locomotive manufactured by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division of La Grange, Illinois. The cab version, or E8A, was manufactured from August, 1949 to December, 1953, and 449 were produced – 446 for U.S., and 3 for Canada...

locomotive (one of only three, later two, operated in Canada, both by CPR) and a baggage, coach, diner, and sleeper car. Some of the stainless steel Budd Company

Budd Company

The Budd Company is a metal fabricator and major supplier of body components to the automobile industry, and was formerly a manufacturer of stainless steel passenger rail cars during the 20th century....

cars originally ordered for The Canadian

The Canadian

The Canadian is a Canadian transcontinental passenger train originally operated by the Canadian Pacific Railway between 1955 and 1978. It is currently operated as an Inter-city rail service by Via Rail Canada with service between Union Station in Toronto, Ontario and Pacific Central Station in...

also made their way onto this train and there was infrequent availability of a dome car as well.

While The Atlantic Limited name was only used officially after 1955 on the Montreal-Saint John service, the name, or a variation of it, has possibly seen use for a service which operated on CPR and CPR-subsidiary Soo Line

Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad

The Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad was a Class I railroad subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the Midwest U.S. Commonly known as the Soo Line after the phonetic spelling of Sault, it was merged with several other major CP subsidiaries on January 1, 1961 to form the...

between Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

, via Sault Ste. Marie

Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Sault Ste. Marie is a city on the St. Marys River in Algoma District, Ontario, Canada. It is the third largest city in Northern Ontario, after Sudbury and Thunder Bay, with a population of 74,948. The community was founded as a French religious mission: Sault either means "jump" or "rapids" in...

, Ottawa

Ottawa

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

and Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, Quebec

Quebec

to Saint John, New Brunswick

Saint John, New Brunswick

, beginning in 1889 following the completion of the line to Saint John. It is possible that the name "Atlantic Limited" was officially used on the Soo Line portion between Minneapolis-Sault Ste. Marie, although only numbered trains officially existed east of Montreal between 1889-1955. An extension to the Minneapolis-Montreal-Saint John service operated between Montreal and Boston, Massachusetts (in partnership with the Boston and Maine Railroad

Boston and Maine Railroad

The Boston and Maine Corporation , known as the Boston and Maine Railroad until 1964, was the dominant railroad of the northern New England region of the United States for a century...

), possibly using the name Atlantic Express.

Atlantic

In 1978, Via Rail

VIA Rail

was created out of a Canadian National Railway

Canadian National Railway

The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. CN's slogan is "North America's Railroad"....

subsidiary to become Canada's national passenger rail service. In October of that year, Via negotiated the take-over of CPR passenger service, although routes, equipment and schedules did not change until the summer of 1979. Thus for the first few months after Via was created, the company included The Atlantic Limited in its timetable and the service continued to operate using the same CPR equipment and crews. In the summer of 1979 this was changed with the name The Atlantic Limited shortened to the bilingually appropriate Atlantic/Atlantique.

At the same time, service was extended effective October 1979 with a new eastern terminus at Halifax, Nova Scotia

City of Halifax

and the 1970s-era CPR passenger station in Saint John was closed in lieu of a new station in that city's downtown. The extension of the train to Halifax was made possible by Via's decision to not continue a CN train named the Scotian, thus the Atlantic assumed that train's numbers of 11/12 (westbound/eastbound) and equipment.

Under Via, the Atlantic became a well-used train, given the shorter route (by 150 miles) over the Ocean

Ocean (passenger train)

The Ocean is a Canadian passenger train operated by Via Rail between Montreal, Quebec and Halifax, Nova Scotia. It is currently the oldest continuously-operated named passenger train in North America. The Oceans schedule takes approximately 21 hours, running overnight in both directions...

, and the fact that the Atlantic served the cities of Saint John, New Brunswick

Saint John, New Brunswick

, Fredericton, New Brunswick

New Brunswick

and Sherbrooke, Quebec

Quebec

, in addition to many smaller towns and villages in between.

However increased patronage of the Atlantic did not meet Via targets, although some might say it did not cross as much politically-crucial territory in Quebec as the Ocean. Thus in the Via budget cuts by the Trudeau

Pierre Trudeau

Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau, , usually known as Pierre Trudeau or Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was the 15th Prime Minister of Canada from April 20, 1968 to June 4, 1979, and again from March 3, 1980 to June 30, 1984.Trudeau began his political career campaigning for socialist ideals,...

government in 1981, the Atlantic was terminated in lieu of Budd RDC service between Halifax-Moncton-Saint John-Fredericton. During this time, Fredericton saw its first passenger trains since the early 1960s when Rail Diesel Cars were instituted from Halifax via Moncton and Saint John to replace the Atlantics connections.

Southwestern New Brunswickers were incensed at the cutting of the Atlantics route, one which had seen daily passenger rail service in both directions between Saint John and Montreal since the International Railway of Maine opened in 1889. Community leaders along the route, led by rookie Saint John mayor Elsie Wayne

Elsie Wayne

Elsie Eleanore Wayne is a Canadian politician, and a former Progressive Conservative MP for Saint John.-Political career:In 1977, she was elected to the Saint John municipal council...

, quickly rallied local populations to lobby the federal government. After several years and a personal promise by Brian Mulroney

Brian Mulroney

Martin Brian Mulroney, was the 18th Prime Minister of Canada from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993 and was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1983 to 1993. His tenure as Prime Minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada-U.S...

that his government would reinstate Via service on the route, the PC Party

Progressive Conservative Party of Canada

The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....

won election in 1984 and that December it was announced that the Atlantic would be returning to the rails.

