CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAYS (CN) is a transcontinental railway system formed from the nationalization and merger of several financially troubled private railways following WWI. In 1918 Canadian National absorbed the CANADIAN NORTHERN RWY, which ran from Winnipeg to VANCOUVER via the YELLOWHEAD PASS, and in 1919 it took over the GRAND TRUNK PACIFIC line that ran from Winnipeg to PRINCE RUPERT. The organization of the new, government-owned company was complete by 1923. CN also took over the Grand Trunk Pacific's coastal steamship service, the PRINCE LINE, renamed it Canadian National Steamships and operated it until 1975. On VANCOUVER ISLAND, CN took control of the Canadian Northern line running between VICTORIA and Patricia Bay that had opened in 1917, and the partially built line from Victoria to PORT ALBERNI that eventually (1924) opened as far as COWICHAN LAKE. The Patricia Bay line closed in 1935 but the Cowichan line played an important role in supporting the logging industry at the lake from the 1920s to the 1950s. The CNR was a major transportation route across central BC. It was key to the development of PRINCE GEORGE and Prince Rupert as regional centres, and it promoted AGRICULTURE, LOGGING, SAWMILLING and settlement along its northern route. Prince Rupert became an important port for export of wheat from the prairies and COAL from northeast BC and Alberta. CN also built branch lines from KAMLOOPS to KELOWNA in the 1920s and to KITIMAT in the 1950s. It provided transcontinental passenger service that connected Prince Rupert and Vancouver with Edmonton on its route across the northern prairies to eastern Canada. With the decline of passenger traffic, all passenger rail service devolved in 1977 to a new CROWN CORPORATION, VIA Rail, and in Vancouver the CN terminal at the head of FALSE CREEK became the terminus for this traffic. The CNR continued to operate freight service on its main lines into Vancouver and Prince Rupert. In 1995 the company was sold to private interests for $2.2 billion; in 1999 it completed a takeover of the historic US railway, Illinois Central, giving CN a 30,000-km network of track linking the Atlantic and Pacific coasts in Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. In 2004, CN took over BC RAIL from the provincial government in return for a 60-year lease payment of $1 billion. Under the terms of the deal, the province retained ownership of the actual rail beds and rail line.