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The history of Prince Edward Island's (map) railroad is as long and crooked as the track itself, a tale of corruption and mismanagement that makes the Gomery Inquiry look like small potatoes.

Construction began in 1871, when P.E.I. was still an independent British colony, and quickly bankrupted island coffers, mostly due to an oversight in the original contract, which detailed the rate per mile of track but neither its route nor length. As a result, bribes were common. Towns bid under the table to have the rail pass through their communities. The result: 147 miles of track on an island only 120 miles long, and one of Canada's most meandering rail beds. In 1873, P.E.I. joined Confederation as a way to off-load millions of dollars of railway debt.

Maintenance and logistical problems continued to plague the tracks but its demise was mainly due to the incompatibility of the island's narrow gauge rail cars with wider standard gauge rails on the mainland. CPR abandoned the line in 1989. The rails were ripped up and sold for scrap, and construction of the Confederation Trail was underway by the mid-1990s.