Aldershot GO Station explained

Aldershot
Style:Via Rail
Address:1199 Waterdown Road
Burlington, Ontario
Coordinates:43.3133°N -79.8556°W
Bus Operators: GO Transit
Connections: Burlington Transit
Hamilton Street Railway
Structure:Unstaffed station; Station building with a waiting room and public washroom
Platform:2 side platforms, 1 island platform
Tracks:4
Parking:1,619 spaces
Bicycle:Yes
Accessible:Yes
Zone:17
Other Services Header:Former services
Other Services Collapsible:yes
Mapframe:yes
Mapframe-Custom:
Shape:none
Line:none
Marker:rail
Marker-Color:
  1. 000
Zoom:15

Aldershot GO Station is a railway station and bus station used by Via Rail and GO Transit, located at Highway 403 and Waterdown Road in the Aldershot community of Burlington, Ontario, Canada.

Services

Aldershot serves Burlington on Via Rail's Quebec City–Windsor Corridor routes between Toronto and Windsor, and is also served by trains coming westbound from Montreal. It doubles as the Via Rail station for Hamilton, which does not have an intercity rail station of its own.

The station is also served by the joint Via–Amtrak Maple Leaf train, connecting Toronto and New York City through Niagara Falls.

Aldershot is the western terminus of 30-minute service on the Lakeshore West line in off-peak hours, with every second train continuing on to West Harbour GO Station and with bus connections available to Hamilton GO Centre and Brantford Bus Terminal. Four trains continue on to Hamilton GO during peak periods.[1] Three trains go to Niagara Falls and return from Niagara Falls every day.

Burlington Transit bus routes 4 Central and 87 North Service – Aldershot terminate at this station.[2] Hamilton Street Railway bus route 18 Waterdown provides peak hour, weekday service to Waterdown.[3]

History

The Great Western Railway built the first railway station built here, a wooden structure consisting of ticket office, waiting room and freight room. It was originally named Waterdown Station, due to its location on Waterdown Road. The Great Western was purchased in 1882 by the Grand Trunk Railway, which replaced the station in the early 1900s. In 1912, the Canadian Pacific Railway constructed a rail line from Guelph Junction to Hamilton and built a station in the neighbouring town of Waterdown with the GTR station subsequently renamed after the community of Aldershot, where it is situated. In 1920, the GTR merged into the Canadian National Railway. By the 1950s, passenger travel declined. The station closed in 1978, and was demolished in the 1980s. GO Transit built the current station in 1992.[4] [5]

Until 2022, the southernmost track at the station was a stub siding only connected to the mainline east of the station. Starting in November 2021, Metrolinx had CN extend this siding 200m (700feet) westwards to connect with the mainline and enable increased service west of Aldershot. Work was completed in June 2022.[6] [7]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Table 1-18 Lakeshore West GO Train and Bus Schedule . August 7, 2021 . . August 7, 2021 . July 27, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210727121601/https://www.gotransit.com/static_files/gotransit/assets/pdf/TripPlanning/FullSchedules/FS07082021/Table01.pdf . dead .
  2. Web site: Schedules . Burlington Transit . April 28, 2020.
  3. Web site: Hamilton Street Railway: 18 Waterdown schedule . 2014-03-10 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140310214443/http://www.hamilton.ca/NR/rdonlyres/9173AAA4-8FE9-4AA6-82A4-CA710939446D/0/JAN14_Waterdown.pdf . 2014-03-10 . dead .
  4. Web site: July 1, 1912: The opening of the railway in Waterdown . April 15, 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170415060715/http://www.wefhs.myhamilton.ca/content/railway-waterdown . Waterdown-East Flamborough Heritage Society . At the beginning of the project, Waterdown was not even going to be given access to the railway – there was no station planned within the Village. Eventually there were two - Waterdown North near Parkside Drive, and Waterdown South near Dundas Street .
  5. Web site: Aldershot Station . Toronto Railway Historical Association . November 6, 2021 .
  6. Web site: How a new track at Aldershot GO helps unlock train service into Hamilton . . November 5, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211106000429/https://blog.metrolinx.com/2021/11/05/how-a-new-track-at-aldershot-go-helps-unlock-train-service-into-hamilton/ . November 6, 2021 . live .
  7. Web site: Pocket track at Aldershot Station holds a key that will unlock more GO Train service to Hamilton . . June 28, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220628143313/https://blog.metrolinx.com/2022/06/28/pocket-track-at-aldershot-station-holds-a-key-that-will-unlock-more-go-train-service-to-hamilton/ . June 28, 2022 . live .