Guelph Central Station (also known as Guelph Central GO Station) is the main inter-modal transportation terminal in

Guelph Guelph ( ; 2021 Canadian Census population 143,740) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as "The Royal City", Guelph is roughly east of Kitchener and west of Downtown Toronto, at the intersection of Highway 6, Highway 7 and Wel ...

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 C ...

, Canada. It is used by

VIA Rail Via Rail Canada Inc. (), operating as Via Rail or Via, is a Canadian Crown corporation that is mandated to operate intercity passenger rail service in Canada. It receives an annual subsidy from Transport Canada to offset the cost of operating ...

and

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 ...

trains, as well as

Guelph Transit The Guelph Transit Commission is a small public transportation agency that operates transit bus services in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Established in 1929 after the closure of the Guelph Radial Railway Company streetcar lines, Guelph Transit has gr ...

local buses,

regional buses and intercity buses. It is located at 79 Carden Street and includes the historic Guelph Railway Station, as well as the site of the former

Guelph Bus Terminal The Guelph Bus Terminal was the main intercity bus station in Guelph, Ontario until May 13, 2012, when it was replaced by Guelph Central Station. Operators using the terminal included Aboutown, GO Transit and Greyhound. Coach Canada also served t ...

History

GTR station

International at Guelph station, March 21, 2004

The current station building was built in 1911 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 ...

, which had been serving Guelph since 1856. In addition to serving regional trains, in the pre-Amtrak era, it served the Grand Trunk Western's ''

Maple Leaf The maple leaf is the characteristic leaf of the maple tree. It is the most widely recognized national symbol of Canada. History of use in Canada By the early 1700s, the maple leaf had been adopted as an emblem by the French Canadians along th ...

'' (Chicago - Toronto). The station is a classic example of early 20th century Canadian railway station design and has been designated as a heritage structure per the ''

Heritage Railway Stations Protection Act The ''Heritage Railway Stations Protection Act'' is an act of the Parliament of Canada. The ''Act'' was enacted in 1988 in response to a long-standing and widespread concern that Canada’s heritage railway stations were not being protected. Bi ...

''. The

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...

building, with an

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...

tower, has been listed on the Canadian Register since 2006 and was formally recognized as one of Canada's Historic Places in November 1992. In 1923, the Grand Trunk Railway was merged into the Canadian National Railway. Between 1982 and 2004, the Central station was served by the '' International Limited'', a train service between

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and

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 anch ...

that was then operated jointly by

Via Rail Via Rail Canada Inc. (), operating as Via Rail or Via, is a Canadian Crown corporation that is mandated to operate intercity passenger rail service in Canada. It receives an annual subsidy from Transport Canada to offset the cost of operating ...

and

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

. Guelph was also served by

trains between 1990 and 1993, when it served as the terminus of the then Georgetown line. Provincial cutbacks in 1993 caused GO Transit to cut back service to Georgetown. The current GO Train service through Guelph Station began on December 19, 2011, when two daily trains in each direction on the then Georgetown line were extended to Kitchener.

Intermodal Terminal

The Intermodal Transit Terminal was first proposed in 2002 to consolidate intercity bus, local bus and railway services into one facility. At the time, the downtown terminal for

was three blocks away at St. George's Square. A feasibility study was initiated in 2004, and Guelph City Council endorsed the Carden Street location and the concept design that same year. The project received federal and provincial infrastructure stimulus funding in 2009, and detailed design and stakeholder consultations were conducted. Construction began in April 2010. The name "Guelph Central" was chosen with input from the community and the transit service providers using the new station. The station opened to the public on May 13, 2012. The project was projected to cost $8 million, of which $5.3 million was from the Provincial and Federal Infrastructure Stimulus Funds. The opening of the bus portion of the station was delayed from October 2011 to May 2012 to allow time for the renovations of the railway station building to be completed. Additional renovations, with a $2.1 million budget, were completed in 2016–2017. The work also helped to preserve and restore heritage characteristics.

Services

Guelph Transit

On January 1, 2012, all the

routes were changed. While it was originally planned to have the new bus routes meeting at the new station on the same date, this change was delayed until May 6, 2012. In September 2016, Guelph Transit began offering early morning shuttle service for those connecting with early GO Trains. The PRESTO co-fare cards can be used through all of the hours of GO service in Guelph.

Via Rail

operates one daily train in each direction on the

Sarnia Sarnia is a city in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada. It had a Canada 2021 Census, 2021 population of 72,047, and is the largest city on Lake Huron. Sarnia is located on the eastern bank of the junction between the Upper and Lower Great Lakes w ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

line.

GO Transit

*GO Train service on the

Kitchener line Kitchener is one of the seven train lines of the GO Transit system in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada. It extends westward from Union Station in Toronto to Kitchener, though most trains originate and terminate in Brampton in off-peak ...

Toronto Union Station Union Station is a major railway station and intermodal transportation hub in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located on Front Street West, on the south side of the block bounded by Bay Street and York Street in downtown Toronto. The municip ...

. *Bus service to

York Mills Bus Terminal York Mills GO Bus Terminal is located at 4023 Yonge Street, near the northeast corner of York Mills Road, in the North York area of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The terminal mainly supports GO Transit's bus services east and west across the Highway ...

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 ...

(GO Bus routes 31 and 33). *Bus service to Square One via Aberfoyle park & ride, Milton Carpool Lot, Winston Churchill Station and Erin Mills Station (GO Bus route 29)

Guelph Owen Sound Transportation

Starting August 31, 2020, the GOST (Guelph Owen Sound Transportation) operates a bus service between Guelph Central Station and Owen Sound Transit Terminal twice a day.Guelph Owen Sound Transportation
/ref>

FlixBus

Since April 7, 2022, FlixBus serves Guelph Central Station as part of its route between Kitchener and Toronto.

Bus platforms

Guelph Central Station provides an exchange with both local and regional bus services. Bays 1-20 are located on an island bus platform, while bays 21 and 22 are located on the south side of Macdonell Street, immediately adjacent to the island platform. Bus platform allocation are as follows:

References

External links

Guelph Transit

GO Transit station page for the University of Guelph
{{Amtrak Ontario stations Via Rail stations in Ontario Bus stations in Ontario Passenger rail transport in Guelph Rail infrastructure in Guelph GO Guelph Station (inactive) Railway stations in Canada opened in 1911 Buildings and structures in Guelph Designated heritage railway stations in Ontario 1911 establishments in Ontario Former Amtrak stations in Canada Designated heritage properties in Ontario Canadian Register of Historic Places in Ontario