Wrong place, right time

After the school year was through, my family headed out of town to Toronto to do some touristy things. While there, I was able to sit trackside for a little while, taking in the continuous movement of trains in and out of Union Station, most of them GO Trains as well as the Union Pearson Express. This time around, my family decided to stay at a hotel near the airport and commute into the downtown aboard the UP Express. This made our trip much easier, as the downtown was packed with fans for a Friday World Cup match at BMO Field, uh Toronto Stadium. 

I was quite impressed with the overall experience of riding the UP Express. At our hotel, you could catch an hourly shuttle to the airport, where the UP Express leaves from an elevated platform, high above ground level. The train itself is quite comfortable. The seats are very much a step above what you would expect to find on a commuter train. The fare for the downtown service is about $12, depending on your age. There are also family passes, which we used several times.

In total, the trip takes about 20 minutes. The cars feature lots of storage space for luggage, which is to be expected, given its purpose in serving the airport. What I did not expect was that the train is very much in use as a local commuter connection for Toronto residents. It makes stops at Weston, Mount Dennis and Bloor before ending its eastbound journey at Union Station. While aboard, I took a quick shot of the layup yard west of Union Station, where a few GO Trains were parked before heading back into service during peak times.

On our first day downtown, my wife took my oldest daughter to enjoy some theatre while my youngest wanted to go to the Hockey Hall of Fame, which is just a quick walk from Union Station. We had a good time there, as the Hall of Fame is very much geared toward young people. When we were done, we proceeded back to Union Station and took a quick walk along the Skywalk, which is an interior pathway from Union Station over the tracks to the CN Tower. At that point, it becomes an outdoor pathway to the Rogers Centre (I almost typed in SkyDome). 

After a walk to the Rogers Centre and a few photos, we decided to head back to the Union Station food court for an early dinner and a train ride back to the airport aboard the UP Express. I did get a few photos of GO Trains. I thought this one was nice, as the train is emerging from the shadow of the stadium as it makes its way to the station.

But it was on the way back to the station that I saw something I had never seen before.

I had to look twice before I realized I was seeing the Canadian, Via Rail's premier transcontinental* train. I have only seen this train one other time, just barely, as I caught a glimpse of it backing into Union Station from my hotel near the tracks. Those photos were mostly useless. 

(* - transcontinental is a bit of a stretch, as it covers the distance from Toronto to Vancouver in each direction, although in earlier times, the Canadian also served Montreal as well) 

This time around, I was able to confirm with a friend in Toronto that this was indeed Train 2, hours late, in the wrong place at the wrong time, essentially. My friend said the train was overly late arriving at the station and was parked in an awkward spot, as it was getting near to the evening rush hour, when GO Trains would be flocking to the station. It was bad timing for Via Rail, but perfect for me. 

 

Given the glass in the Skywalk is almost universally clouded, I had a hard time finding a decent pane that would allow me to get a good image of the train. This attempt was okay, but I would have liked to find a wider angle.

 

This shot from almost directly overhead was okay as well, especially since I was able to get an evening GO Train in the same frame. However, it doesn't do the Canadian justice, as you cannot really make out the train's true character from this vantage point. You can make out the two F40s, hitched to each other elephant style, but other than that, there aren't a lot of clues to let you know what train this is, unless you are in the know.

 

Here's one final shot, with another GO Train on the left of the frame. Again, since my choices were limited by the quality of the glass I was shooting through, I did the best I could and tried a few different angles. The other limiting factor was that the train was only partially visible from beneath the train shed.

 

That lucky meeting with the Canadian kicked off a week of epic railfanning, both in Toronto and in the Sarnia area, where I was visiting family for a few days afterward. Much more to come from my summer travels. 

It's time to change the approach to . . . everything

I've been trying to put into words what it is that I have been trying to do with my rail photography recently, but I think I've fallen short. That was until I read the comments to my last post when a few fellow railfans commented and the words came to mind. So thanks to Steve and J.D.

