Between July 1881 and September 1882 track was laid from Ottawa to Coteau and trains began to run regularly. Approval for a bridge across the St. Lawrence River was delayed, partly because of lobbying by competing railways and partly from fears of the effect a bridge would have on river traffic. Threatened with a lapsed charter in 1884, Booth instituted a train ferry for the C&PL by early 1885 and completed the line through to Vermont using trackage rights on a small section of the GTR main line at Coteau, QC.