Canadian Train Stations

[BretttheRiderFan]

The way much of this country was settled by Europeans happened through the building of railways, and the primary intercity mode of travel until about the middle of the last century was through passenger rail. As a result, many grand railway stations were built across Canada. Today, Via Rail has experienced somewhat of a renaissance, and it remains an important link between cities in the corridor. This thread will be dedicated to train stations in Canada, whether still in use, derelict, or no longer present. Post photos of your local train stations!

I'll start with here in Edmonton.

http://zkahlina.ca/eng/wp-content/up...07/SC_3367.jpg


The current Via Rail station is near the old City Centre Airport, about 5km from downtown, and is served by The Canadian cross-country route. The station opened in 1998 to replace the old CN rail station under the CN Tower downtown. Recently with the closure of the Greyhound station in what will become the Ice District, this station has also become the Greyhound station, and is in the process of being renovated to accomodate those passengers. Without any access to public transportation from this location, the city is working on linking it with a bus route soon.

http://res.cloudinary.com/explore150...9/sites/62.jpg

http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/pcim...b/PC012151.jpg


Still standing on Gateway Boulevard near Whyte Avenue is the Strathcona CPR station. Originally built by the Calgary and Edmonton Railway in what was the city of Strathcona in 1907, and was originally the northern terminus of the route until CP expanded it north of the river past the High Level Bridge. Designated a Canadian Heritage Station in 1991, today it serves as the home of MKT Fresh Food and Beer Market.

http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/pcim...PC006362.1.jpg

http://www.edmonton-radial-railway.a...images/019.jpg


Services at the CPR's Edmonton station began in 1913 after construction of the High Level Bridge. The station was located at Jasper Avenue and 109 street, and operated until 1972, and demolished in 1978.

http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/pcim...b/PC006776.jpg

http://www.canada-rail.com/galleries...edmonton10.jpg

http://citymuseumedmonton.ca/wp-cont...9-1128x846.png


The Canadian National Railway station was located at 104th ave and 101 st, built in 1928 and demolished in 1964 to make way for the CN Tower, Edmonton's first skyscraper and the tallest building west of Toronto at the time. The CN railyards to the west of the station were a hub of CN's activities, and the warehouse district developed around them. Today, this area comprises the campus of Macewan university and Oliver Square.

[SignalHillHiker]

We no longer have trains, but the St. John's Train Station is a museum of when we did.

Railway Coastal Museum by Dale Roddick, on Flickr

Traditionally, the station was at the East End of the town near where the Hotel Newfoundland is today. But the "new" station above was constructed at the western edge of the city to allow more room.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newfoundland_Railway

[ghYHZ]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

We no longer have trains, but the St. John's Train Station is a museum of when we did.

Now lets head west to the other side of Newfoundland on the 548 miles of narrow-gauge track the CARIBOU passenger train travelled to Port-aux-Basques where you caught a ferry to Nova Scotia.

In 1976 (below) the train had been replaced by ROADCRUISER buses that still stopped at the CN Stations.



Today....that station still stands but is completely renovated with steel & glass cladding over the old brick and an atrium has been added to the front.

It's now the MARINE ATLANTIC Ferry Terminal...and buses still stop along the back where the old train platform once was.

[SignalHillHiker]

A few pics of the old station and surrounding Newfoundland Railway buildings from this morning.



(The odd name is because the railway and coastal boat system, basically ferries, but they were called coastal boats then, were all one transportation system here).

[esquire]

Edmonton has had several great train stations over the years but OP missed the best one of all, the wonderfully modern and elegant CN Tower:


Wikimapia


zkahlina.ca

The train station was situated in the basement from 1964 to 1998. It was a pretty busy railway station in its day, but by 1990 it was down to just 6 trains a week. There were railway tracks behind the tower although they were removed shortly after the station moved to its current location on the edge of the old municipal airport grounds.

[VIce]

I am pretty excited for this thread, although I don't have much to contribute. Actually the opposite: as far as I know, the Royal Canadian Pacific rail tour is the only operator in Calgary, operating from its own tiny station that abuts the Fairmont Palliser. The Rocky Mountaineer had their own area in the Calgary Tower (I believe?) before they stopped serving Calgary. I was wondering if anybody knew if these essentially used the old Via station with their own waiting areas? Is this the area the Province keeps saying they have rights to for 'future HSR'?

I haven't been able to find many photos of the Via station through Google or the usual suspects, although I heard it was quite spartan. I'd be curious to see and read any photos or information people have.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by VIce

I haven't been able to find many photos of the Via station through Google or the usual suspects, although I heard it was quite spartan. I'd be curious to see and read any photos or information people have.

Funny you should mention that, I passed through the Calgary VIA station only once, in 1989... I went looking for pics online to refresh my memory of what it looked like inside, but I couldn't find any. As far as I know it was the same facility at the base that RMT uses at the base of the Calgary Tower.

Finding photos of trains in the station is not that hard, but any photos of the interior must be buried somewhere that makes them hard to find.


VIA train in Calgary, late 80s
Source: rapidotrains.com

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by esquire

Funny you should mention that, I passed through the Calgary VIA station only once, in 1989... I went looking for pics online to refresh my memory of what it looked like inside, but I couldn't find any. As far as I know it was the same facility at the base that RMT uses at the base of the Calgary Tower.

Finding photos of trains in the station is not that hard, but any photos of the interior must be buried somewhere that makes them hard to find.