In August 1985 the train was reinstated on its former route between Halifax and Montreal, although Via made some changes to its operations in the Maritimes to accommodate the Atlantic. The Ocean

Ocean (passenger train)

service was actually downgraded to just a Montreal-Moncton train with a platform connection to the through Atlantic. This lasted until the 1989 budget cuts to Via which saw service on both routes reduced to 3 days/week in each direction (alternating days) beginning on January 15, 1990. From 1990 until December 16, 1994, the Atlantic operated consistently on its 3 day/week service which saw it share an equipment pool with the Ocean.

In 1993, the owner of the tracks between Saint John and Montreal, CPR, began to look for potential buyers of its former International Railway of Maine and associated lines. When it became apparent by summer 1994 that a buyer would not be found, CPR began the formal process of applying to abandon the entire route. Faced with uncertainty about the continuance of the operation after the abandonment date of December 31, Via announced in October of that year that it would terminate the Atlantic effective December 17 (last trains leaving December 16) and switch its equipment to the Ocean which would jump to a 6 day/week schedule in each direction. Prior to the discontinuance of the Atlantic, CPR announced that it had made an agreement in principle with J.D. Irving Limited to buy the line and operate it as a shortline to be called New Brunswick Southern Railway

New Brunswick Southern Railway

The New Brunswick Southern Railway and Eastern Maine Railway form a 189-mile railway system operating a former Canadian Pacific Railway mainline between Saint John, New Brunswick and Brownville Junction, Maine....

, however Via was not permitted at this time to operate on a shortline railway. Federal regulations stated that it must operate on one of the two national railways of Canada.

Abandonment of passenger service for the second time on this route (by the same political party) was especially controversial for southwestern New Brunswickers who viewed it as a convenient excuse by the federal government to cut the service for both shortsighted fiscal and strategic political reasons. Paul Martin

Paul Martin

Paul Edgar Philippe Martin, PC , also known as Paul Martin, Jr. is a Canadian politician who was the 21st Prime Minister of Canada, as well as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada....

was making aggressive budget cuts throughout the federal government, thus concentrating service on the Oceans route would likely save some money. The Ocean also travelled a route that passed through then-Minister of Transport

Minister of Transport (Canada)

The Minister of Transport is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for overseeing the federal government's transportation regulatory and development department, Transport Canada...

Doug Young's riding of Acadie-Bathurst. The Atlantic also passed through the only two ridings in the country which elected Progressive Conservatives - Elsie Wayne in Saint John and Jean Charest in Sherbrooke. It also didn't help that the Atlantic passed through Maine

Maine

(U.S. territory) on its short route between Montreal and Saint John.

Canadian Pacific Railway

The route taken by The Atlantic Limited operated entirely on CPR trackage and passed through a very scenic portion of eastern Canada and northern New England

New England

New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

including the Island of Montreal

Island of Montreal

The Island of Montreal , in extreme southwestern Quebec, Canada, is located at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers. It is separated from Île Jésus by the Rivière des Prairies....

and the city's skyline and suburbs, the Richelieu River

Richelieu River

The Richelieu River is a river in Quebec, Canada. It flows from the north end of Lake Champlain about north, ending at the confluence with the St. Lawrence River at Sorel-Tracy, Quebec downstream and northeast of Montreal...

valley, the hills of the Eastern Townships

Eastern Townships

, the Appalachian Mountains

Appalachian Mountains

The Appalachian Mountains #Whether the stressed vowel is or ,#Whether the "ch" is pronounced as a fricative or an affricate , and#Whether the final vowel is the monophthong or the diphthong .), often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern North America. The Appalachians...

of western and central Maine, the level plateau and forests of eastern Maine, and the forests and mixed farmland in the Saint John River valley. The route taken by the Atlantic Limited between Saint John and Montreal is the most direct rail link between the two cities.

Via Rail

Following the assumption of service by Via Rail in 1979 until discontinuance in 1981 and restoration of service in 1985 until discontinuance in 1994, the Atlantic followed a somewhat different route, with the most obvious change being the extension over CN trackage east of Saint John to Halifax. There was a subtle change between Montreal and Lennoxville too, where Via wished to consolidate its trains at the former CN Central Station in Montreal. Leaving Montreal, the Atlantic followed the route of the Ocean on CN trackage through St. Hyacinthe where it turned south and followed the St. Francois River valley into the Eastern Townships to Sherbrooke where it regained CP tracks. From Sherbrooke to Saint John, the Atlantic followed the same route as its predecessor The Atlantic Limited. East of Saint John, the train regained CN tracks and followed a similarly scenic route through the Kennebecasis River

Kennebecasis River

The Kennebecasis River is a tributary of the Saint John River in southern New Brunswick, Canada. The name Kennebecasis is thought to be derived from the Mi'kmaq "Kenepekachiachk", meaning "little long bay place." It runs for approximately 95 kilometres, draining an area in the Caledonia Highlands,...

valley and its mixed farmland to Moncton and then followed the same route as the Ocean crossing the Tantramar Marshes

Tantramar Marshes

The Tantramar Marshes is a National Wildlife Area on the southern part of the Isthmus of Chignecto, which joins Nova Scotia to New Brunswick and the Canadian mainland. It is the site of the historic Battle of Fort Beauséjour, the final chapter in the long battle for Acadia by the British and French...

, the Wentworth Valley

Wentworth Valley

The Wentworth Valley is a valley in the Cobequid Hills of northwestern Nova Scotia, Canada.The valley is located in a glacial trough north of Folly Mountain and comprises the lowest elevation pass through the Cobequids...

, the edge of Cobequid Bay

Cobequid Bay

Cobequid Bay is an inlet of the Bay of Fundy and the easternmost part of the Minas Basin, located in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. The bay was carved by rivers flowing into the eastern end of the Bay of Fundy....

and mixed farmland through central Nova Scotia to Halifax.

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