Kingston | ||||||||||||||||
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Location | 1800 John Counter Boulevard Kingston, Ontario Canada | |||||||||||||||
Coordinates | 44°15′26″N76°32′13″W / 44.25722°N 76.53694°W | |||||||||||||||
Platforms | 2 side platforms | |||||||||||||||
Tracks | 2 | |||||||||||||||
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Structure type | Staffed station | |||||||||||||||
Accessible | Yes | |||||||||||||||
Other information | ||||||||||||||||
Status | Staffed station | |||||||||||||||
Website | Kingston train station | |||||||||||||||
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Opened | 1974 | |||||||||||||||
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The Kingston railway station is an inter-city passenger rail station in Cataraqui, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. It is served by Via Rail trains running from Toronto to Ottawa or Montreal, along the Corridor route. It is located on John Counter Boulevard, northeast of Princess Street and northwest of downtown Kingston.
The station is staffed, with ticket sales, baggage check, snack bar, vending machines, telephones, washrooms, and wheelchair access to the station and trains. There are two tracks, one of which is accessed through a tunnel. [1]
Short-term and long-term parking is available on the east side of the station. The cost is $2.50 per hour for short-term parking, $9.00 for a 24-hour period and $75.00 for a monthly pass. [2] A taxi stand is located on the north side of the station.
The Via station is also served by Kingston Transit. Public transportation throughout the day and evening is available to the Kingston Bus Terminal, Kingston Centre, Cataraqui Town Centre, King's Crossing, Queen's University, St. Lawrence College, and downtown Kingston, either directly from the station or very close by, on routes 4, 7, 16, and 18. [3]
CN's Montréal-Toronto mainline, opened October 27, 1856 as the Grand Trunk Railway, was built in three sections: Montréal built a subdivision westward to Brockville, Toronto built eastward to Oshawa, and Kingston built both east and west to bridge the gap. A "Grand Trunk village" of buildings around the 1855 two-storey stone Outer Station (810 Montreal Street) served as a regional base of operations during the initial construction and operation of the line, even though this location was awkwardly a 3 miles (4.8 km) stagecoach ride north from downtown Kingston at the time.
The current station opened west of Kingston's then-city limits in 1974, replacing CN's historic Grand Trunk station buildings in the city's north end. Relocating the station allowed CN to shift mainline track further north, eliminating a long curve to the south. Only the wall clock was retained from the former CN Outer Station, which is now abandoned and in ruins. The current 1974 mainline station has no notable historic or architectural value.
Kingston was once served by two railways: the 1856 Grand Trunk Railway (later CN Rail) mainline running east–west, and the now-defunct Kingston and Pembroke Railway, which ran northward to Renfrew, Ontario. The CN mainline between Toronto and Montréal crosses the Rideau Canal system at Kingston Mills, a rural area north of the city, although a spur once existed to serve the formerly-industrial waterfront. [4] [5]
This led to the construction of multiple historic stations in the same city; CN's Outer Station (810 Montreal Street) was located directly on the east–west mainline but awkward to access from downtown. Both a CN (Grand Trunk) spur and a CP-operated railway (the Kingston & Pembroke) followed the west bank of the Cataraqui River to reach Kingston's then-industrial waterfront and lake port. As CP operated K&P's Inner Station directly opposite Kingston City Hall in what is now Confederation Park, the Grand Trunk employed a waterfront agent, Hanlon's Depot (Ontario and Johnson), to remain competitive. The lines extended to the Canadian Locomotive Company factory and Kingston Dry Dock. Land now occupied by Confederation Park, a waterfront Holiday Inn and downtown Ontario Health Insurance Plan offices was once filled by trackage and rail yards, with grain elevators on what is now the Wolfe Islander III dock. Hanlon's Depot closed in the 1930s, K&P was largely dead by the 1950s, and the last waterfront tracks were removed when the locomotive factory closed in the 1960s.
The demise of the industrial waterfront left CN's historic Outer Station as the only passenger station in Kingston.
