The Rivers railway station is on 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 ...

mainline in

Rivers, Manitoba Rivers is an unincorporated urban community in the Riverdale Municipality within the Canadian province of Manitoba. It is located northwest of Brandon, above sea level. It is within the Westman Region (Southwestern Manitoba). Agriculture, health ...

, in the centre of town. The station is served by Via Rail's ''

The Canadian ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

''. The station operates as a

flag stop In public transport, a request stop, flag stop, or whistle stop is a stop or station at which buses or trains, respectively, stop only on request; that is, only if there are passengers or freight to be picked up or dropped off. In this way, st ...

with 48-hour advance notice. The station was originally built in 1917 for the

Grand Trunk Pacific Railway The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway running from Fort William, Ontario (now Thunder Bay) to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, a Pacific coast port. East of Winnipeg the line continued as the National Tra ...

. The station building is a 1½ story structure made of concrete to halfway up the first story, brick to the roof line. The station building was closed in the 1990s, however trains continued to serve the community as a flag stop. The station was designated a national historic site in 1992. A local community group is working on restoring the building. In 2008, Via Rail (Via) relocated its facilities serving ''The Canadian'' from Brandon North railway station (located away) to the Rivers railway station.

Stranding

On March 1, 2011, Via passengers traveling east were stranded for 15 hours due to a Canadian National

freight train Rail freight transport is the use of railroads and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers. A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of freight cars (US) or goods wagons (International Union of Railways) haul ...

becoming disabled near Rivers. The line was reopened, but this delay suspended Via's service between Winnipeg and Toronto in both directions. Consequently, Via had to make arrangements to accommodate about 70 affected passengers, including providing alternate transportation for them. Regular service was expected to resume the following Thursday for the Winnipeg to Toronto route, and on the next Saturday for the opposite direction.

References

External links

Community Group with Grant To Restore The Station Via Rail Station Information
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rivers Railway Station Via Rail stations in Manitoba Railway stations in Manitoba Railway stations in Canada opened in 1917 Designated Heritage Railway Stations in Manitoba 1917 establishments in Manitoba