The Intercolonial Railway still continued to engage the attention of the legislature, and correspondence with the secretary of state, with the government of Canada, and with the government of Nova Scotia, in regard to this great work, was laid before the House soon after the session opened. The government of New Brunswick consulted with the governments of Canada and Nova Scotia as to what assistance should be given by the imperial government towards the construction of the Intercolonial Railway from Halifax to Quebec, in the form of a guarantee of interest. The British government professed to feel a strong sense of the importance of the object, but thought they would not be justified in applying to parliament for the required guarantee, because the heavy expenditures to which Great Britain had been subjected did not leave them at liberty to pledge its revenue for the purpose of assisting in the construction of public works of this description, however desirable in themselves. The correspondence on the subject of the Intercolonial Railway extended over a period of more than twenty years and grew to enormous proportions, but it is safe to assert that this line of railway would not have been constructed in the nineteenth century but for the fact that it was undertaken by the Canadian Dominion as a work which had to be built for the purpose of carrying out the terms of confederation as set out in the British North America Act (section 145).
The railway to Shediac was finally completed and opened for traffic on August 5th, 1860, its length being one hundred and eight miles. The nineteen miles between Pointe du Chêne and Moncton had been open as early as August, 1857, and the nine miles from St. John to Rothesay, on June 1st, 1858. The railway was opened from St. John to Hampton in June, 1859, and to Sussex in November of the same year. Although the people of the province had abated something of their enthusiasm for railways by the time the St. John and Shediac line was finished, still its opening was a great event, because it was the commencement of a new era in transportation and gave St. John access to the north shore, from which it had previously been practically shut out. Goods could now be sent by means of railway and steamer to Prince Edward Island, and to the New Brunswick ports on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and a community of interest which did not exist before was thus created between the most remote sections of the province.