Owned by Via Rail Connections Grand River Transit Province Ontario Connection Grand River Transit Platforms in use 1 | Tracks 2 Opened 1897 Phone +1 888-842-7245 Formerly Canadian National Railway | |
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Location 126 Weber St. West
Kitchener, ON Structure type Heritage station building Parking Central Systems Auto Parks Address 126 Weber St W, Kitchener, ON N2H 3Z9, Canada Similar Bramalea GO Station, Union Station, Bloor GO Station, Milton GO Station, Malton GO Station | ||
Via rail canada train 84 ride from kitchener to toronto
The Kitchener railway station is 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.
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The station is served by two daily Via Rail trains in each direction running between Sarnia and Toronto via London. There are also four daily GO Transit trains which depart eastbound to Toronto on weekday mornings and return westbound in the afternoon. In the times or directions that train service is not operating, GO bus route 30 Kitchener provides express service to Bramalea GO Station where passengers can connect to off-peak trains. Grand River Transit routes 4, 6, 20, 34 and 204 stop near to the station on either Weber Street or Victoria Street.
History
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.
The International Limited was operated jointly by Via Rail and Amtrak between Chicago and Toronto. The service, which had started in 1982, was discontinued in 2004.
In November 2010, a partial rollout of GO train service was announced to be in place by late 2011. Two Kitchener line trains daily serve Acton, Guelph and Kitchener with layover for those trains at a small facility in Kitchener. $18 million was spent to get this first stage operational, with further upgrades to come. Service began on December 19, serving only Kitchener and Guelph to begin with.
Future
The Region of Waterloo plans to replace Kitchener Station with a new Kitchener Central Station located at King Street where the railway crosses the Ion light rail line. In addition to the VIA Rail and GO Transit trains and buses relocated from the current facility, the new facility would also serve the new light rail line, and Greyhound and Coach Canada intercity buses. The Central Station-Innovation District light rail stop is planned to open in 2018 along with the light rail line itself, but as of 2016 the new railway station could only open in 2022 at the earliest.
A larger GO train layover facility is planned west of Kitchener near Baden, in order to allow increased train service to Kitchener. In the meantime, trains are stored in an interim yard in Kitchener off Shirley Avenue east of the station.