Canadian Train Stations - Page 3

esquire · #41 Posted **Aug 4, 2016, 6:05 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Martin Mtl

I agree that it lacks grandeur and that it may be underwhelming now. Still, I like how modern it look for a station build in 1889; back then, the glass ceiling was very audacious and it makes the station very airy and luminous (compare to the grand hall of Union Station, very dark and cavernous, even though still magnificent). It's too bad that they added horrible light fixtures to to the ceiling that detracts from the simple beauty of the ceiling still frame, which is painted in white, which is a mistake also. Otherwise, it boast a fantastic sculpture and the entrance, at least from outside, is a magnificent richardson beauty. I'm absolutely not saying that it is superior to Union Station, which is obviously Canada's most impressive train station.

Nice photos. However, looking at the interior now, you'd be hard pressed to believe that it was ever a train station... I'd love to see some pics of the old CP days when it was one of Canada's busiest train stations.

Martin Mtl · #42 Posted **Aug 4, 2016, 6:12 PM**

Montreal's Central Station, build in a timid late streamline modern style. It's spacious enough and not too dark, but it should have been so much more. Being almost underground, it has almost no presence on the street.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/testad...-p2LhQK-p1tVX2

https://www.flickr.com/photos/billpe...EysQkS-EbrpvT/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/132785...EysQkS-EbrpvT/

TorontoDrew · #43 Posted **Aug 4, 2016, 6:14 PM**

I hate having to wait in that station. It has no soul.

Martin Mtl · #44 Posted **Aug 4, 2016, 6:19 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquire

Nice photos. However, looking at the interior now, you'd be hard pressed to believe that it was ever a train station... I'd love to see some pics of the old CP days when it was one of Canada's busiest train stations.

Maybe it never was that busy. It's hard to find old pictures of the interior though.

http://salledespasperdus.garewindsor..._id=85&lang=en

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F...circa_1930.jpg

Martin Mtl · #45 Posted **Aug 4, 2016, 6:22 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

I hate having to wait in that station. It has no soul.

Hate? You make it sound like an ordeal. I don't seen how it can be such an horrible experience. There is space, light, more accommodations that there are in Union station (where the waiting is actually even worse, since you have to wait away from the grand hall and into the subcorridor with low ceiling and much more depressing decor). I think you're having a Montreal bashing moment there.

SteelTown · #46 Posted **Aug 4, 2016, 6:24 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquire

^ I had no idea about Hamilton's CN station. That's beautiful. Why don't VIA trains stop there?

Conversely, I was well aware of the TH&B station and it must be in the running for top art deco building in all of Canada.

Back in the early 90's PM Mulroney's government cut VIA service and moved Hamilton's VIA stop to Aldershot GO/VIA Station in Burlington. Once that happened the province cut GO Train service to Hamilton and the CN Station was abandon. Years later LIUNA purchased the building and restored the Station as a banquet hall.

Since the 90's Hamilton has been fighting to get VIA service back. It goes right through Hamilton every single day.

esquire · #47 Posted **Aug 4, 2016, 6:27 PM**

^ Been to Central and Union many times and I always preferred Central... obviously it doesn't have the architectural grandeur of Union (although it's beautiful in its own right, but I always admired how Central felt like it was the beating heart of the city with all of the retail activity, underground connections and transportation links so tightly integrated. I realize Union has as important a transportation role in Toronto if not more so, but somehow it's just more front and centre at Central.

esquire · #48 Posted **Aug 4, 2016, 6:28 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteelTown

Back in the early 90's PM Mulroney's government cut VIA service and moved Hamilton's VIA stop to Aldershot GO/VIA Station in Burlington. Once that happened the province cut GO Train service to Hamilton and the CN Station was abandon. Years later LIUNA purchased the building and restored the Station as a banquet hall.

Since the 90's Hamilton has been fighting to get VIA service back. It goes right through Hamilton every single day.

It's shocking to me that VIA doesn't stop in Hamilton. I hear the ridership of the routes through Niagara Falls isn't that great, so you'd think that opening access to the biggest city on the route after Toronto would give it a shot in the arm.

someone123 · #49 Posted **Aug 4, 2016, 6:40 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Martin Mtl

I agree that it lacks grandeur and that it may be underwhelming now. Still, I like how modern it look for a station build in 1889; back then, the glass ceiling was very audacious and it makes the station very airy and luminous (compare to the grand hall of Union Station, very dark and cavernous, even though still magnificent).

I tend to agree. From a historical perspective it's a very impressive building. A lot changed between the 1880's and the 1920's-30's when many of the largest train stations were built.

I like the Central Station interior, for what it is. There isn't a lot of Canadian architecture from that period. I feel like a lot of those buildings are a bit underappreciated today, and many of them have already been torn down. A lot of them don't register as "heritage buildings" yet, but that's exactly why so many 1910's and 20's buildings were torn down in the 60's.

Rico Rommheim · #50 Posted **Aug 4, 2016, 6:42 PM**

Central Station is about to feel even more " central" once the REM LRT is completed. They're expecting approx 90,000 daily commuters to use the station. That along with VIA'S plan for enhanced connections totoronto ottawa and quebec. Expect to see a lot of work to be done to that station.

Martin Mtl · #51 Posted **Aug 4, 2016, 6:44 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by someone123

I tend to agree. From a historical perspective it's a very impressive building. A lot changed between the 1880's and the 1920's-30's when many of the largest train stations were built.

