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For more information on the early history of rail in Ottawa, see Ottawa Union Station. The first passenger rail services in Ottawa began in 1854 with the opening of the
Bytown and Prescott Railway. Several other railways subsequently began operations, and their services were eventually consolidated at
Ottawa Union Station, which was active from 1912 to 1966. This station was located on
Rideau Street, directly across from the
Château Laurier Hotel at
Confederation Square and near the
Parliament buildings. In 1966, railway services were relocated to Eastway Gardens, east of
downtown and the
Rideau River. The current Ottawa station is the result of an urban renewal plan by the French urban planner
Jacques Greber. The plan was commissioned by
Prime Minister of Canada William Lyon Mackenzie King, who sought a re-imagining of the city following
World War II.
Track relocation Among the proposals in Greber's
city plan was the relocation of railway tracks outside the downtown core. This was not the first proposal to relocate trackage away from the central sections of Ottawa, as it had previously been discussed as early as 1915 and 1924. At that time, Ottawa was crossed by 11 train lines with over 150
level crossings, causing numerous traffic disruptions. Many of the railroads that crossed the city at the time were originally built in the nineteenth century to serve the
lumber industry and were no longer appropriately sited. The tracks divided neighbourhoods and were considered unsightly. Additionally, trains at that time were pulled by
steam locomotives, which brought their noise and soot to the downtown Union Station and rail yard. As
Time Magazine noted in 1948: "Ottawa, dominated by the anachronistic Gothic buildings of Parliament, has remained frowzy, a city where trains run through the center of town and chuff smoke into the foyer of the best hotel." Greber sought to clean up the downtown by relocating rail traffic outside of the city center. Part of this involved the construction of a new train station.
The new Ottawa station The construction of a new railway terminal on of land near
Hurdman Bridge was announced in May 1961. The site was chosen because Ottawa's population was moving southward, it offered easy access to the Queensway, and there was ample room for parking. Additionally, the land that would make up the proposed site was already largely owned by the railways and the
Government of Canada. It was thought that the terminal would become the hub of a new commercial and industrial area. The cost of the new train station, tracks and equipment amounted to around . The station was designed by the modernist architect
John Cresswell Parkin of
John B. Parkin & Associates in collaboration with the Montreal firm
Affleck, Desbarats, Dimakopoulos, Lebensold, Michaud & Sise. Their design reflects a mix of modernism and
Beaux Arts planning principles. just a few months prior to the start of
Canadian Centennial celebrations. The first train to arrive was the Canadian Pacific Railway's
Rideau from Montreal, which left shortly afterwards at 9:04 a.m. Throughout its history, the station has won several architectural awards. It won a Silver
Massey Medal for Architecture in 1967. In 2000, the
Royal Architectural Institute of Canada named the station as one of the top 500 buildings produced in Canada during the last millennium, and in 2007 it was awarded the Landmark Award by the
Ontario Association of Architects.
Criticism {{Blockquote While the relocation of Ottawa station seemed like a good idea in 1948, the move to the outskirts of Ottawa put rail travel at a comparative disadvantage to other forms of transportation in the city. Although passenger rail travel collapsed across North America following
World War II, the downtown station may have maintained a higher market share over time and been useful for
commuter rail due to its close proximity on foot to many destinations. Prior to the establishment of Via Rail in 1977, there was a trend in several Canadian cities, including Quebec City, Saskatoon, and Victoria, to close downtown stations and rebuild them in suburban areas. At the time, it seemed to many local governments that the benefits of removing tracks and railyards from downtown areas outweighed the benefits of providing rail access directly to downtown, as passenger rail appeared to be declining and increasingly irrelevant. These decisions helped accelerate the decline in passenger rail popularity further, as direct-to-downtown service was one of the few remaining advantages trains had over airplanes. In 1985, Via Rail President Pierre Franche estimated that Via lost around 15 to 20 percent of their Ottawa business because of the closing of Union Station.
Heritage designation The station has been protected under the
Heritage Railway Stations Protection Act since 1996. It "is a glass and steel, International style railway station [...] The VIA Rail Station at Ottawa is one of the finest examples of the
International style in Canadian architecture."
Renovation A $21.7 million renovation project was undertaken from late 2016 to 2018, adding an elevator to enhance accessibility in the spiral ramp and at tracks 3 and 4. The station's Track 1 side platform was also raised from the previous
low-level to a standard level for faster and easier boarding. Maintenance work was also carried out on the roof, and a climate-controlled waiting area was built next to Track 1 for departing passengers to wait for their trains. The station management also began working to attain a
LEED Silver
green building certification from the
Canada Green Building Council. The official certification process began in 2019, and on August 10, 2020, the building achieved a LEED v4.1 Operation and Maintenance: Existing Buildings certification at the Gold level, earning 68 of a possible 100 LEED points.
Accessibility improvements Following the renovations, Via Rail initiated a pilot project to test electronic systems enabling passengers with
visual impairments to navigate autonomously between the station entrance and platforms. These tests were carried out in collaboration with the
International Union of Railways, Canadian Council of the Blind and the
Canadian National Institute for the Blind. The company intends to improve the system and eventually deploy the technology in other stations in its network. ==Station facilities==