The Canadian Northern Pacific Railway (CNoPR) was an historic Canadian railway with a main line running between the Alberta–British Columbia border and Vancouver, British Columbia. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR).
This railway existed mainly on paper, thus there were no cars or locomotives lettered as "Canadian Northern Pacific". As far as the public and most workers were concerned, it was just a part of the CNoR.
The CNoPR was incorporated in 1910[1]. The last spike was driven at Basque, British Columbia, near Ashcroft, in January 1915. This event completed Canada's third transcontinental railway, which ran from Quebec City, Quebec, to Vancouver, British Columbia.
The CNoR maintained other subsidiary companies, such as the Alberta Midland Railway (Vegreville, Alberta, to Drumheller, Alberta), the Canadian Northern Alberta Railway (CNoAR) (St. Albert, Alberta, to the Alberta–British Columbia border) and the Edmonton, Yukon, and Pacific Railway which ran from Strathcona, Alberta, to Edmonton, and later to Stony Plain, Alberta.
The CNoAR was also incorporated in 1910[1]. Construction started at St. Albert in 1910 and the construction train passed into British Columbia around the beginning of 1913.
The line from Edmonton to Vancouver was approved for operation in October 1915[1]. The first westbound passenger train left Edmonton on November 23, 1915[2]. The first eastbound passenger train left Vancouver on November 25, 1915. Initial main line through service was three trains per week in each direction[3].
These were all operated as part of the CNoR system and were taken over by the Crown upon nationalization in 1918.