VIA train in Calgary, late 80s
Source: rapidotrains.com

All from 1968:

Opening of the new Palliser Square train station, Calgary, Alberta. Date: May 1969
Glenbow Archives

An image of the station trackside:

http://ww2.glenbow.org/search/archiv...OEH=ISO-8859-1

And an image of the last train leaving Calgary's CN station (the Palliser Square Station was CP)

http://ww2.glenbow.org/search/archiv...OEH=ISO-8859-1

[Martin Mtl]

Beautiful!

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

We no longer have trains, but the St. John's Train Station is a museum of when we did.

Railway Coastal Museum by Dale Roddick, on Flickr

Traditionally, the station was at the East End of the town near where the Hotel Newfoundland is today. But the "new" station above was constructed at the western edge of the city to allow more room.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newfoundland_Railway

[hipster duck]

I think Toronto would win the railway station thread the same way Montreal wins the church thread.

Ottawa is my second favourite, though. And honourable mentions to Quebec City and Winnipeg.

[Franco401]

Fredericton's train station, abandoned in the 60s, recently renovated and restored into an event space and liquor space:







McAdam Train Station, once a hub for Americans headed to cottages on the Bay of Fundy, now empty but well maintained:





Saint John: Union Depot, later replaced by the grand Union Station (below), again demolished in the city atrocious Urban Renewal program:





For a period in the 1970s there was a CN station on Rothesay Avenue before construction of the cheap eyesore of a station in the valley that lasted under a year before rail service was discontinued:

[esquire]

Here's Winnipeg's Union Station. It was for many years used by CN trains, and is still actively used by VIA Rail as two routes (the Canadian and the train to Churchill) continue to pass through there, although most of the building is leased out to other tenants these days.

There is a large old CN hotel, the Fort Garry Hotel, a block away on Broadway.


Source: kenmcgoogan.blogspot.com

In addition, Winnipeg has a grand old CP station. It hasn't been used by passenger trains since 1978, though. These days it is the Aboriginal Centre of Winnipeg... it's in decent shape although it hasn't been maintained quite as well as Union Station. The matching old CP hotel, the Royal Alexandra Hotel, was demolished sometime in the early 1970s.


Source: Wikipedia

Here's the now-demolished Royal Alexandra Hotel which was once linked to the station:


Source: pointdouglas.blogspot.com

In addition, Winnipeg has one other small, no longer operating railway station out in Saint Boniface. It used to serve the Greater Winnipeg Water District Railway which once ran passenger trains out to Shoal Lake on the Ontario Border (where Winnipeg draws its drinking water from). These days it's just railway offices, no passenger trains anymore.


Source: barraclou.com

[Martin Mtl]

Jean Talon station is one of my favorite in Montreal, for its Art Deco style.


https://www.instagram.com/p/BICntI3h...n-by=charlymtl

[SignalHillHiker]

The Avondale Train Station (just beyond the St. John's CMA).

Avondale Heritage Train Station by Cupids Celebrations, on Flickr

It's typical of all the surviving rural ones that I've seen - most of which are falling down.

And a couple of ours when it was still in use, from basically the same angles as my post above.





http://users.eastlink.ca/~othen/Newf...foundland.html

[1overcosc]

Kingston's current VIA station, built in the 1970s, is nothing special, pretty bland. The old station it replaced was beautiful:


(David Jeanes)

What's even sadder is that this beautiful old station is now in ruins:

(Andrew Jeanes)

There's now a plan to restore the building as a restaurant although they're limited in how much restoration is possible at this point.

[TorontoDrew]

[IMG]Après le match 2016 by Patrick, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]Union Station in Toronto by Dominic Labbe, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]Union Station Sign_ by Bill Smith, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]Toronto Union Station, Toronto 16' by Sv3n., on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]TTC 4420 Flexity Outlook LRV At Union Station Loop On Route 510 by drum118, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]A frame from the movie called life (13/52) by Rob Huang, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]Union station by Howard Yang, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]UPX Toronto Pearson Airport Terminus by Can Pac Swire, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]Ready to lineup for Rush Hour by Rob Ball, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]002crpshfwl by citatus, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]Great Hall Union Station by Chad Wanyou, on Flickr[/IMG]

[1overcosc]

Union's a pretty great transportation hub what with the VIA service, GO trains, airport train, subway, and streetcar services all there.. but I find, as an occasional visitor to Toronto, that it's a confusing place to navigate. I've been there at least a dozen times now and every damn time I still get lost trying to get between the VIA platforms and the subway platforms...

[BretttheRiderFan]

Originally Posted by esquire

Edmonton has had several great train stations over the years but OP missed the best one of all, the wonderfully modern and elegant CN Tower:

Thanks for this, I was aware of it but wasn't quite sure which photos to include or not (as I'm not old enough to remember what it looked like, and exterior views are all just essentially the tower, no?). The interior looked very cool in that pic though.

[SignalHillHiker]

Great pictures, TorontoDrew.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by BretttheRiderFan

Thanks for this, I was aware of it but wasn't quite sure which photos to include or not (as I'm not old enough to remember what it looked like, and exterior views are all just essentially the tower, no?). The interior looked very cool in that pic though.

Yeah, it had an awesome mid-century modern vibe that lasted right up until the bitter end. It was definitely one of Canada's more modern and futuristic looking train stations which was a fairly rare sight in a country where most of the larger terminals are ornate beaux-arts style buildings.

I guess by the time the terminal was ready for a refresh in the late 80s/early 90s, VIA knew they probably wouldn't be in there much longer.

Saskatoon has a cool 60s era former CN station that looks like it probably hasn't changed much since it was built. It's not especially well kept since it hardly gets used anymore, but it's still decent.