Kitchener railway station

Kitchener
Via Rail and GO Transit station
Location 126 Weber St. West
Kitchener, ON
Coordinates 43°27′20″N 80°29′35″W / 43.45556°N 80.49306°W / 43.45556; -80.49306Coordinates: 43°27′20″N 80°29′35″W / 43.45556°N 80.49306°W / 43.45556; -80.49306
Owned by Via Rail
Platforms 1 side platform
Tracks 2
Connections Grand River Transit
Construction
Structure type Heritage station building[1]
Parking Central Systems Auto Parks
Disabled access Yes
Other information
Station code GO Transit: KITC
Fare zone 27
History
Opened 1897[1]
Previous names Grand Trunk Railway
CN Rail
Services
Preceding station   Via Rail   Following station
toward Sarnia
Sarnia–Toronto
toward Toronto
GO Transit
TerminusKitchener
  Former services  
Amtrak
toward Chicago
International Limited
toward Toronto
Designated 2006
Reference no. 4571

The Kitchener railway station is located in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, slightly to the northeast of downtown Kitchener, at 126 Weber Street West, near the corner of Victoria Street. It is a heritage building[1] containing a waiting room and ticket counter built beside a set of tracks also used as a freight yard. A separate building to the east of the passenger area, originally built in 1925 as a freight building,[2] now serves as the headquarters for the Goderich–Exeter Railway.

The station is served by two daily Via Rail trains in each direction running between Sarnia and Toronto via London. There are two early morning GO Trains to Toronto and two trains returning in the afternoon, with additional connections by bus to Bramalea GO Station during the day.[3] Grand River Transit routes 4, 6, 20, 34 and 204[4] stop near to the station on either Weber Street or Victoria Street.

History

Postcard of GTR station

The station was built in 1897[1] by the Grand Trunk Railway to replace a smaller station built in 1856. The station originally included a prominent clock tower. A second tower was added to the station after a 1908 fire. In 1966, Canadian National Railway (CN), by this point the owner of the station, removed the clock tower and the other roof features. In 1983, CN threatened to demolish the station, but Via Rail, who had assumed responsibility for CN's passenger services in 1978, opted to retain it. Under the provisions of Canada's Heritage Railway Stations Protection Act, it was designated a railway heritage structure as of February 15, 1994.[5]

The International Limited was operated jointly by Via Rail and Amtrak between Chicago and Toronto. The service, which had started in 1982, was discontinued in 2004.[6]

Pair of GO trains parked at the layover facility, located just west of the station

In November 2010, a partial rollout of GO train service was announced to be in place by late 2011. Two Kitchener line trains daily serve Acton, Guelph and Kitchener with layover for those trains at a small facility in Kitchener. $18 million was spent to get this first stage operational, with further upgrades to come.[7] Service began on December 19, serving only Kitchener and Guelph to begin with.[8]

Future

As part of the rapid transit in Waterloo Region plan which also includes building light rail through Kitchener and north to Waterloo, Grand River Transit have proposed relocating Via and GO to a new station closer to King Street, where they would interchange with the light rail, a number of GRT routes, and intercity buses. The light rail is currently scheduled to be complete by 2017, with the new station likely completed around the same date.

A larger GO train layover facility is planned west of Kitchener near Baden, in order to allow increased train service to Kitchener.[9] In the meantime, a larger interim location may be built within Kitchener east of the station, off Shirley Avenue.[10][11]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Former Canadian National Railways Station at Kitchener". Canada's Historic Places. Retrieved May 2012.
  2. ↑ Brown, Ron (2002). The Last Stop: Ontario's heritage railway stations. Toronto: Polar Bear Press. ISBN 978-1-896757-19-3. OCLC 49047616.
  3. ↑ GO Transit, Kitchener-Union Mini Schedule
  4. ↑ Grand River Transit Route Map
  5. ↑ Savage, Dave (1994). Directory of Railway Stations of Ontario. Cobourg, Ontario: Canadian Station News. ISBN 978-0-9699091-0-1. OCLC 32549067.
  6. ↑ Melzer, Matt (23 April 2004). "Final Run of the Amtrak / VIA International". TrainWeb.org. Retrieved August 2015. From 1982, Amtrak and VIA Rail Canada had jointly operated the International train between Chicago and Toronto
  7. ↑ Outhit, Jeff (14 November 2010). "GO trains to run from Kitchener to Toronto in 2011". Waterloo Region Record. Retrieved 14 November 2010.
  8. ↑ Outhit, Jeff (25 November 2011). "GO Train coming Dec. 19". Waterloo Region Record. Retrieved 25 November 2011.
  9. ↑ R. J. Burnside and Associates, Ltd. (2009-07-13). "Georgetown to Kitchener Environmental Study Report". Retrieved 2010-11-21.
  10. ↑ "New Train Layover & Bus Facility, Shirley Avenue, Kitchener". Merx. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
  11. ↑ Coxson, Doug (September 9, 2014). "Baden site still in GO Transit’s plans for train layover facility". New Hamburg Independent. Retrieved 11 September 2014.

External links

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