Danforth GO Station is a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

GO Transit GO Transit is a regional public transit system serving the Greater Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario, Canada. With its hub at Union Station in Toronto, GO Transit's green-and-white trains and buses serve a population of more than seven mil ...

Lakeshore East line Lakeshore East is one of the seven commuter rail lines of GO Transit in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada. It extends from Union Station in Toronto to in Durham Region. Buses from Oshawa connect to communities further east in Newcastl ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada. The station is situated in the east end of

Old Toronto Old Toronto is the part of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that corresponds to the boundaries of the City of Toronto prior to 1998. It was incorporated as a city in 1834, after being known as the town of York, and being part of York County. Toronto ...

, south west of the intersection of Main Street and Danforth Avenue. The station is a short walk from

Main Street station Main Street station may refer to: Canada * Main Street station (Toronto), a subway station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada * Main Street–Science World station, a SkyTrain station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada United Kingdom * Main Street ra ...

Line 2 Bloor–Danforth Line 2 Bloor–Danforth is a rapid transit line in the Toronto subway system, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). It has 31 Metro station, stations and is in length. It opened on February 26, 1966, and extensions at both ends we ...

of the

Toronto subway The Toronto subway is a rapid transit system serving Toronto and the neighbouring city of Vaughan in Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). The subway system is a rail network consisting of three heavy-capacity rai ...

History

Because of a lack of available land to expand their existing downtown yard, the

Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (; ) was a Rail transport, railway system that operated in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the List of states and territories of the United States, American sta ...

(GTR) decided to build a new freight yard on farmland south of Danforth Avenue where the line to Montreal crossed Dawes Road, which had to be closed and traffic diverted to a new street called Main. The yard had a capacity of 420 cars and could store 31 locomotives in a roundhouse with adjacent repair shops. Danforth railway station-R-862

The York Railway Station was built on the north side of the tracks just east of Main Street around 1883. The GTR became part of

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 ...

in 1923, and by the 1940s the north yard was no longer used for freight and the roundhouse was demolished. The 11 freight storage tracks to the south of the station persisted until the late 1990s. Under Canadian National the station became Danforth Railway Station. The original GTR station building was demolished in 1974. GO Transit built a ticket booth situated north of the tracks and roughly halfway between track level and the top of the Main Street Bridge. Wooden stairs provided access from both sides of the top of the Main Street Bridge, with a wooden walkway under the bridge providing access to the west side of the street. Transit stops at the top of the bridge connected Danforth Station with the TTC. Wooden stairs and walkway between the Main Street bridge and the railway signal masts connected the ticket booth to the eastbound platform. GO Transit removed the ticket booth shortly after improving accessibility to the station with a wheelchair accessible walkway and erecting a new station building with bathrooms, an indoor waiting area, elevators, and a pedestrian underpass between 2000 and 2001. The TTC removed the stops when GO Transit removed the stairways on either side of the bridge. The pedestrian underpass was further expanded to run underneath a third track installed between 2005 and 2008 to connect the station with residential areas that are to south of the station. Main-Danforth has been identified by

Metrolinx Metrolinx is a transportation agency in Ontario, Canada. It is a Crown agency that manages and integrates road and public transportation in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA). It was created as the Greater Toronto Transportation Au ...

as a transportation mobility hub as it is located at the interchange of two or more current or planned regional rapid transit lines.

Connecting transit

Although the 506 Carlton streetcar, 64 Main and 135 Gerrard bus routes pass on Main Street, there are no stops immediately beside the GO Station. Similarly Main Street subway station on

is over 300 metres away, to the north of Danforth Avenue.

References

External links

* {{GO Transit GO Transit railway stations Railway stations in Toronto Railway stations in Canada opened in 1883 1883 establishments in Ontario