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Regional Influences upon the Canadian Railway Pattern

1949; University of Hawaii Press; Volume: 11; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/pcg.1949.0006

1551-3211

Willert Rhynsburger,

Transport and Economic Policies

REGIONAL INFLUENCES UPON THE CANADIAN RAILWAY PATTERN Willert Rhynsburger Indiana University, Bloomington All geographers recognize that regions are dynamic and functioning rather than static. However, practising geographers have not yet taken up the systematic analysis of regional dynamics, of regional circulation, although in studies of regional economic geography many generalities are expressed. Analytic studies of the movement of commodities and of persons remain the concern of commercial rather than of academic pursuit, principally because of the stupendous mass of statistics involved, and especially because the data lie deep within the archives of business institutions themselves. Thus, students of the geography of movement have been obliged to content themselves with observing map patterns of transport routes, occasionally given third dimension by means of the insertion of values for trafic flow. However, routes do not make a transport region. In a sense they are neuter gender, for the essence of regional circulation is to be found in the shipping and receiving of goods rather than in the process of their transport. Only where they influence the location of terminals do routes have regional significance, and in this case the influence is primarily chronological rather than chorological. Proper study of regional circulation starts with the region, and concerns itself first with the objects moved, secondarily with the places of departure and arrival—the terminal —and only thirdly with the modes of movement. Although the following observations do violence to this set of rules, they are presented as a preliminary statement concerning aspects of transportation geography applied to Canada. In contrast to their position in the United States, the railways of Canada are of pre-eminent significance to the national economy, a status which the marvelous Great Lakes waterway modifies only in part. The patterns of railway routes throughout the settled portion of Canada will be considered briefly with reference to the accordance between these patterns and the major physiographic realms. 2 From such consideration, some ideas affecting regional circulation may be drawn. The physiographic divisions are the Cordillera, the Prairies, the Canadian Shield, the St. Lawrence Lowland, and the Maritime Provinces. All these differ from one another in important physicial and cultural features and, from the point of view of gross railway patterns, differ vastly in area and in density of rail network (Table I). TABLE I. CANADIAN RAILWAY MILEAGE BY PHYSIOGRAPHIC DIVISIONS ' Length of Region, Area. . Railway^ _____________ (»q. miles)mileage100 8g/miies St. Lawrence Lowland61,0009, 06014.8 Maritime Provinces65, 0004, 1206. 3 Cordillera160,0003,7542.5 Shield217,0006,1702.8 Prairies225,00017,5037.7 28Yearbook of the AssociationVOL. 11 The areas indicated refer to the portions of the respective physiographic realms which lie within effective railway influence, i. e. , within 30 to 50 miles of the lines. This accounts for the omission of the CNR Prince Rupert line, the Northern Alberta railways, the Hudson Bay Railway, and the Ontario Northland, to James Bay. THE CORDILLERA The Cordilleran region shares with the Shield the position of having the scantiest rail coverage of any of the regions, with only 2.5 miles of line per 100 square miles of area (Fig. 1). These lines are from 50 to 100 miles apart. The region has a high proportion of main line to branch line mileage, testifying to the transit nature of rail service in this thinly settled region. The map pattern reveals the strong influence of river valleys , which was once noted also by Griffith Taylor, who remarked that, unfortunately, the "grain of the country" runs counter to the regional flow of traffic.** This produces a marked angularity of rail pattern which is not characteristic of other Canadian regions except the Maritimes, and makes for great disparity between surface and air distances from point to point. The four lines radiating from Vancouver form the rather deranged ribs of a fan, spreading out northeastward toward various Rocky Mountain passes. THE PRAIRIES This tremendous region (Fig. 2) is outstanding in that it contains inorx.thaa.17, 500 miles of line, fully two fifths of the total Canadian mileage , yet despite its great areal extent the region ranks second to the St. Lawrence Lowland in density of rail network (a poor second, however, with 7. 7...