The Biggar station was a heritage railway station in

Biggar, Saskatchewan Biggar is a town in central Saskatchewan, Canada. It is on Highway 14, west of Saskatoon. Biggar has become well known for its unusual town slogan, an Olympic athlete, and a world-record deer. The town was featured on American morning newsma ...

, Canada. It was built by the

Grand Trunk Pacific Railway The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway running from Fort William, Ontario (now Thunder Bay) to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, a Pacific coast port. East of Winnipeg the line continued as the National ...

in 1909 and demolished in 2018.

Via Rail Via Rail Canada Inc. (), operating as Via Rail or Via (stylized as VIA Rail), is a Canadian Crown corporation that operates intercity passenger rail service in Canada. As of December 2023, Via Rail operates 406 trains per week across eight ...

's ''

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

'' transcontinental passenger train service stops at the site of the former station.

History

Biggar received its first railway service in 1907 when the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...

(CPR) built a branch line through the area. The

(GTP)

transcontinental railway A transcontinental railroad or transcontinental railway is contiguous railroad trackage that crosses a continental land mass and has terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks may be via the tracks of a single railroad ...

project was built through Biggar the following year in 1908 and the GTP designated the town as a division point on the main line between the railway's eastern terminus at

Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

, and the railway's western terminus at

Prince Rupert, British Columbia Prince Rupert is a port city in the province of British Columbia, Canada. It is located on Kaien Island near the Alaskan panhandle. It is the land, air, and water transportation hub of British Columbia's North Coast, and has a population of 12, ...

. The town was named in honour of William Hodgins Biggar, who was the railway company's General Counsel. The station building was constructed by the GTP in 1909 and opened in 1910. It was one of the largest GTP stations in western Canada and featured a 24-hour-per-day restaurant for passengers and railway employees. In 1920, the bankrupt GTP system was

nationalized Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with priv ...

by the Government of Canada and it was merged into the

Canadian National Railways The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue an ...

(CNR), a federal

Crown corporation Crown corporation () is the term used in Canada for organizations that are structured like private companies, but are directly and wholly owned by the government. Crown corporations have a long-standing presence in the country, and have a sign ...

. Under CNR, later shortened to CN or CN Rail, the Biggar Railway Station saw continued use as a station stop for that company's premier transcontinental passenger train, the ''

Super Continental The ''Super Continental'' was a transcontinental Canadian passenger train operated by the Canadian National Railway from 1955 until 1977, when Via Rail took over the train and ran it until it was cancelled in 1981. Service was restored in 1985 ...

''. In 1978, CN transferred its passenger railway service to

, a new federal Crown corporation dedicated exclusively to operating Canada's passenger trains. In 1981, Via Rail budget cuts saw the ''Super Continental'' discontinued, thus Biggar lost its passenger service, however this returned in 1985 when the Via Rail budget cuts to the ''Super Continental'' were reversed. In 1990, further budget cuts to Via Rail saw the ''Super Continental'' cut once again; however, the ''

'' which had run on the

in southern Saskatchewan from Winnipeg via Regina to

Calgary, Alberta Calgary () is a major city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a Metropolitan area, metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the List of ...

, and on to

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, British Columbia, was shifted to the more northerly CN line running through Biggar. In 1976, the station was designated a

National Historic Site of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada () are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being of national historic significance. Parks C ...

as a recognition of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway's role in the development of

Western Canada Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West, or Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a list of regions of Canada, Canadian region that includes the four western provinces and t ...

and the distinctive contribution its stations made to Canada's architectural heritage. On 19 February 1996,

Sheila Copps Sheila Maureen Copps (born November 27, 1952) is a former Canadian politician who also served as the sixth deputy prime minister of Canada from November 4, 1993, to April 30, 1996, and June 19, 1996, to June 11, 1997. Her father, Victor Copps, ...

, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Canadian Heritage further designated the Biggar Railway Station as a Heritage Railway Station, which resulted in legislative protection to prevent demolition or alteration. The citation reads as follows: The building was built of wood in a bungalow style, typical of small town railway stations built by the Grand Trunk Pacific during that period.

Current use

The Biggar Railway Station is a station stop used by

's ''

'' transcontinental passenger train service. Biggar is the first stop for the westbound ''Canadian'' after departing Saskatoon 1 hour earlier to the east. Edmonton is approximately 5 hours by train to the west. Biggar was a division point for

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue a ...

(CN) in its freight service, which closed in April, 2014. Although the actual station is too run-down to enter, 2 smaller heated waiting sheds are also there for passenger use. However, it has now been slated for demolition (originally on July 25, 2014, then July 31, and now by the end of October). In 2018 the federal government granted approval for demolition. The station was demolished in July, 2018.

References

External links

Via Rail Canada: Biggar Station

* ttp://www.pc.gc.ca/clmhc-hsmbc/gfp-hrs/sk_E.asp Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada - Heritage Railway Stations {{NHSC Via Rail stations in Saskatchewan Grand Trunk Pacific Railway stations in Saskatchewan Railway stations in Canada opened in 1910 Designated heritage railway stations in Saskatchewan National Historic Sites in Saskatchewan 1910 establishments in Saskatchewan Biggar, Saskatchewan