To legitimize the reign of the automobile, it's often argued that these machines are indispensable for travel between cities and to regions far from major urban centers. How do you get from Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville to Montreal for an 8:30 a.m. work shift without a car? How can you buy food without a vehicle when the nearest grocery store is in the next village? How can you visit your parents in Dolbeau-Mistassini without driving?
Today, these distance constraints are used to justify the car monopoly. But if these journeys have become essential and nearly impossible without a car, it’s precisely because land-use planning and the capitalist economy have been designed to kill off any alternative modes of transport. Urban areas have been centralized around automobile infrastructure, and under capitalism, our lives are more geographically dispersed than ever. We now live, study, and work in different cities, which increases our reliance on intercity transport and complicates mobility options.
Living environments have historically developed in proximity to the dominant transport routes of their time—whether rivers, railroads, or highways. Before the rise of the automobile, long-distance travel was accomplished through various means: walking, snowshoeing, canoeing, boating, trains, streetcars, horse-drawn carriages, bicycles, and more. The shift away from public or active intercity transport to car dependence didn’t happen magically—and certainly not spontaneously. Passenger train networks weren’t abandoned by mere chance, and the web of highways wasn’t built by the invisible hand of the market.
How was this process orchestrated, financed, and imposed by capitalist colonial elites to reinforce car culture? This is what the following lines will attempt to explore.
Transportation via Waterways
Prior to the colonization of Turtle Island, settlements were established along rivers and seas, which served as both sources of water and transportation routes. In the case of the Innu communities living in Nitassinan—an ancestral territory covering parts of the regions now known as Lac-Saint-Jean, Côte-Nord, and Labrador—they traveled by canoe down rivers to the mouths of the St. Lawrence in the spring. Here, communities would come together, set up temporary camps, and live alongside one another during the summer. In the autumn, families would separate and canoe upstream, each returning to the part of the territory they traditionally occupied. For instance, families who wintered around Lake Manicouagan would head back down the Manicouagan River in the spring, often finding themselves on its banks alongside communities arriving from the adjacent Aux-Outardes and Betsiamites rivers. Long-distance transportation was fundamentally based on the hydrography of the territory, with living environments naturally established near bodies of water.
Later, colonizers arrived and explored the territory in caravels, initially discovering regions along riverbanks where they chose to establish the first Eurodescendant settlements. It wasn't until much later that settlers ventured into the northern interior of Nitassinan, relying on the knowledge and skills of the Indigenous peoples who served as their guides. In short, colonial towns were also aligned with waterways as transportation routes. Caravels were eventually replaced by steamships, and later by oil-powered vessels... one gets the idea.
Railroads Take Over
Trains played an essential role in the transportation of people and goods, even before the formation of Canadian Confederation. While the first rails appeared in British mines in the 17th century, the first true railway in the colony was established in 1836. The Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad proposed a 12-kilometer route between La Prairie and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, linking the South Shore to Lake Champlain. The shareholders’ goal was to facilitate travel between what is now so-called Montreal and New York, thereby boosting trade between the two metropolises. Clearly, the main purpose of this project was economic development and profit, rather than providing a useful service to the population.
The railroad network expanded rapidly. As early as 1849, the Guarantee Act was passed in Canada, setting the terms for public subsidies to railroad companies. In the second half of the 19th century, huge sums of public money were granted to these companies in the form of cash subsidies, guaranteed interest, land concessions, tax refunds, and rights-of-way. The number of kilometers of track in Upper and Lower Canada increased from 106 in 1850 to over 3,200 by 1860. These large-scale projects created financial difficulties for the early railway companies, and governments absorbed much of the cost, justifying it on the grounds that railroad development would drive the economic growth of the young country.
This mode of transportation also played a pivotal role in the creation of Canadian Confederation in 1867, and in the colonization of lands to the west and north of so-called Ontario. The construction of the Intercolonial Railway, completed in 1876, linked the provinces established by colonial authorities: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario. In 1871, so-called British Columbia agreed to join the country on the condition that it be connected to the Maritime provinces by a new railroad, which was achieved in 1885 with the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP). In addition to employing immigrants under miserable working conditions, Canadian Pacific was responsible for colonizing the Canadian Prairies and the Northwest Territories. Between 1871 and 1877, treaties numbered 1 to 7 were signed, allowing the Crown to appropriate lands traditionally occupied by Indigenous peoples north of the U.S. border. This cleared the way for railroad construction, expropriating the people from their ancestral territory and disrupting their way of life.
Once again, it’s clear that the railroad's primary purpose was not to serve the population. The routes chosen did not align with those regularly traveled by the inhabitants at the time. Instead, the major railroad projects served to reinforce white occupation and exploitation of new frontiers, furthering colonial development and the gradual genocide of Indigenous populations.