I like the Central Station interior, for what it is. There isn't a lot of Canadian architecture from that period. I feel like a lot of those buildings are a bit underappreciated today, and many of them have already been torn down. A lot of them don't register as "heritage buildings" yet, but that's exactly why so many 1910's and 20's buildings were torn down in the 60's.

I agree that Central Station's style of architecture is very under appreciated. The fact that the station looks very much today like it did when it opened makes it a very good testament of the period, like it or not. It's aging well.

someone123 · #52 Posted **Aug 4, 2016, 6:49 PM**

Here's Halifax's VIA (and soon maybe commuter rail?) station. It is not very imposing looking as a train station but I like its quirkiness; the front facade isn't even straight.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Empire

Via Train Station

The station also connected up with piers:

Source

Old North Street station from the 1870's, destroyed in the explosion:

Source

TorontoDrew · #53 Posted **Aug 4, 2016, 6:58 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Martin Mtl

Hate? You make it sound like an ordeal. I don't seen how it can be such an horrible experience. There is space, light, more accommodations that there are in Union station (where the waiting is actually even worse, since you have to wait away from the grand hall and into the subcorridor with low ceiling and much more depressing decor). I think you're having a Montreal bashing moment there.

Yes I find it to be an ordeal as it's about as sterile as a Doctor's office. The fact it's Light and airy only emphasis how stark a space it is. Sorry if I don't find your railway station(s) as impressive as others. Hate? Yes I hate it. yes the current VIA concourse at Union sucks but it's one of the final stages of the revitalization for the station.

If you think I'm Montreal bashing you really don't know me. It's hands down one of my favorite cities.

Martin Mtl · #54 Posted **Aug 4, 2016, 7:06 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

Yes I find it to be an ordeal as it's about as sterile as a Doctor's office. The fact it's Light and airy only emphasis how stark a space it is. Sorry if I don't find your railway station(s) as impressive as others. Hate? Yes I hate it.

If you think I'm Montreal bashing you really don't know me. It's hands down one of my favorite Canadian city.

That's okay. You are very much entitled to your opinion. I just find it extreme that someone would actually hate central station that much. Being indifferent to it, or finding it boring and uninspiring or cold, maybe, but hating it? Now I know it's possible I guess.

WhipperSnapper · #55 Posted **Aug 4, 2016, 7:25 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim

The concourse, and the general interior of Windsor station isn't particularly "grand" I agree. While the exterior is imposing (the 8-storey 1887 phase and the 15 storey 1916 phase were both the tallest buildings in the city at the time of their construction), Windsor lacked Union's benefit of being placed on a large and important street like Front, rather its concourse was on a rather insignificant street called Windsor (currently ave. des Canadiens).

Meanwhile the opposite is true for CN's central station: bland exterior and grand concourse.

Windsor is how I imagine the 1873 Union Station in Toronto must have been like. Totally different style of architecture on the outside however the interiors had a similar scale and feel with the glass skylights and steel trusses.

The Chemist · #56 Posted **Aug 4, 2016, 11:35 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Martin Mtl

Montreal's Central Station, build in a timid late streamline modern style. It's spacious enough and not too dark, but it should have been so much more. Being almost underground, it has almost no presence on the street.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/testad...-p2LhQK-p1tVX2

https://www.flickr.com/photos/billpe...EysQkS-EbrpvT/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/132785...EysQkS-EbrpvT/

Of all the stations posted so far, I think I like this one the most. There's just something about it that I really like.

Of course, given that I have had a lot of experience riding the train in China (I travel by HSR for business quite frequently), I also find all of the stations posted here to be absolutely tiny / empty compared to the monsters found on the Chinese rail system.

ScreamingViking · #57 Posted **Aug 5, 2016, 12:02 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquire

It's shocking to me that VIA doesn't stop in Hamilton. I hear the ridership of the routes through Niagara Falls isn't that great, so you'd think that opening access to the biggest city on the route after Toronto would give it a shot in the arm.

Hamilton's old station also suffered from the fact it was not directly on the Windsor-London-Toronto route, because of the geography and the way the rail lines were originally built. So it wasn't able to serve the busier corridor in the modern era. It's a shame really -- the station is quite grand, had a large waiting area (currently the ballroom of the banquet facility) with access to multiple tracks below, but it just didn't make sense to maintain it with the cutbacks in VIA service. Had GO stayed at the time it would probably still be in use for train passengers.

We often took the train to visit family when I was a kid growing up in east Hamilton, and we had to go to the old Burlington station to catch one to/from Windsor (the local stop before Aldershot was built, though there was a small station in Dundas too that was accessible for people in west Hamilton)

p_xavier · #58 Posted **Aug 5, 2016, 12:14 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim

Central Station is about to feel even more " central" once the REM LRT is completed. They're expecting approx 90,000 daily commuters to use the station. That along with VIA'S plan for enhanced connections totoronto ottawa and quebec. Expect to see a lot of work to be done to that station.

Plus there was an agreement with the US for a border clearance at Central Station. Amtrak trains to Washington and Boston are expected as work was done in the US for that purpose.

CountryMike · #59 Posted **Aug 5, 2016, 2:00 PM**

Winnipeg's Union Station

TownGuy · #60 Posted **Aug 5, 2016, 2:53 PM**

The interior of Gare Centrale is top notch but the exterior is so beyond ugly that it is disqualified from being considered best in Canada.

The first time I took VIA to Montreal I was confused upon taking my return train as I couldn't believe this was the actual train station. Must not have been paying attention when I arrived.