In Canada's larger urban centres, commuter rail providers such as Toronto's GO Transit and Montreal's Agence m tropolitaine de transport provide an efficient means of transportation. Canadian railways currently operate over some 50,000 kilometres of track and carry some four million passengers annually. The portion of the rail network controlled by shortline carriers increased 24 per cent in 1998, and shortlines now control more than 25 per cent of the Canadian rail network. Railway safety is also improving, with the number of railway incidents at a five-year low. Canada is also an important manufacturer of railway equipment, developing and producing locomotives, cars and other rail technology for use around the world.
Railways continue to be an integral part of the Canadian economy.
As Canadians celebrate the successes of their economy at the dawn of the new millennium, they may wish to look back a hundred years to the days when Canada's railways were running full steam to help tie a country together and create a century of incredible progress. Migrants from all over Europe rode the CPR into the Canadian Prairies in the tens of thousands. Next Page Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada 1999. All rights reserved.