And here is how I came to clarify my new approach to rail photography. It started with a memory of what my counsellor told me many years ago when I was struggling with my mental health. His name was Woody and what he told me I never forgot. He said, "No one makes you feel anything. People act and you choose how you REact." It was a revelation to me at the time.

That made me think of how I am approaching my photography right now. I thought back to what my counsellor said and I applied it to my hobby. I have no control over what railways do, which is in line with another thing my counsellor told me. He said, "You have no control over anything but yourself." I am applying those lessons in my photography. Since I have no control over how the rail industry has changed, I can at least control how I approach my photos.

So here is my new approach, boiled down to something more pithy, thanks to recent comments from readers and old lessons from my counsellor.

Railways might be more standardized, boring and faceless these days. I don't know if anyone can argue this. I cannot change this.

If you can't change the trains, change everything else in your camera's frame. That means change your angles, your spot, your height, your lighting, your choice of background, your location, your time of day, your approach to the sky, your . . . well, everything. 

This photo above is perhaps not the ideal image to prove my point, but bear with me. In this frame, you can see the interior lights of my Venture coach and the reflection of the laptop screen of the young lady sitting in front of me. I tried to get images that would avoid the interior glare but this is the best I could do. In the image, you can see a string of GO coaches in the background and part of an old Via F40PH-2 in the foreground. The Via engine looks like it has just completed a run from Montreal or possibly Ottawa. It needs to go through the washing station, for sure. The buildings in the background tell you this is Toronto and the platforms tell you this is near Union Station. Put all those elements together, and you have some context about where this photo was taken. 

As for the computer screen in front of me, I do have a funny story to share about that. I couldn't help but notice via the reflection in the glass that the young lady in front of me was attempting to study for an exam or possibly upcoming test. However, she was also clearly messaging friends, which meant her attempts at studying were distracted at best, and I say that nicely. She was mostly messaging. At times on the ride, I wondered when she would give up the ghost with her studies. Whatever it was she was trading messages about was clearly her main focus.

Here's another image that I have come to enjoy. I took this shot at Via Rail's Windsor Station when I paid a very brief visit to the city in 2024. Here you don't see the front end power or much of the train, but you get to see a timeless scene of people boarding an eastbound train for Toronto at the station. I like that you can see the people in silhouette (sort of), a beautiful fall sky, the coaches and the station. It's a scene that could have been captured 20, 30, 40 or even 100 years ago. The trains and stations might look different but the scene is the same. Timeless. 

How many times do we stop to capture a bit of humanity in our images? After all, trains are still a very human endeavor.

Here's an example of angles. I have more photos of Via Rail corridor trains than anything else, so I have given a lot of thought in past years as to how I can capture images of them in different contexts. This is a shot of incoming Sarnia-Toronto Train 84 making its way into Stratford across Niles Street. I deliberately stepped back and made sure I got the people waiting at the crossing (on the left) as well as the cars waiting on the other side. You can also see the railway stop sign. There are many elements in this image, which made the task of framing the train a bit of a challenge, but I like the end result. So often, I find we obsess over getting the train or locomotive itself but lose sight of getting its surroundings. 

I would have liked to attempt this shot from the other side, but the harsh summer sun meant the shadow side of the train would have ruined the image of that train on the curve.

Here's one final image that I captured in February 2021 on the Canadian Pacific Winchester Sub at Bedell, Ontario. There was a maintenance of way crew working on the South Prescott Spur to Oxford Station, with a genuine CP caboose sitting on the spur, offering a warm place for crews to get out of the biting cold. I took a few shots of the caboose but I made sure to back up and get a shot of all the surroundings, so I could have a complete picture. The fencing in the foreground and the enormous pile of ties gives you can idea of the scale of the work being done here. I only wish I could have done a better job with the morning sky, as it did not turn out nearly as crisply as I would have liked. 

With these images, I hope I have made my new approach clear. It's time to change my approach to everything in my rail photography outside of the trains themselves. I've done this in fits and starts over the years, but I'm really trying to make it a major focus going forward. It doesn't mean I'm not taking standard photos anymore. I am. But at a time when everything tends to look the same, the one major thing about rail photography that provides endless variety is your background. And that is what I am trying to change in my images.

One last kick at the can for the F59PH

Recently, I shared some photos and thoughts about GO Train service in Kitchener, where Metrolinx has enjoyed success with its Kitchener-Union Station service. I was camped out on an overpass this past summer to capture the morning run of Train 3962 eastbound for Union Station. That train was being led by 559, one of GO's old F59PH locomotives, a reliable warhorse that was built by the old Electro-Motive engine production facility in London, Ont. 

At the time, I couldn't help but wonder if the F59PH was into its final days with GO Transit, as very few still remain on the GO roster. Later in that same day, I was told that 559 had broken down between Kitchener and Guelph. 

Shortly after the Kitchener post went live, I got some interesting information from a blog reader, which I will share here in its entirety:

GO bought F59s from Los Angeles Metrolink and they are sitting in North Bay for rebuild so, by the looks of things, the last days in green of that loco type is some time away. I suspect the idea is to add to the power pool as newer engines get fitted with ECTS signalling, and also possibly 2MW battery packs to replace one Cummins on the MP54s. 

Shortly after that comment, I got further confirmation from another reader that, indeed, more F59PHs were on the way, which means that these old engines will be seen in and around the GTA for the time being. 

In November, I had a small layover in Toronto on my way to see family in Sarnia, so I camped out trackside near the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, when I found this GO Train heading eastbound toward Union Station, led by F59PH 561 in the old GO scheme. As I don't get a chance to shoot much but Via Rail trains in Ottawa, it was a treat to find a few GO Trains with different paint schemes. 

Besides the continuing presence of the F59PHs in revenue service, it was interesting to see a few of the old cab control cars in the middle of some GO Trains, as they had been refurbished and converted to regular passenger cars. A friend of mine was nice enough to meet me at Union. He was the one who pointed this out to me. 
 

Speaking of 559, it was back in revenue service when I was in Toronto in November. I caught it creeping eastward toward Union with a newer GO unit heading in the same direction a few tracks over.

In my last post, I made a point to explore the different approaches I have taken of late to rail photography. These photos would not be reflective of those new approaches. I was simply watching trains on my layover and taking shots fairly casually as I hung out with my friend. Still, any time you can get two trains in a shot, with different units, it's not the worst shot.

The London plant built 72 F59PH units from 1988 to 1994, along with 83 F59PHI locomotives for American customers. GO once rostered 49 of the original F59PH units, many of which have moved on to other railways or retired. 

The one thing that I don't know is if the F59s on their way to GO are the original models that we all know in Canada or the F59PHI models, which look different, especially near the cab. 

Personally, I kind of like the boxy look of the old GO 59s, as they remind me of the F40PH-2s that have served Via Rail well for decades. The Metrolink units have a sleeker nose and cab, but they seem a bit awkward aesthetically, in my opinion. Details, details...

I wanted to share on shot from the day when I caught these F59s that might be considered a little different from the usual 3/4 wedge shot. Although I was not trying to reinvent the wheel with the above two shots, I did try and get a shot of the train sheds at Union. The Skywalk overpass didn't do me any favours from this vantage point, but I did like that I caught a GO Train on one end of the sheds and a Via corridor train on the other end.

My chances to catch something from the platforms were limited, as crews don't want people wandering around the train sheds so I tried to sneak a few shots here and there.

I like this as a slice of life shot where passengers were waiting their turn to get on the escalators that would take them into the arrivals hall of the station. Sometimes, train shots can have the trains on the periphery and still tell a good railway story. I have a few other shots in and around Union that I took on my way back to Ottawa, but I will save them for another post. 

I have to say, I am happy that the F59s are going to continue to ply the rails for a while. The old boxy ones that have served GO well for decades are unsung heroes. Catch them while you can. 

That time in Toronto

It's nice to be able to live again, without a cloud hanging over every aspect of my family's life. I am happy to share that our family is safely in our new home and our nightmare is pretty much over. That said, let's talk about trains. 

In early June, my family made a quick trip to Toronto to a Blue Jays game, which was a first for my two daughters. You can read about what we saw on the way to Toronto in this post. After we arrived, we stayed at the hotel attached to the Rogers Centre, so it was conveniently located near the downtown Metrolinx/Via tracks, which made for some great railfanning for me. Never mind the quick visit I was able to make to the Toronto Railway Museum, right across from the baseball stadium. I will leave those images for another post. 

Obviously, on a game day, my family was around the baseball stadium, which meant we were able to see plenty of GO Trains. I did even see one still being pulled by an old F59, but I was not quick enough to get an image of that one. But I did like this shot taken in front of the city's convention centre. The mix of old and new Metrolinx green is quite common on GO Trains still.

This shot below was taken from a pedestrian walkway above the tracks right beside the Rogers Centre. I like that this image captures the length of the train, the shadows mid-train and the signals. The lighting was tricky to work with, but a bit of colour correction helped define the train a little more clearly.

I wasn't able to devote a lot of time to train watching, as our goal was to fulfill a Christmas promise to take the girls to a game and let them choose one piece of team memorabilia at the team shop. However, given the steady stream of commuters to and from downtown, there was lots to shoot in a short period of time.

In addition to the GO Trains making their way to and from Union Station, I also managed to get a few shots of the UP Express, short for Union-Pearson Express. This is the three-car consist making its way past the convention centre. The UP Express has both three- and two-car consists plying the rails to and from the airport. The frequency of these trains was pretty steady as I was trackside. I know a few people who have made use of this service. They tell me it is a great experience. You can just see my daughter's hand in the bottom of the photo.

I have to admit that I hung out at my hotel room window way too much when I returned from the game. I found the steady flow of trains and the gentle rumble of the diesel engines oddly captivating. Here's a shot of a P42 with a Love the Way wrap leading a LRC consist past my window. The final car in this train was a refurbished HEP silver streamliner. The architecture of the hotel room meant I could not entirely crop out the part of the building that jutted out and obstructed my view. The grey cityscape really makes the yellow Via logo on the P42 stick out. It was fun to get shots of trains from up high. It's not something I've been able to do often.

Speaking of wraps. Here's a GO coach with a Desjardins message for riders.

Call this next shot a milestone shot, even if it was taken through a window at an impossible angle with some issues with glare. It's a moral victory for me because this is the first time I have ever captured the Canadian. You can see the multiple F40 units on point, as the consist backs into Union Station as a GO Train heads in the opposite direction with the control cab leading the way. The Canadian was on the track closest to my hotel, which made it hard to capture. It took me a moment to realize what this train was. I'm glad I was taking photos of it all the same. You can see some of the gargoyles from the Rogers Centre obstructing the view. Nothing to be done. Beggars can't be choosers.

I thought I'd finish with this shot. If you've ever been in Union Station and find yourself descending the ramp from the main hall to the area where people line up for their trains, you might notice this old plaque off the to the side. I find it interesting that the railway thought enough of its employees that it felt it had to erect a small monument saluting their service to our country during wartime. The plaque doesn't specify any war. It's quite a contrast to the railways of today, spanning continents and more focused on shareholder value than their employees sacrificing their lives for the cause of freedom. I'm not mentioning this as a critique, per se. Times change. It's just interesting to have a glimpse of where the CPR's corporate mentality was, once upon a time.

Those are my images trackside in downtown Toronto. It was fun to get a brief look at big city railroading. It made the awful baseball game we watched all the more palatable.

Trackside observations in Toronto

So our house is packed and the waiting game nears an end. We are officially ready to move, but we don't have possession of our new home yet. I'm at my work desk in the basement and there's a lull in my day. I figured it was a good time to go over some of my observations from Toronto on June 1, when my family made a quick visit to the city to take our kids to a Blue Jays game (they lost) and the Ripley's Aquarium. You can read about the westward rail journey to Toronto in my previous post.

In that post, I detailed some interesting observations from our train journey from Ottawa's Fallowfield Station all the way through to Cobourg. Our ride included a meet with two CN freight trains, a westbound container train parked in Belleville and another westbound mixed that had stopped for us around Brockville. This was the best shot I could get of the front end of that train from my small window in the ex-CP HEP car. I think the clouds and the trees make this image more interesting. I would have liked to get more of the cab, but this is what you sometimes get when you take photos while in motion.

But let's focus on Toronto. As our train pulled into Oshawa, I was able to get a quick shot of a parked GO Train with the power facing east. Oshawa is usually a busy station, with a yard that holds autoracks for a nearby automotive plant and other freight cars on any given day. I like the fact that these are images I could not otherwise get trackside.

As we headed west, we passed the Metrolinx GO Train maintenance facility in Whitby. It was not easy to get a proper image of the yard, since the glare from my window and the narrow vantage point made it a challenge. I had to touch up this image quite a bit to account for the glare and reflections on our window. I like how this one turned out. There are a lot of trains visible.

This shot also had to be touched up to account for the fact that it was taken behind a narrow window in our passing HEP car. I liked how this one turned out as well. Most of the quick shots I took passing by didn't turn out. But it's always cool to get a behind-the-scenes look at railway facilities from a vantage point that you could never get from public property.

When we entered the home stretch of track leading to Union Station, I didn't expect to see much, but I still kept an eye out for anything. I did make sure to get a shot of this trackside building on Cherry Street. I remember always seeming to notice this building when I rode the train in my university days. It brought back a lot of good memories seeing it again. It's nice to know that, despite all the changes in Toronto over the last few decades, a few old vestiges of its gritty past remain. You can see some light rail (street car?) right-of-way in the bottom right corner of the image.

The tracks leading into Union Station are the exclusive domain of GO Trains, Via Rail intercity corridor trains and the Union Pearson Express. But once in a while, you might catch a few freight cars that are being used for maintenance of way purposes. This was an unexpected catch.

A few ties were on this flat car, but I wasn't sure if they were old ties that had been removed or new ties that were awaiting placement on one of the lines. My guess is they are old ties, given they seemed to be thrown onto the car without any thought to organization. I would expect new ties to be in a neat bundle.

End of the line for us as our train pulled in under the now brightly lit platforms of Union Station. This is quite the contrast with Montreal's platforms, which I was also able to see later in the summer on a quick trip to Montreal with my daughter. The windows and lighting makes for a better first impression of Toronto than travellers had from the old platform. A gleaming GO Train awaits its next run east as we pulled in.

In my brief time in Toronto, I managed to get a bunch more material but I will save that for another post. It has been a really rewarding summer for me as a railfan, as I have taken three trips and acquired a fair bit of new material. It's always good to have too much, for a change.

CPR's forgotten "Union" Station

When I was researching the fate and legacy of the Canadian Pacific Railway’s station in Westboro, there was an associated bit of Ottawa railway history that I stumbled across for the umpteenth time. This week, I decided to take a deep dive and unearth a little more of Ottawa’s railway history. This week, let’s look at CPR’s original Ottawa train station, the Broad Street Station.

The station hosted passenger trains for the CP for four decades, not to mention freight activity in its six-track yard.

Try looking for any trace of this station now and you’ll get nowhere. That’s because Broad Street no longer officially exists. Some crumbling asphalt is still there near Albert Street if you look closely enough, but the road itself is largely covered over by decades of neglect, unchecked weeds and planning incompetence. The street itself saw all its remaining structures emptied and razed as the LeBreton Flats were emptied in the 1960s. For those interested, Broad Street, or what’s left of it, is on the western half of the LeBreton Flats, just west of Booth Street and the Pimisi O-Train station.

But the station itself was long gone by the time the Flats were cleared in the sixties. In fact, by the time the National Capital Commission decided to clear the entire area, the Canadian Pacific had already moved its passenger operations twice. The second Broad Street station closed in 1920, which meant some of Canadian Pacific’s passenger operations were shifted to Ottawa’s Union Station. I say some, because it’s not that simple, of course. I’ve spoken to more than one rail historian and they have different takes on how much passenger traffic was shifted to the downtown station after Broad Street closed.

That’s because there’s the matter of the Ottawa West station to consider. The original Ottawa West station was built at the same time as the Broad Street Station was closed in 1920. CP also operated the Bayview Avenue Ottawa West station as an additional passenger station up until the 1960s. So, the operations at the Broad Street Station were shifted in two directions. The CP did indeed use the Union Station downtown for some of its operations, but photos of the Dominion calling at Ottawa West station back up what one rail historian told me a few years ago. That was that the Ottawa West station was used for transcontinentals at one point, while the Union Station was used to support corridor passenger operations. Also, early schedules for Ottawa West in the 1920s showed that it hosted the Trans-Canada Limited as well.

 Broad Street Station in 1908, with Ottawa streetcar out front

Look at a timetable from the 1950s, as I did, and you will see designations in the schedule on some trains that read “Ottawa (Union),” especially on corridor trains. This makes me think that there was a shifting division of the passenger operations, although it’s not clear to me exactly what trains departed from Ottawa West and Union over the years and why. The reason I get confused is, despite pictures of the Dominion calling at Ottawa West, the schedule I consulted from 1956 listed only two trains as using the Ottawa West station, one from Ottawa to Brockville and the other from Ottawa to Chalk River.

It wasn’t always this confusing, of course. Although Ottawa’s Union Station was meant to be a passenger station for the Grand Trunk (later Canadian Northern and finally Canadian National), Canadian Pacific and New York Central, CP used its own station on Broad Street from the 1880s until 1920. And CP wasn’t alone. The New York Central also had its own terminal on Mann Avenue, near the edge of what is now the University of Ottawa campus.

What’s interesting about the Broad Street Station is that it is was once considered to be Ottawa’s Union Station, a designation that clearly predated the construction of the downtown station that was also known as the Union Station. The original CPR station opened in 1896, to replace the Canada Central depot that burned down in 1895. The CPR, of course, took over what became the Carleton Place Subdivision from the Canada Central years earlier. But a railway presence on Broad Street goes back to 1871, when a station opened its doors there to connect two major railways at one point. In 1879, construction wrapped up on the Prince of Wales Railway bridge to connect Quebec rails to this original union station.

The original CPR Broad Street Station (see above behind another streetcar) was destroyed by the great Ottawa-Hull fire of April 1900. The second CPR station on the site was opened in January 1901 (top two photos). If it looks familiar, it should. The moment I saw the images of the station, it reminded me of the CPR Windsor Station in Montreal. The architect who designed the Broad Street Station was from Montreal and was responsible for a number of other CPR stations. The station also bears some striking similarities to the Chateau Laurier.

The fact that it opened in 1901, eleven years before the opening of the downtown Union Station, might account for the CPR’s decision to stick with the station even after the magnificent downtown GTR station opened its doors. I would imagine it would be a tough pill to swallow to bail out of a station that wasn’t even 20 years old.

However, that is just what CPR did in 1920 when it moved its operations to Union Station downtown and to the Ottawa West station. A few articles I read pointed to the opening of the Interprovincial Bridge in 1901 (Alexandra Bridge) between downtown Ottawa and Hull as the turning point for railways. Over the years, more activity began to focus on that bridge, which once carried trains over the river. That might have been the reason for CP to transfer much of its trains to the downtown station.

It's hard to find accurate information about when the Broad Street Station was officially torn down, but it seems as though it was around until the 1930s before it was demolished. A real shame too, given what a beautiful structure it was.

Sources: 
All links will take you to information specific to this station. The Branchline Magazine link takes you to the most comprehensive selection of photos of the old Broad Street Station

Colin Churcher’s Railways in Canada

Traingeek.ca

Old Time Trains

Wikipedia

Branchline Magazine

Ottawa's Railway Station gets a little respect

Say what you want about Ottawa's Railway Station, but you can never accuse it of being boring. The station, which was opened in 1966, has always had a couple of factors working against it. But in the past few years, it has begun to gain a little respect.

