Union Station (Toronto)

Union Station (Toronto)

Union Station is a major commuter railway station and the central inter-city transportation facility in Toronto, located on Front Street West and occupying the south side of the block bounded by Bay Street and York Street in Downtown. The station building is owned by the City of Toronto, while the train shed and trackage is owned by the commuter rail operator GO Transit. Serving 200,000 passengers a day, it is the busiest passenger transportation facility in Canada. Union Station has been designated a National Historic Site of Canada since 1975.

Inter-city train services are provided at Union Station by Via Rail and Amtrak, while commuter rail services are operated by GO Transit. The station is also connected to the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) subway and streetcar system via its namesake subway station. GO Transit's Union Station Bus Terminal, located across Bay Street from the station building, is connected via the trainshed.

Union Station is the central terminal for GO Transit, handling approximately 41 million commuter rail passengers in 2004. Union Station is also located at the centre of Canada's busiest inter-city rail service area, termed "The Corridor" by Via, that stretches from Quebec City in the east to Windsor in the west. As such, Union Station is Via's most-used facility. The station saw 2.34 million Via Rail boardings in 2004, more than half of all Via passengers carried systemwide that year.