Kitchener GO Station

Kitchener GO
Via Rail and GO Transit Station

Kitchener Station
Station statistics
Address 126 Weber St. West
Kitchener, ON
Structure Heritage station
Platforms 1 side platform
Tracks double
Parking Yes
Other information
Opened 1897
Accessible
Code GO Transit: KITC
Owned by Via Rail
Fare zone 27
Formerly Grand Trunk Railway
CN Rail
Services
Preceding station   Via Rail   Following station
toward Sarnia
Sarnia–Toronto
toward Toronto
Preceding station   GO Transit   Following station
Terminus Kitchener

Kitchener GO station is a railway station in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. It is located slightly to the northeast of downtown Kitchener, at 126 Weber Street West, near the corner of Victoria Street. It is essentially a waiting room and ticket stand 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,[1] now serves as the headquarters for the Goderich–Exeter Railway.

The station is served by six Via Rail trains daily (three in each direction) running between Sarnia (via London) and Toronto. One Grand River Transit bus route stops next to the station.

The station was built in 1897 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.[2]

As part of a plan which also includes building a light railway through Kitchener and north to Waterloo, Grand River Transit have proposed relocating Via to a new station closer to their Charles Street bus terminal in downtown Kitchener, where they would interchange with a number of GRT routes, intercity buses, and possibly also GO Transit. An environmental assessment for the light railway is currently underway, but there is as yet no funding or construction schedule for the project as a whole.

In November 2010, a partial rollout of GO train service was announced to be in place by late 2011. Two Kitchener line trains daily are planned to serve Acton, Guelph and Kitchener with layover for those trains at a small facility in Kitchener. $18 million would be spent to get this first stage operational, with further upgrades to come.[3] Service is set to begin December 19, serving only Kitchener and Guelph to begin with.[4]

References

  1. ^ Brown, Ron (2002). The Last Stop: Ontario's heritage railway stations. Toronto: Polar Bear Press. ISBN 9781896757193. OCLC 49047616. 
  2. ^ Savage, Dave (1994). Directory of Railway Stations of Ontario. Cobourg, ON: Canadian Station News. ISBN 9780969909101. OCLC 32549067. 
  3. ^ Outhit, Jeff (14 November 2010). "GO trains to run from Kitchener to Toronto in 2011". Waterloo Region Record. http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/811764. Retrieved 14 November 2010. 
  4. ^ Outhit, Jeff (25 November 2011). "GO Train coming Dec. 19". Waterloo Region Record. http://www.therecord.com/news/local/article/630379--go-train-coming-dec-19. Retrieved 25 November 2011. 

External links