Origins Bytowners had been promoting their town as the capital of Canada since the 1840s. At the time the town's only connections with the world were via dirt road, the
Ottawa River to
Montreal and the
Rideau Waterway to
Kingston. The Ottawa River was a major route for the shipping of logs from the interior of
Upper Canada, especially the areas now part of
Algonquin Park, to
Quebec City where they were loaded on ships for sales in Europe. The first mention of a rail link to the
St. Lawrence River dates to 1848, Railways were developing in the United States at this point, and there were plans for a line to
Ogdensburg, New York, directly opposite Prescott. There were also talks about a railway connecting Montréal to Toronto, which would form as the
Grand Trunk Railway in 1852. It was expected these lines would pass along the north shore of the St. Lawrence, through Prescott. Former Bytown mayor and cabinet minister
Richard William Scott recalled that in early 1850, he and
Edward McGillivray (Ottawa's second mayor) discussed the need for a rail connection of Bytown with the "contemplated trunk which was to unite Montreal and Toronto". This compelled Scott to prepare a petition asking for an act incorporating a company to construct a railway between Bytown and Prescott. The charter was obtained the following month in August 1850, and a meeting of the promoters was held in the Town Hall at the
Lower Town Market, where
Robert Bell, later to become secretary of the company, was meeting secretary. John McKinnon was chosen as president, and
Walter Shanly was appointed engineer.
Selecting a route The endpoints of the railway were effectively selected before surveying began; the southern terminus would be at the docks in Prescott, while the northern end would be in New Edinburgh. Between these two points was considerable swampland, and Shanly had to wait until winter froze the ground to survey a route. With two assistants, Shanly walked out three possible routes in March 1851. A route through
Kemptville was chosen. In September 1851, a contract to clear the land was offered to French & Co., and Shanly had already advertised for certain sections of the grading. Ground was broken with great fanfare on 9 October 1851, starting with a parade. By May the main lines were being run. On 9 May the first
steam locomotive for the line reached Ogdensburg. This was an 0-4-0 switcher, named "Oxford", that shipped across the river on the 19th, along with a number of gravel and lumber cars. On 21 June the railway carried its first official passengers between Prescott and
Spencerville, at a price of three
York Shillings each way. On 8 July two additional locomotives, freight 4-4-0's "St. Lawrence" and "Ottawa", together with several gravel cars, were brought over the river. The actual date of arrival of the first train is in doubt. There is considerable oral history stating that the
St. Lawrence arrived at Sussex on Christmas Day 1854, with Robert Graham as engineer and Mike Mahar as fireman. However, there are also published accounts stating that the trains still stopped at Montreal Road on that same day, and passengers were carried to Sussex on horse drawn cabs. Although the story was known to be false even at that time, it continues to be repeated in new works, as recently as Donald Wilson's book from 1984, "The Ontario and Quebec Railway". These plans were put astray when the bridge over the canal near Billings was itself rendered unsafe and traffic on the Chaudière branch was closed on 5 September 1882. All traffic was handled through Sussex Street until October 1883. On 24 August 1885, passenger service was transferred to Broad Street, leaving Sussex providing freight services only. This led to a series of back and forth measures while the city tried to keep the Sussex station in use. The Rideau bridge was once again re-built and opened on 10 June 1889, this time having been raised in an attempt to fix problems with ice, although these proved to be futile. The station was given a new lease on life due to it being a convenient location for inbound coal shipments, as well as the newly opened sawmills which provided cut lumber downstream from Chaudière. In 1898 the
Ottawa and New York Railway was about to open service when their original plans to lease lines into Ottawa along the
Canada Atlantic Railway to Union Station in the downtown fell through. A new agreement was quickly arranged with CP, and passenger service returned to Sussex on 29 July 1898. The O&NYR used the station until 1 October 1901, although the bridge continued to be a problem and yet another was built in 1900, this time of steel. This finally solved the problems. CP's original plans to close Sussex Street fell by the wayside, and it continued to be used right through
World War II. In the post-war era, the
National Capital Commission wanted to abandon many of the lines in the downtown area as part of their efforts to beautify the city. These plans included the removal of most of the industrial areas around the
Byward Market area, and the closure of many of the existing rail lines throughout the city. The section of the Sussex Sub from Beechwood Avenue to Sussex was last used on 15 June 1964, and the section from Beechwood to Hurdman Junction on 15 June 1966. These sections were later used to form the
Vanier Parkway between
Highway 417 and Beechwood, with the short section north of Beechwood having run through what is today the New Edinburgh Park. The piers that carried the bridge across the river are still visible, although some of them are under the Park grounds after backfilling.
