Downtown train station with over 150 years of history gets honours in Brampton

Brampton’s downtown train station was given a new name last year and now has a plaque honouring the site’s historic 150-year-old roots.

Now known as the Brampton Innovation District GO Station serving the Kitchener Line, the one-and-a-half-storey railway station was built in 1907 and was part of the Grand Trunk Railway.

But the original train station building dates back to the 1850s, a history that is now immortalized with a new plaque at the downtown station.

The first train arrived in Brampton from Toronto on Oct. 18 1855, According to the Toronto Railway Historical Association. Passenger service to Brampton had increased to ten trains per day by 1877.

Videos

Read More

The Grand Trunk Railway hit hard financial times in the early 20th century and was absorbed into the newly-formed Canadian National Railway in 1923.

The station has historic status as a Heritage Railway Station of Canada and the plaque was unveiled last week with a ceremony with Metrolinx, Mayor Patrick Brown, Brampton City Councillors Paul Vicente and Dennis Keenan, MPP Graham McGregor and MP Ruby Sahota.

The station was sold by Canadian National to Metrolinx for $2.5 million in 2014, and Brampton’s Innovation District GO Station now services GO Transit and VIA Rail’s Toronto-Sarnia corridor trains.

Metrolinx has expanded its service in Brampton with 30-minute weekday trips on the Kitchener GO Line from Brampton’s Bramalea GO station to Union Station in downtown Toronto in the midday and evenings.