The Intercolonial Railway was completed in the mid-1870s. It was completed in stages, so I’m not sure when the link to Halifax first opened; but there was definitely rail service by 1912. [EDIT: if I’m reading the article right, there were rail links extending from Quebec City to Halifax by 1877, and the trains ran continuously all the way to Montreal by the late 1880s.]
In the early days of Confederation (the process of Canadian independence), the construction of a rail link to the Maritimes was viewed as extremely important. So much so that the British North America Act — basically the proto-constitution for Canada in those days — explicitly required the newly-minted federal government to start building a railway within six months of its enactment in 1867.
I don’t have access to 1912 info, but a 1921 rail guide shows one (CPR) train a day from Saint John to Boston. A number of trains connected Halifax with Saint John - some via the mainland; some via a ferry across the Bay of Fundy. CNR/Grand Trunk probably required a change of trains in Portland (Maine) to a B & M (Boston & Maine) train.
Sorry, I meant rail along the coast-New Brunswick and Maine…
i was just thinking that a rail journey from Halifax to Montreal and then south to NYC (the shoertest route otherwise) was probably two or more days back then, and a major inconvenience for people who had escaped with only the clothes on their back, again especially in the days before credit cards, ATMs. and interbank transfers.
There was indeed. The Maine Central Railroad ran from Portland, ME to the Canadian border at Vanceboro, where it connected to a Canadian Pacific line to Moncton, NB, where it met the Intercolonial.
It was initially believed that the Titanic hadn’t sunk and was being towed into Halifax. At that point White Star actually arranged with the New Haven Railroad to send trains to Halifax to pick up the passengers. The route was (from Boston) the Boston & Maine to Portland ME, then the Maine Central to Vanceboro, then the Canadian Pacific to Moncton, then the Intercolonial to Halifax. White Star also promised to pay for all transportation and meals on the journey.
The trains hadn’t got far out of Boston before the news of the sinking came through.
This was discussed in the Senate inquiry - see here and here.
The Intercolonial Railway’s link from Hailfax to Moncton (via Truro) was completed in 1872, so one couldn’t have taken a train to Halifax from the larger US rail network before that. It’s not clear to me that the connection from Main to Moncton was complete at that point, so it might have been a bit later than that. (And, of course, all of this was completed by 1912.)
[Also, this is a bit of a derail from the main question of the thread, for which I apologize.]