Over rough trails and dirt roads, the stagecoach carried passengers, money and mail between cities and towns across Canada, and kept to schedules, too.

No springs, board seats, skitterish horses and roads rough enough to shake the riders’ insides were the minor difficulties of riding the Stagecoach. Regular runs, space for trunks and suitcases and getting to their destinations in relatively on time were the advantages in the mid-19th century. Carrying money between bank branches and delivering the mail were priorities; sticking to tight schedules enabled stagecoach companies to keep those profitable contracts.

One of the earlier stagecoach routes was set up in 1817 between Montreal, Quebec and Kingston, Upper Canada; the next year the routes expanded to run from Kingston to the Town of York (now the City of Toronto). A fledging, growing business, the Bank of Montreal opened a bank branch in York and needed a way to pass money and papers back and forth. The stagecoach filled the bill. Leaving Montreal, “every Monday and Thursday,” the stagecoaches “arrived in Kingston every Wednesday and Saturday.” The trips to other branches were longer. Between Montreal and York, the journey occupied at least a week, and were made "at the first safe opportunity," said Claude Belanger of MarionopolisCollege in 2005.

Stagecoaches used Post Office contracts for steady income

Since Canada was then still a vast wilderness with no railway connecting provinces, stagecoach service spread across the country. It was a good business move - the owners were guaranteed income by Post Office contracts for carrying the mail. Previous to the stagecoach lines, sending mail was a hit or miss operation, taken by individuals as a generous act. The Post Office contracts insisted on regular schedules and at the same time, became a reliable service for travelers. Passengers filled the empty seats of the stagecoach runs but fares were expensive. Riding from Kingston to York in 1817, noted the book Canadian Facts & Dates cost a hefty $18 per person.

Stagecoaches were not the most comfortable means of transportation for riders. The seats were unpadded; there was no suspension, and rarely any spring systems to ease the jolts from truly horrible roads. Depending on the operator, some stagecoaches were fully enclosed carriages equipped with small woodstoves inside to provide essential warmth in winter months. Other coaches were rough wagons fully open to the brutal elements. Occasionally, the stagecoach would meet with disaster, such as in May of 1836 when the stagecoach broke through the ice at Coteau-du-Lac, Quebec, according to the Civilization site. Luckily, no one was injured, only wet and cold. All mail and luggage were retrieved eventually. Robberies of mail carried by stagecoach were non-existent in Canada until July 17, 1886, when the first mail stagecoach was held up by a lone robber in Saskatchewan.

Stagecoaches paid tolls for road improvements

Along with fares, the stagecoach passengers occasionally had to pay tolls. Fees were collected to pay for improvements on many roads and on some, even those walking on foot had to pay a penny for use of the rough road.

Instead of competing when railway service was established, the stagecoach operators changed their strategies to work with the iron horses. They provided “networks radiating out from the railway stations into surrounding countryside,” according to Parks Canada, but found difficulty in running through the pot-holes and mires of inadequate local roads. The mail service gradually moved to the rail lines. The Pacific Express No. 1 left Montreal, Quebec for its first transcontinental run to Port Moody, BC on June 28, 1886. Speedier than stagecoaches could ever be, passengers and the mail arrived at their destinations in seven days.

Stagecoaches were an important, essential mode of transportation in Canada for over 100 years. The operators were gradually forced out of business by the time the automobile was in full production in the early 1920s, ending the stagecoach era.

Book: Fitzhenry and Whiteside Book of Canadian Facts and Dates, 3rd Edition, by Richard W. Pound, Editorial Director, published by Fitzhenry and Whiteside,2005. Pp 162, 305.

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