I guess North Toronto station had one thing going against it from the start
it was not big enough tom accomodate all CPRtrains out of Toronto I have
just received amn article from Canadian Railway and Marine world Dated sept
1927. In the article re the development of Union Station it was vretty well
a CPR designed structure . of course at time of construction Grand Trunk
was in Trouble and the CNR as we know it was in the formulation stages .
now North Toronto required a separate coach yard and roundhouse and with
only 4 tracks to work with limited capacity . When Union station opened you
walked up to six tracks like today and the other tracks you walked down to
they were at the old union station level . The city of Toronto insisted on
the TTR raising the tracls so underpasses could be built for traffic to the
Waterfront , I feel if CNoR had survived built the electified line
bussinessmen would have flocked to the area .High density building wouold
have happened St Clair to Bloor maybe Eaton,s would have built Eaton,s
Sumerhill instead of College st it would be closer to Deer Park . Forest
Hill Village and Rosedale these are where the people with the disposable
income have lived for generations. regards David Hill o
----- Original Message -----
From: "Derek Boles" <derekboles@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <cpsig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 10:29 PM
Subject: [cpsig] Electrification (was Re: CPR D-10 from sunset)
--- In cpsig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "John Sutherland" <sutherail@...> wrote:
And in the long-ago era when the railways were enthusiastic about
hauling commuters themselves, Toronto was a comparatively small place.
Montreal was the business centre of Canada with a much larger
population.
That may have been true at the beginning of the railway era in the 1850s but by the turn
of the 20th century, Montreal was only about 20% larger than Toronto. The reasons why
commuter trains weren't as popular in Toronto as in Montreal are more complex than
population size and include such factors as better roads in Toronto, and Mt. Royal and
other geographical factors including the St. Lawrence River in Montreal.
North Toronto Station was a long way from the existing
small business district, and no executive would want to isolate
himself by being first to move "out of the city".
Actually North Toronto Station was very popular with businessmen and politicians. In fact,
they were the bread and butter of the place throughout the 1920s and NTS was a lot more
convenient for them than the old Union Station. CP Nos. 23 & 24, the overnight train to
Ottawa and Montreal that departed NTS at about 9:30 PM was used by businessmen who
were able to go home from the office to have dinner with their families before departing
on their overnight trips. Similarly some of the summer weekend specials from cottage
country terminated at NTS on Sunday night since many of the passengers lived near the
station in Toronto's tonier neighbourhoods of Rosedale, Forest Hill and Deer Park.
Unfortunately the other trains at NTS didn't do as well so the station was closed in 1930.
Derek Boles
------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
