The Maple Leaf is an international passenger train service operated by Amtrak and Via Rail between Pennsylvania Station in New York City and Union Station in Toronto via the Empire Corridor. Daily service is offered in both directions; the 544-mile (875 km) trip takes approximately 12 hours, including two hours for U.S. or Canadian customs and immigration inspection at either Niagara Falls, New York, or Niagara Falls, Ontario. Although the train uses Amtrak rolling stock exclusively, the train is operated by Via Rail crews while in Canada and by Amtrak crews in the United States. Service began in 1981.
The Grand Trunk Railway was a railway system that operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The railway was operated from headquarters in Montreal, Quebec, with corporate headquarters in London, United Kingdom. It cost an estimated $160 million to build. The Grand Trunk, its subsidiaries, and the Canadian Government Railways were precursors of today's Canadian National Railway.
The Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company was an American subsidiary of the Grand Trunk Railway, later of the Canadian National Railway operating in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Since a corporate restructuring in 1971, the railroad has been under CN's subsidiary holding company, the Grand Trunk Corporation. Grand Trunk Western's routes are part of CN's Michigan Division. Its primary mainline between Chicago and Port Huron, Michigan serves as a connection between railroad interchanges in Chicago and rail lines in eastern Canada and the Northeastern United States. The railroad's extensive trackage in Detroit and across southern Michigan has made it an essential link for the automotive industry as a hauler of parts and automobiles from manufacturing plants.
A maple leaf is the leaf of the maple tree.
Michigan Services are three Amtrak passenger rail routes connecting Chicago, Illinois with the Michigan cities of Grand Rapids, Port Huron, and Detroit, and stations en route. The group falls under the Amtrak Midwest brand and is a component of the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative.
Georgetown GO Station is a railway station in Georgetown, Ontario, Canada. It is served by GO Transit's Kitchener line and Via Rail's Toronto-Sarnia trains. It is located west of Mountainview Road North at 55 Queen Street.
Guelph Central Station is the main inter-modal transportation terminal in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. It is used by VIA Rail and GO Transit trains, as well as Guelph Transit local buses, GO Transit regional buses and intercity buses. It is located at 79 Carden Street and includes the historic Guelph Railway Station, as well as the site of the former Guelph Bus Terminal.
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.
Stratford station in Stratford, Ontario, Canada is served by four Via Rail trains daily running between Sarnia, London and Toronto. The station, though outside the immediate downtown area, is relatively central. The station building is wheelchair accessible. Via accommodates wheelchair access into the trains provided 48 hours' notice.
Brush Street Station was a passenger train station on the eastside of downtown Detroit, Michigan, located at the foot of Brush Street at its intersection with Atwater Street and bordered by the Detroit River to the south.
Durand Union Station is a historic train station in Durand, Michigan. The station, which now serves Amtrak Blue Water trains, was originally a busy Grand Trunk Western Railroad and Ann Arbor Railroad hub, as well as a local office for Grand Trunk Western, from its construction in 1903 until 1974. It is currently owned by the city of Durand and leased by Durand Union Station, Inc. a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation, restoration, and maintenance of the building and its surrounding property.
The International was a named passenger train operated between Chicago and Toronto. It was originally an overnight train operated by the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada and its successors the Canadian National Railway and Grand Trunk Western Railroad, running as far as Montreal. The train was cut back to Port Huron, Michigan, in 1970 and discontinued in 1971.
The Blue Water is a higher-speed passenger train service operated by Amtrak as part of its Michigan Services. The 319-mile (513 km) route runs from Chicago, Illinois, to Port Huron in Michigan's Blue Water Area, for which the train is named. Major stops are in Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, East Lansing, and Flint.
Battle Creek Transportation Center is an intermodal station in Battle Creek, Michigan, used by Amtrak, Indian Trails and Greyhound Lines. It is at the split between the routes of Amtrak's Blue Water and Wolverine passenger trains. The International Limited, which had started in 1982 as joint operation by Via Rail and Amtrak between Chicago and Toronto, was discontinued in 2004.
Flint station is an inter-modal transportation center in Flint, Michigan. It is served by Amtrak's Blue Water route, and doubles as the intercity bus station for Amtrak Thruway and Indian Trails, as well as the local city bus service, the Flint Mass Transportation Authority, who owns the station. The station was built as part of the Amtrak Standard Stations Program.
Lapeer station is an Amtrak station in Lapeer, Michigan currently served by the Blue Water. The station was originally built in the early 1900s by the Grand Trunk Western Railroad, and renovated by Amtrak and the Michigan Department of Transportation in 1991 and completely restored in 2004. Another station in Lapeer formerly served the Michigan Central Railroad, but is now the office for an insurance company. The Amtrak station sits at a former junction of the GTW and MCRR lines, the latter of which is mostly removed, with the remaining piece now used by Lapeer Industrial Railroad.
Sarnia station is a Via Rail train station in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. It is the western terminus for Via Rail trains running from Toronto through southwestern Ontario. The unstaffed station is wheelchair accessible. The station includes vending machines, washrooms, a pay phone, and a medium-sized waiting area.
The Niagara Rainbow, known as the Empire State Express before 1976, was an American passenger train service operated by Amtrak between New York City and Detroit via Buffalo and Southwestern Ontario in Canada. The service ran between October 31, 1974, and January 31, 1979.
Grand Trunk Western No. 6323 is a preserved class "U-3-b" 4-8-4 "Northern" type steam locomotive built by Alco in 1942. It served the Grand Trunk Western Railroad by pulling various heavy freight and passenger trains across the Lower Peninsula of Michigan and Northern Indiana. It became famous in later years for being the very last active steam locomotive to run on the GTW's trackage while still on the railroad's active list in 1961. After sitting in storage for several years in Detroit, No. 6323 was sold in 1981 to the Illinois Railway Museum, and since then, it has remained on static display in Union, Illinois.
The Canadian and later, Canadian-Niagara, was the longest running named international train from Chicago to Upper Canada via Detroit, for its first two decades running to Montreal. This overnight train was operated by the Michigan Central Railroad from Chicago to Detroit, and in a pool arrangement, it operated over Canadian Pacific Railway tracks and used the same train number from Detroit eastward. The train would carry a second section, bound, variously for Buffalo or New York City via Buffalo.
