[1] PEI joined the Canadian Confederation in 1873, under the terms of which Canada was required to provide a year-round link with the mainland.

Local developers were initially unable to obtain federal funding for the enterprise, since they lacked political connections with Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservatives in Ottawa.

After much effort, they found an ally in Samuel Leonard Tilley who in 1882 convinced the prime minister to budget $189,200 of federal money in support of the project.

[1] That year Wood became president of the railway, and became the Conservative Party candidate for the local riding of Westmorland, winning the seat in the 1882 Canadian federal election.

[3] The attractive railway station at Cape Tormentine, built in the late 1930s, continued to be used as an information centre for ferry and marine traffic.