Railway Companies Drive Settlement
Canadian Pacific established hotels and restaurants on some 25 million acres of federally-granted land along its routes to stimulate the economy in regions open to settlement. In addition to tourism, the company ventured into mining, metallurgy, and shipping. Industrial villages emerged near stations, many of which served as repair and maintenance hubs for locomotives and railcars. Agricultural development in the west and north of the country also began with the creation of rural centers. The same pattern unfolded in the regions of so-called Quebec.
These new towns were designed so that everything was close at hand, accessible on foot or by horse-drawn transport. Rural populations, unable to leave their hamlets easily or frequently, often had to travel by foot or horse-drawn carriage to obtain food, tools, and other essentials from nearby towns. Consequently, each settlement had a general store and basic services within a 10-kilometer radius. As a result, villages rarely extended beyond six rows, typically spread out on either side of the central area.
Cities Play Musical Chairs
At the same time, streetcars and commuter trains developed around major urban centers, including the metropolitan region of so-called Montreal. By the 1850s, a commuter train service connected the metropolis with its suburbs during rush hour, and ferries allowed trains to cross the St. Lawrence River. In 1859, the first fixed link between so-called Montreal and the South Shore, the Victoria Bridge, was created. This bridge facilitated locomotive crossings and increased the frequency of trips.
In the early 20th century, the automobile began to emerge in intercity transport. The first wagon roads were constructed—first gravel, then macadam, concrete, and asphalt. The road network expanded significantly during the 1920s and 30s, linking towns and villages, production centers to consumption hubs, and "remote" regions to the province's southern metropolises. As the number of vehicles and heavy goods trucks grew, more roads were built. By 1957, freeway construction had spread across the province, primarily to ease the transport of raw materials and goods between distant regions and urban centers. For example, in the 1950s, Sept-Îles and other North Shore fishing villages witnessed the opening of mines, forestry companies, and hydroelectric power stations as the road network expanded.
Simultaneously, the dynamics of land use shifted dramatically due to this growing road network. Automobiles enabled individuals to travel greater distances daily and on flexible schedules. They could now easily access food and other necessities from nearby towns. As a result, emerging cities no longer needed to provide all basic services locally. Some of these infrastructures were even financed by oil companies, designed specifically to maintain the population's dependence on automobile networks. Generally, services became centralized around main roads. This trend is evident in the closure of rural convenience stores, as shopping centers with larger customer pools became more profitable.
Consequently, nerve centers shifted gradually. Within each region, certain areas were abandoned in favor of others. Urban development always follows the prevailing mode of transportation. When trains and horse-drawn carriages were dominant, the most populous areas were around the stations. However, with the rise of the automobile, these old centers became devitalized, and services moved closer to new roads and freeways.
Passenger Trains in Short Supply
As a result, railways experienced a significant decline in ridership, leading to severe financial difficulties. This culminated in the nationalization of the railroads and the creation of Canadian National (CN) in 1919. Over time, rail links became increasingly subjected to the capitalist imperatives of profitability, as governments shifted funding away from railways and toward road development. This forced CN to focus on the more lucrative freight transport, while passenger services suffered. In 1977, the federal government created Via Rail to meet minimum passenger transport requirements, allowing CN to concentrate even more on commercial trade and read even greater profits.
The 1987 National Transportation Act facilitated the elimination of less profitable train lines, particularly in regions far from major urban centers. In 1989 alone, CN and CP filed applications with the National Transportation Agency to close 65 freight lines, totaling over 2,100 kilometers. Passenger rail lines were similarly affected during the 1980s and 90s, as service to many villages was gradually dismantled.
In 1995, CN was privatized after earlier steps taken in 1989 and 1992. The government sold not only locomotives and train cars but also the rails themselves. As a result, Via Rail and other passenger train companies still have to pay tolls to CN and are given the lowest priority on the rails, often having to yield to freight trains. This further diminished the quality and scope of passenger services. During this same period, the intercity bus network also declined, with decision-makers failing to address the growing reliance on cars for transportation.
Rethinking Long-Distance Transport
The shift from rail to automobile transport demonstrates how land use and settlement patterns evolve based on the transportation methods prioritized by colonial and capitalist elites. While the car may seem indispensable today, this shift was largely driven by a forced evolution that benefitted corporations and the wealthy. By prioritizing other factors, such as equity, quality of life for all, and environmental protection, we could envision land use and lifestyles in ways that no longer rely on the automobile.
Something-Station
The remnants of this process are still visible today: the small hamlets named "something-station" mark where train stations once stood. Crowds would gather on the platforms of what are now deserted villages, boarding trains to their destinations and returning the same evening. Today, most of these small villages have repurposed their old, abandoned stations into railway museums or overpriced creameries for weekend cyclists. Before they were replaced by bike paths—or worse, 4x4 trails in remote areas—rails connected most villages across North America.