Uxbridge railway station in

Uxbridge, Ontario Uxbridge is a township in the Regional Municipality of Durham in south-central Ontario, Canada. Communities The main centre in the township is the namesake community of Uxbridge. Other settlements within the township include Altona, Coppin' ...

, now serves as a railway museum and a station of the

York–Durham Heritage Railway The York–Durham Heritage Railway is a heritage railway in both the York Region and the Durham Region of Ontario, Canada, north of Toronto. The railway operates excursion trains from Uxbridge. Trips have various travel times depending on the eve ...

. The station building, 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 rail ...

in 1904, is owned and maintained by the Township of Uxbridge and has been designated under Part IV of the '' Ontario Heritage Act''.

History

The

Toronto and Nipissing Railway The Toronto and Nipissing Railway (T&N) was the first public narrow-gauge railway in North America. It chartered in 1868 to build from Toronto to Lake Nipissing in Ontario, Canada, via York, Ontario, and Victoria counties. At Nipissing it would ...

originally built a narrow gauge line in the late 1860s, with service between Toronto and Uxbridge commencing in 1871. In late 1880 the line was converted to standard gauge and soon after this, due to financial reasons, was sold to the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It ama ...

in 1881. The line was then firstly leased to the

in 1884; eventually purchased by them in 1894; and finally transferred to Canadian National Railways in 1923. Grand Trunk constructed the current station building in 1904, with its distinctive "witch's hat" roof, to replace the more basic shed structure that had previously been used. The Township of Uxbridge bought the railway station from CN in 1988 for $1.00. Due to the poor state of repair of the roof and the cost of renewal, closure of the heritage train station was discussed by the Township of Uxbridge Council in 2013. It was noted that the structure is important to the community and it is the only train station in Ontario with a witch's hat style roof that is being maintained in relatively good shape. The remaining sections of track continues briefly and rest removed with former line becoming part of

Trans Canada Trail The Trans Canada Trail, officially named The Great Trail between September 2016 and June 2021, is a cross- Canada system of greenways, waterways, and roadways that stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific to the Arctic oceans. The trail exten ...

GO Transit

North of Uxbridge to Lindsay the line was abandoned in the early 1990s and the

reopened the line to the south between Uxbridge and Stouffville in 1996. That southerly section of trackbed was purchased by

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 ...

to prevent abandonment and disposal, because Metrolinx has long term plans to expand service on the Stouffville line to Uxbridge. Current GO Transit service consists of a connecting bus from the end of the line at Old Elm and from

Union Station Bus Terminal The Union Station Bus Terminal is the central intercity bus terminal in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in Downtown Toronto on the second floor of the south tower of CIBC Square, on the northeast corner of Bay Street and Lake Shore Bo ...

at off peak times when there is no train service.70-71 Stouffville GO Train and Bus Schedule
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References

External links

*{{Commons category-inline, Uxbridge, Ontario railway station

Canadian National Railway stations in Ontario Grand Trunk Railway stations in Ontario Railway stations in the Regional Municipality of Durham