Kitchener is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario, about 100 km (62 mi) west of Toronto. It is one of three cities that make up the Regional Municipality of Waterloo and is the regional seat. Kitchener was known as Berlin until a 1916 referendum changed its name. The city covers an area of 136.86 km2, and had a population of 256,885 at the time of the 2021 Canadian census.
Cambridge is a city in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, located at the confluence of the Grand and Speed rivers. The city had a population of 138,479 as of the 2021 census. Along with Kitchener and Waterloo, Cambridge is one of the three core cities of Canada's tenth-largest metropolitan area.
The Regional Municipality of Waterloo is a metropolitan area of Southern Ontario, Canada. It contains the cities of Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo, and the townships of North Dumfries, Wellesley, Wilmot and Woolwich. Kitchener, the largest city, is the seat of government.
Grand River Transit (GRT) is the public transport operator for the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It operates daily bus services in the region, primarily in the cities of Kitchener, Waterloo, and Cambridge, alongside the ION rapid transit light rail system which began service on June 21, 2019.
Waterloo County was a county in Canada West in the United Province of Canada from 1853 until 1867, then in the Canadian province of Ontario from 1867 until 1973. It was the direct predecessor of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo.
Galt is a community in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada, in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ontario on the Grand River. Prior to 1973, it was an independent city, incorporated in 1915, but amalgamation with the village of Hespeler, the town of Preston and the village of Blair formed the new municipality of Cambridge. Being the largest constituent community in the city, it is commonly seen as the downtown core of Cambridge. The first mayor of Cambridge was Claudette Millar.
Preston is a community in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ontario. Prior to 1973 it was an independent town, incorporated in 1915, but amalgamation with the town of Hespeler, Ontario, the city of Galt, Ontario and the village of Blair formed the new municipality of Cambridge. Parts of the surrounding townships were also included. No population data is available for the former Preston since the Census reports cover only the full area of Cambridge, though the combined population of the census tracts covering the majority of Preston reported a population of 20,008 as of the 2016 Canada Census. The first mayor of Cambridge was Claudette Millar.
The Grand River Railway was an interurban electric railway in what is now the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, in Southwestern Ontario, Canada.
King Street, or Waterloo Regional Road 15, is the major northwest–southeast arterial road in Kitchener, Ontario, as well as Waterloo, Ontario, where it runs north–south. In Waterloo, King Street divides the city into east and west sides, and in Kitchener, it divides the city into north and south sides. At the Conestoga Parkway, in southern Kitchener, King Street becomes the Highway 8 Expressway. King Street "resumes" about four kilometres to the east, where Weber Street is renamed to King Street and then continues to Cambridge, Ontario.
The Kitchener and Waterloo Street Railway was a street railway in Berlin and Waterloo in Waterloo County, Ontario, Canada. Horsecar service began in 1888 under the original Berlin and Waterloo Street Railway name and continued until the system was electrified in 1895, when the existing horsecars were converted for electric service. This proved ineffective, and the company suffered from under-investment. In 1896, a local consortium bought out the company and purchased a new fleet of purpose-built electric trams. The system was municipalized in 1907 and was run by the Town of Berlin/Kitchener until the end of service. The railway was renamed in 1919 to reflect the name change of the City of Kitchener, which had occurred in 1916. In 1927, it was reorganized under the Kitchener Public Utilities Commission, which continued operations until 1946, when streetcar service was discontinued and replaced with trolleybus service.
Ion, stylized as ION, is an integrated public transportation network in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. It is operated by Keolis and is part of the Grand River Transit (GRT) system, partially replacing GRT's Route 200 iXpress bus service. The section of the bus route serving Cambridge has been renamed "Ion Bus", and renumbered as 302. The first phase commenced operations on June 21, 2019, between the north end of Waterloo and the south end of Kitchener. A future extension of light rail to the downtown Galt area of Cambridge is planned but construction may not begin on that line until 2028. In 2023, Ion LRT had an annual ridership of 4.3 million, and a daily ridership of 11,780.
Hespeler is a neighbourhood and former town within Cambridge, Ontario, located along the Speed River in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. In 1973, Hespeler, Preston, Galt, and the hamlet of Blair were amalgamated to form the City of Cambridge. The first mayor of Cambridge was Claudette Millar.
Idylwild Park was a park located on the Speed River in what is now Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. It attracted people from across Southwestern Ontario and the Golden Horseshoe, via the Grand Trunk Railway and the Galt, Preston & Hespeler (GP&H) Street Railway.
Doon is a suburban community and former village which is now a part of the city of Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. Doon was settled around 1800 by German Mennonites from Pennsylvania, and after 1830 by Scottish immigrants. The area is located at the confluence of Schneider Creek and the Grand River. The post office was opened in 1845. A large flour mill, oatmeal mill, distillery and sawmill were built on the Doon River over the following years. The Perine brothers established extensive linen works and flax mills near the settlement. By 1870, there was a single church, Presbyterian, a variety of tradesmen and a population of 200.
George Randall was an American-born business owner and politician in Ontario, Canada. He served as reeve of Waterloo from 1870 to 1872 and as mayor in 1878.
The Preston and Berlin Street Railway was an interurban electric street railway which served the 12.68 kilometres (7.88 mi) between what was then the towns of Preston and Berlin in Midwestern Ontario, Canada. The company was formed in 1894, but lay dormant until 1900, when construction finally began. The company began operation in 1904.
The first Preston and Berlin Railway was a steam-operated railway, opened for operation in 1857. Berlin, Ontario, and Preston, Ontario, were only 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) apart, but the route required a bridge over the Grand River.
The Lake Erie and Northern Railway was an interurban electric railway which operated in the Grand River Valley in Ontario, Canada. The railway owned and operated a north–south mainline which ran from Galt in the north to Port Dover on the shore of Lake Erie in the south. Along the way, it ran through rural areas of Waterloo County, Brant County, and Norfolk County, as well as the city of Brantford, where it had an interchange with the Brantford and Hamilton Electric Railway. Construction on the mainline began in 1913. The railway began operations in 1916 as a subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), which had purchased the line before construction had finished. In 1931, it was consolidated with the Grand River Railway under a single CPR subsidiary, the Canadian Pacific Electric Lines (CPEL), which managed both interurban railways, though they continued to exist as legally separate entities. Passenger service was discontinued in 1955 but electric freight operations continued until 1961, when the LE&N's electric locomotives were replaced by diesel CPR locomotives and the line was de-electrified. In the same year, service on the mainline from Simcoe to Port Dover was discontinued, but the remainder continued to operate as a branchline which as early as 1975 was known as the CP Simcoe Subdivision. The remainder of the line was officially abandoned in the early 1990s, ending almost seventy-five years of operation.
The Waterloo Junction Railway (WJR) is a short line railway in the Region of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It runs northward from the former Grand Trunk Railway (GTR) North Main Line in downtown Kitchener, through Waterloo and St. Jacobs before terminating in Elmira. It is currently owned by the City of Waterloo and operated by CN as the Waterloo Spur. The Waterloo Central Railway runs tourist trains on the line, and the Ion rapid transit runs on the route for a short distance.