Kingston | |||||||||||
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History | |||||||||||
Opened | 1856 | ||||||||||
Closed | 1974 | ||||||||||
Former services | |||||||||||
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Because of its position at the midpoint of the Toronto-Montréal mainline, Kingston's Outer Station [6] survived as the primary rail station in the area from the line's opening in 1856 until the current station opened in 1974. The station consisted of a stone building (1855) and a brick building (1895–1898) arranged around a curve in the main tracks and joined by a covered platform. The main 1855 limestone station exhibited some similarity in design to Belleville station (220 Station Street, used from 1856 to 2012) as one of a rare few original GTR wayside stations with an added second storey. An 1859 plan shows additional buildings including wood sheds, engine houses, a freight house and a refreshment saloon, which have long been removed. [7]
The tracks were realigned further north in 1976. [8] The railway offices were removed in 1987; the site was briefly refurbished as the Pig and Whistle restaurant (1989 to 1992) and then abandoned. The original roof is gone, damaged by a fire in 1996. [9]
Designated in 1994 as a heritage railway station, [10] [11] the abandoned station after years of neglect lay in ruins, [12] [13] with only portions of the original limestone walls still standing, [14] and held in place by steel supports. [15] One 2004 report to Kingston City Council estimated a $4 million cost to restore the building and clean up toxic contamination of the surrounding grounds. [16] [17] In 2014, Doornekamp Construction proposed relocating the former station to outer Wellington Street, in downtown Kingston, and rebuilding it as office space. [18]
The former station's sub-prime location in Rideau Heights, long one of the worst neighbourhoods in the city, limits economic prospects for redevelopment of the historic property. Efforts by the City of Kingston to force the Canadian National Railway to preserve or repair the deteriorating station under the Heritage Railway Stations Protection Act and the city's property standards bylaw have only been met with opposition and delay through the courts. [19] [20] The Canadian Heritage Foundation listed the station in 2008 among its top ten endangered sites and considers it to be still at risk. [21] In 2015, the City of Kingston established the North King's Town Secondary Planning project, to examine the revitalization of neighbourhoods which include the Outer Station. The study period is set to run to late 2018, and is enabled through direction from Council, a dedicated Working Group of stakeholders and citizens, and retained professional planning consultants. [22]
Kingston | |||||||||||
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Kingston's Inner Station, constructed as the southern terminus of the former Kingston and Pembroke Railway, is not part of the CN system. It served passengers on the now-abandoned Kingston-Renfrew line, assumed by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1913 and largely defunct by the 1950s. The canopy and platform next to the station was demolished after the station closed; as well tracks to the south were removed.
The Bay of Quinte Railway, a local carrier acquired by Canadian Northern Railway, had running rights on K&P tracks from Harrowsmith to Kingston, giving the city access to all three systems. The K&P tracks no longer exist. Due to its prime location at 209 Ontario Street in downtown Kingston ( 44°13′45″N76°28′49″W / 44.22917°N 76.48028°W ), the historic Inner Station remains open, maintained as a tourist information centre after restoration. [23]
CN passenger service in downtown Kingston existed briefly from Hanlon's Depot (now a restaurant, PJ Murphy's) but never used the K&P station. [4]
Kingston station is served by all trains on Via Rail's Toronto-Ottawa and Toronto-Montreal routes. It’s the only station on the Toronto-Ottawa/Montreal that all via rail trains stop at.
As of October 2023 the station is served by eight to ten trains per day toward Ottawa, and five to six trains per day toward Montreal and 14 to 16 trains per day toward Toronto. [24]
Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the northeastern end of Lake Ontario. It is at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River, the south end of the Rideau Canal. Kingston is near the Thousand Islands, a tourist region to the east, and the Prince Edward County tourist region to the west. Kingston is nicknamed the "Limestone City" because it has many heritage buildings constructed using local limestone.
Gananoque is a town in the Leeds and Grenville area of Ontario, Canada. The town had a population of 5,383 year-round residents in the 2021 Canadian Census, as well as summer residents sometimes referred to as "Islanders" because of the Thousand Islands in the Saint Lawrence River, Gananoque's most important tourist attraction. The Gananoque River flows through the town and the St. Lawrence River serves as the southern boundary of the town.
Union Station is a major railway station and intermodal transportation hub in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The station is located in downtown Toronto, on Front Street West, on the south side of the block bounded by Bay Street and York Street. The municipal government of Toronto owns the station building while the provincial transit agency Metrolinx owns the train shed and trackage. It is operated by the Toronto Terminals Railway, a joint venture of the Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway, which directs and controls train movement along the Union Station Rail Corridor, the largest and busiest rail corridor in Canada. Constructed in 1927, Union Station has been a National Historic Site of Canada since 1975, and a Heritage Railway Station since 1989.
