The Canadian province of Quebec formed the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway (QMO&OR)[1][2] in 1874 to link those cities since private companies, without the usual subsidies from the Federal Government of Canada, could not get financing, mainly because the Grand Trunk Railway was lobbying against it.[3]
This project was a priority for the premier of the province of Quebec, Sir Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière. It was the first major railway along the north shore of the Ottawa and St. Lawrence Rivers. The promoters of its predecessor companies had hoped to be part of the Canadian transcontinental railway project, a goal which was finally achieved when the QMO&OR was sold to the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR).