Riverdale Railway Station was located on

De Grassi Street De Grassi Street is a side street located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was named after Captain Filippo "Philip" De Grassi, an Italian-born soldier who immigrated to Canada with his family in 1831 and settled in York, Upper Canada. He later ...

just north of

Queen Street East Queen Street is a major east-west thoroughfare in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It extends from Roncesvalles Avenue and King Street (Toronto), King Street in the west to Victoria Park Avenue in the east. Queen Street was the cartographic baseline f ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Constructed by the

Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (; french: Grand Tronc) 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 rai ...

(GTR) in 1896 as "Queen East Station", on what is now the

Lakeshore East line Lakeshore East is one of the seven commuter rail lines of GO Transit in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada. It extends from Union Station in Toronto to in Durham Region. Buses from Oshawa connect to communities further east in Newcastle, ...

, the station was renamed "Riverdale Station" in 1907. The

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

(CNR) took over the station in 1923, when they absorbed the Grand Trunk Railway. CNR discontinued passenger train service at the station in 1932, later for commercial use and demolished the building in 1974.

History

The station was originally built at grade, with a level crossing at Queen Street. This level crossing was considered very dangerous and on November 17, 1904, a collision here between a

Toronto Railway Company The Toronto Railway Company (TRC) was the operator of the streetcar system in Toronto between 1891 and 1921. It electrified the horsecar system it inherited from the Toronto Street Railway, the previous operator of streetcar service in Toronto. ...

streetcar and a GTR freight train killed three people and injured seventeen. Construction began in 1925 on the Toronto Grade Separation project which was completed in 1930. The rebuilding of this eastern approach, beyond the Toronto Terminals Railway limit, eliminated the level crossing. The station had to be moved northwest to accommodate construction of the Queen Street overpass. The last site of the station building is now part of City of Toronto's

Bruce Mackey Park The English language name Bruce arrived in Scotland with the Normans, from the place name Brix, Manche in Normandy, France, meaning "the willowlands". Initially promulgated via the descendants of king Robert the Bruce (1274−1329), it has been a ...

, (formerly Wardell Parkette) which runs along the westerly side of the railway tracks, between Queen and Dundas Streets. Plans to build a GO Station at this location have been discussed as part of

Metrolinx Metrolinx is a Crown agency of the Government of Ontario that manages and integrates road and public transport in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA), which comprises much of Ontario's Golden Horseshoe region. Headquartered at Union Sta ...

's Yonge Relief Network Study. The proposed

SmartTrack SmartTrack is a municipal proposal to enhance GO Transit rail service within Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It takes advantage of the province's existing GO Transit Regional Express Rail plans. SmartTrack has evolved since it was originally proposed b ...

plan, raised during the 2014 Toronto Mayoral Election, would also build a station here, where

GO Transit GO Transit is a regional public transit system serving the Greater Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario, Canada. With its hub at Union Station in Toronto, GO Transit's green-and-white trains and buses serve a population of more than seven millio ...

's Stouffville commuter service crosses Queen Street.

References

External links

{{commons category-inline, Riverdale, Toronto railway station
Goad’s Atlas of Toronto Plate 41
Demolished buildings and structures in Toronto Railway stations in Toronto Grand Trunk Railway stations in Ontario Canadian National Railway stations in Ontario Railway stations in Canada opened in 1896 Buildings and structures demolished in 1974