King Edward Ave. uses the alignment for a short distance before turning north to cross the Ottawa River.
The line today Several portions of the line are still in use. In Ottawa, O-Train Line 2 uses the original B&PR route north from
Leitrim Station, following the route to the Chaudière Falls area, and ending at
Bayview Station. Bayview is some distance to the west of the original Broad Street Station. The line originally curved to the east just south of Bayview Station, a route that can still be seen in the layout of roads and buildings in the area. Line 2 runs under the Canal where Dow's Lake narrows towards the canal again, whereas the spur formerly ran over it at a location just south of
Dow's Lake. The original route can easily be seen as the smoothly curving line of trees just west of the Lake, running southeast out of
Dow's Lake station and continuing through the
Carleton University campus. Initially, the train only runs through sections between Bayview and Greenboro, sections between Greenboro and Leitrim were opened in January 2025. In terms of serving the airport itself, a spur at Lester Road continues to be used to supply freight cars to the
National Research Council buildings. O-Train Line 2 has also used this spur as a repair depot. An extension of this spur to allow the O-Train access to the main terminal has been considered on and off on many occasions. The rails currently continue south to the border of the airport lands at Leitrim Road. The second spur, near South Keys station and toward to
Ottawa International Airport, was opened in 2025 for Line 4. The newly-build section of Line 2, after Leitrim station, spun off from the original B&PR route and towards to west. Starting at Leitrim Road, the railbed forms the Osgoode Link Pathway, running south about . to the town of Osgoode. The railbed south of Osgoode to
Kemptville, about away, is not currently part of the Pathway. The line formerly became active again at a highway maintenance depot in Kemptville, and ran the short distance south to the CPR lines (the former
Ontario and Quebec Railway), before being taken up during the summer of 2014. The town of Kemptville was formed, in part, in order to escape paying the bonuses for construction of the B&P promised by the town of
Oxford Mills, a few kilometres to the southwest. The lines meet in a large Y junction, the former straight-line route across the CPR lines no longer evident. The rails continue south of the CPR, serving a large quarry about 1 km south of the lines on Beach Road, and then continuing another 5 km south to Oxford Station where they feed a highway maintenance depot. The section from Chaudière Junction to Hurdman was previously used by both CPR's Sussex Sub, and CNR's Beachburg Sub ran beside it. The Beachburg Sub rails are still used, connecting to the Chaudière line at a new junction. A spur from the original alignment of the Chaudière Junction was used for a short time, but was pulled up some time between 1991 and 1999. The Beachburg Sub leads to the
Ottawa Train Station, which took over passenger services for Ottawa in 1966. Leading east from this point is the
Montreal & Ottawa Railway, now CPR's M&O Subdivision. Just south of the original Chaudière Junction is a new wye that leads to
Walkley Yard, a new freight switching yard.
Historic Plaque Here is the text of a plaque erected in the town of Prescott, as it read in 2004: "This company, incorporated in 1850, built a railway from Prescott to Bytown (Ottawa) for the shipment of lumber and farm products to the markets of the northeastern United States and Montreal. Substantial funds were raised at Bytown, Prescott and other municipalities along the line. In 1851, Walter Shanly, Chief Engineer, started construction, and a train first ran from Prescott to Bytown on Christmas Day, 1854. The railway, renamed the Ottawa and Prescott in 1855, was the first to serve the nation's future capital, giving it access at Prescott to the St. Lawrence River and the
Grand Trunk Railway. In 1867, it became the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Railway and in 1884 was leased to the
Canadian Pacific Railway for 999 years." ==Officers And Directors==