Properties - Capital Leases Included in Properties (Details) - CAD ($) $ in Millions	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Capital Leased Assets [Line Items]
Cost	$ 312	$ 312
Accumulated depreciation	125	116
Net book value	187	196
Buildings [Member]
Capital Leased Assets [Line Items]
Cost	1	1
Accumulated depreciation	1	1
Net book value	0	0
Rolling stock [Member]
Capital Leased Assets [Line Items]
Cost	311	311
Accumulated depreciation	124	115
Net book value	$ 187	$ 196

Amount before accumulated depreciation of leased physical assets used in the normal conduct of business to produce goods and services.

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 840
-SubTopic 30
-Section 45
-Paragraph 1
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=84164758&loc=d3e45014-112735

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Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

The total gross amount less the charge for the use of the long-lived depreciable assets subject to a lease meeting the criteria for capitalization.

+ References

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 840
-SubTopic 30
-Section 50
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (a)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=84164817&loc=d3e45280-112737

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Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

The total charge for the use of long-lived depreciable assets subject to a lease meeting the criteria for capitalization.

+ References

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 840
-SubTopic 10
-Section 55
-Paragraph 40
-Subparagraph (Note 2)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=82846649&loc=d3e38371-112697

Reference 2: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 840
-SubTopic 30
-Section 45
-Paragraph 1
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=84164758&loc=d3e45014-112735

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Balance Type:	credit
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Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
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- Details

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