Let's start with some surprising facts about this station. Did you know the Tremblay Road station has been open 50 years? That means it has been open for business just three fewer years than Ottawa's Union Station, which operated as the main railway hub in Ottawa's downtown from 1912 to 1966.

Did you know that the Tremblay Road station won a Governor General's Medal for architecture in 1967? Or that it was ranked as one of the 500 most significant buildings produced in the last century by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada in 2000? Or that in 2007, it was presented the Ontario Association of Architects’ Landmark Award? Or that it was designated a heritage railway station in 1996, just 30 years after opening? Pretty impressive for a building that doesn't get a lot of love.

July 8, 2013 view of the platforms at Ottawa's Central Station as a Montreal-bound corridor consist eases out from the platforms. You can see the main building in the top right hand corner of this shot.

Many locals still bemoan the fact that the city's original Union Station was moved from the downtown to Tremblay Road, which is not exactly central like Via Rail's stations in Montreal, Toronto or Quebec City. The Tremblay Road station will also never measure up to the historic charm of the old Union Station, which is now the Government Conference Centre and soon to be the temporary home of Canada's Senate.

However, a few developments in the last few years promise to ensure that the Tremblay Road railway station gets a bit more respect in the years to come.

First, a pedestrian bridge has been built over Highway 417, which now connects the station to the neighbourhoods north of the highway, not to mention the city's baseball stadium, RCGT Park, home of the 2016 Cam-Am League champions, the Ottawa Champions (rather presumptuous name, but we backed it up with a championship).

Second, the city's Confederation Line light rail system is in the process of being built right through the station's property, which promises to directly link the Via Rail station to the downtown in a way that has been lacking since the station was built. Commuters will soon be able to board the LRT and get to the railway station without minimal fuss.

Finally, more than $21 million is being spent on ongoing renovations that will greatly enhance each traveler's experience at the station. Indeed, these are exciting times for the station.

June 26, 1971 view from the west side of the platforms when both CN and CP passengers trains used the Beachburg Subdivision.

The most obvious change that travelers will notice at the station will be the platforms. They will all be raised so that travelers will be able to board their coaches without walking up any steps. This will replicate the platforms that Via Rail has at its Montreal and Quebec City stations. The other major change is these platforms will be heated. If you have the misfortune of coming to Ottawa in the winter via train, this scene below is what you might face when you get off the train

Winter storm in early 2014.

The image below shows you what the platforms will look like when they are finished next fall.

Via Rail Canada publicity image

The station will also get new elevators that will improve access to the platforms. The station already has an aesthetically pleasing tunnel below the platforms, which ends with a massive and impressive circular ramp that you can take to the main concourse, if you decide to skip the escalators. I've done this a few times, just to prolong the experience a bit.

The station will also get roof repairs, electrical repairs, Business Class lounge renovations and washroom renovations.

Beginning in November, the railway also boosted the number of departures from Ottawa Station by two, meaning that there are now nine departures to Toronto and Montreal each day. This station accommodates 800,000 travelers each year, making it the third busiest railway station in the country.

Via Rail Canada publicity photo

When you think of how much has happened in the past 20 years around this station, it's hard to believe that there was so little surrounding this depot at one point. For example, most local take for granted that Trainyards retail development. Some might not remember that much of this land was railway property and some of it housed railway tracks.

Closer to the station, a few office buildings have been built in recent years on railway land that sat unused for quite a long time. Up until very recently, there were a few dilapidated railway structures on the other side of the chain link fence that surrounds the station's tracks.

Even on the other side of the highway, a fair bit of retail development on Coventry Road has really quickened the pace of the area around the station. When you think of the pedestrian bridge and light rail connection, the disrespected station in the middle of no man's land seems to be a little less lonely these days.

Happy 50th Birthday to Ottawa Station. I often rave about Ottawa's old Union Station, but I have to admit I truly do like this station. Here's hoping it remains a busy fixture in the city.

Via Rail Canada Facebook image