Lakeshore East is one of the seven commuter rail lines of GO Transit in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada. It extends from Union Station in Toronto to Oshawa GO in Durham Region. Buses from Oshawa connect to communities further east in Newcastle, Bowmanville and Peterborough.
Gananoque railway station in Gananoque, Ontario, Canada is served by Via Rail trains running from Toronto to Ottawa. The station is an unstaffed, heated shelter.
Napanee station in Napanee, Ontario, Canada is served by Via Rail trains running from Toronto to Ottawa. The 1856 limestone railway station was an unstaffed but heated shelter with telephones and washrooms, which would open at least half an hour before a train arrives. The platform is wheelchair-accessible. As of February 2023, the shelter was locked.
The Belleville railway station in Belleville, Ontario, Canada is served by Via Rail trains running from Toronto to Ottawa and Montreal. The station is staffed, with ticket sales, vending machines, telephones, washrooms, and wheelchair access to the station and trains.
Port Hope railway station in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada, is one of the oldest Canadian passenger rail stations still in active use. Served by Via Rail trains running from Toronto to Kingston and Ottawa, it was also a stop for trains to and from Montreal until January 24, 2012. The station is unstaffed, but has a heated waiting room, pay telephone, washrooms, free outdoor parking, and wheelchair access.
Kitchener station is a railway station 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 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, now serves as the headquarters for the Goderich–Exeter Railway.
The Kingston and Pembroke Railway (K&P) was a Canadian railway that operated in eastern Ontario. The railway was seen as a business opportunity which would support the lumber and mining industries, as well as the agricultural economy in eastern Ontario.
The Thousand Islands Railway was an 8 km (5.0 mi) long railway running from the town of Gananoque north to the Grand Trunk Railway Toronto-Montreal mainline, just south of present-day Cheeseborough. The service ran for 111 years between 1884 and 1995. The rails were removed in October 1997.
Railway Lands is an area in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Originally a large railway switching yard near the Toronto waterfront, including the CNR Spadina Roundhouse and the CPR John Roundhouse, it has since been redeveloped and today is home to mostly mixed-used development, including the CN Tower and the Rogers Centre. The lands were owned and maintained by the Canadian National Railway and later transferred to the federal crown corporation Canada Lands Company. The area is bounded by Front Street, Yonge Street, Gardiner Expressway and Bathurst Street. The western portion of the Railway Lands is now part of the CityPlace neighbourhood and the eastern portion is now called South Core.
The Heritage Railway Stations Protection Act is an act of the Parliament of Canada. The Act was enacted in 1988 in response to a long-standing and widespread concern that Canada’s heritage railway stations were not being protected. Bill C-205, An Act to protect heritage railway stations, was proposed by MP Gordon Taylor in a private member's bill which received support of all parties in the House of Commons.
Canadian National Railway's Kingston Subdivision, or Kingston Sub for short, is a major railway line connecting Toronto with Montreal that carries the majority of CN traffic between these points. The line was originally the main trunk for the Grand Trunk Railway between these cities, although there has been some realignment of the route between these cities. The majority of the Kingston Sub runs close to the northern bank of Lake Ontario and the Saint Lawrence River.
West Harbour GO Station is a regional rail station in the North End neighbourhood of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The station has been served by GO Transit's Lakeshore West line since July 9, 2015. There is hourly service between West Harbour and Toronto's Union Station, seven days a week. Via Rail service may eventually be provided.
The Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario, a rail museum in a former CNoR station, stands on the abandoned right-of-way of a Canadian Northern Railway line which once led southwest toward Napanee. Established 1985 as the Smiths Falls Railway Museum, the RMEO works to preserve the 1913 Canadian Northern (CNoR) station and a collection of historic rolling stock, equipment and railway memorabilia.
The Bay of Quinte Railway was a short-line railway in eastern Ontario, Canada. It was formed as the Napanee, Tamworth and Quebec Railway (NT&QR), chartered in 1878 by Edward Rathbun and Alexander Campbell, with plans to run from Napanee through Renfrew County and on to the Ottawa Valley. Lacking funding from the governments, development never began.
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Media related to Kingston, Ontario railway station at Wikimedia Commons