After the Second World War, the transportation industry in Canada changed. Where railways had previously provided almost universal freight and passenger services, cars, trucks and airplanes started to take traffic away from railways. This naturally helped the CPR's air and trucking operations, and the railway's freight operations continued to thrive hauling resource traffic and bulk commodities. However, passenger trains quickly became unprofitable. During the 1950s, the railway introduced new innovations in passenger service. In 1955, it introduced The Canadian, a new luxury transcontinental train. However, in the 1960s, the company started to pull out of passenger services, ending services on many of its branch lines. It also discontinued its secondary transcontinental train The Dominion in 1966, and in 1970, unsuccessfully applied to discontinue The Canadian. For the next eight years, it continued to apply to discontinue the service, and service on The Canadian declined markedly. On October 29, 1978, CP Rail transferred its passenger services to Via Rail, a new federal Crown corporation that is responsible for managing all intercity passenger service formerly handled by both CP Rail and CN. Via eventually took almost all of its passenger trains, including The Canadian, off CP's lines.
after the second world war the transportation industry in canada changed where railways had previously provided almost universal freight and passenger services cars trucks and airplanes started to take traffic away from railways this naturally helped the cpr's air and trucking operations and the railway's freight operations continued to thrive hauling resource traffic and bulk commodities however passenger trains quickly became unprofitable during the 1950s the railway introduced new innovations in passenger service in 1955 it introduced the canadian a new luxury transcontinental train however in the 1960s the company started to pull out of passenger services ending services on many of its branch lines it also discontinued its secondary transcontinental train the dominion in 1966 and in 1970 unsuccessfully applied to discontinue the canadian for the next eight years it continued to apply to discontinue the service and service on the canadian declined markedly on october 29 1978 cp rail transferred its passenger services to via rail a new federal crown corporation that is responsible for managing all intercity passenger service formerly handled by both cp rail and cn via eventually took almost all of its passenger trains including the canadian off cp's lines