Upvote:2
In 1904 Canadian Pacific Railway commissioned two sister ships, RMS Empress of Ireland and RMS Empress of Britain, to commence operation on the lucrative Liverpool to Quebec (St. John, New Brunswick in winter) run inn 1906. Both had a cruising speed of 18 knots and a maximum speed of 20 knots, allowing the westward passage from Liverpool to Quebec City to be completed in an advertised "less than 4 days at sea", followed by a more leisurely 2 days sailing up the scenic St. Lawrence.
Both vessels remained on this route up to the 1914, when Empress of Ireland was sunk after being rammed amidships by the wayward icebreaker/collier Storstad, and Empress of Britain was sold off as a troopship.
Upvote:5
Brandon DuPont, Drew Keeling and Thomas Weiss published a paper looking at fares over a long period.
Figure 5 shows that transatlantic fares in the Edwardian era were typically around $25 or Β£5 for steerage passengers. Second class and first class would be around double and quadruple although this varied much more between companies.
Slightly cheaper rates might be obtained in winter and traveling East than in summer or travelling West. The migrant trade was predominantly people travelling one way from east to west though persons travelling for business or pleasure might go either way.
Emigrants from the British Isles to Canada might obtain vouchers including onward rail travel at reduced rates in order to encourage settlement.