Toronto’s first railway, the Ontario, Simcoe and Huron, ran its first train from the city to Aurora on May 16, 1853. Within five years the Great Western and the Grand Trunk had also arrived, and the first Union Station opened at York and Front Streets on June 21, 1858. By 1873 a second Union Station served five companies, and in 1886 the first transcontinental train of the Canadian Pacific Railway left Toronto for the Pacific.
This article follows the railways, not the building of the station itself, which has its own page on Union Station. Several dates in the 1850s are given differently by different Toronto Railway Historical Association pages, and those differences are shown below.
The Ontario, Simcoe and Huron, 1853
The Toronto Railway Historical Association (TRHA) timeline records that the Ontario, Simcoe and Huron opened from Toronto to Aurora on May 16, 1853, the city’s first railway and the first steam-powered line in Canada West. A TRHA history of the first Union Station says the first train ran to Machell’s Corners, 30 miles (48 km) north, a place renamed Aurora a year later. The timeline says the engine was the first locomotive built in Canada.
The Dictionary of Canadian Biography entry on Frederic William Cumberland says the company appointed him chief engineer in 1852. He replaced open-ended contracts with fixed-price tenders and put the engineers under the chief engineer, so that control passed from contractors to the directors. He withdrew from active work in 1854, and by 1857 the railway was heading toward bankruptcy. The company was renamed the Northern Railway Company of Canada in 1858. On May 4, 1859, the government took control of it and about a week later returned it. The Northern became part of the Grand Trunk system in 1888. Cumberland’s career is covered in the article on Frederic William Cumberland.
The Great Western arrives
The Great Western began as the London and Gore Railroad, chartered on May 6, 1834, and took the name Great Western Railway in 1853, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia. Its main line from Niagara Falls through Hamilton and London to Windsor opened in January 1854. The Toronto connection came next: a TRHA history says it opened between Toronto and Hamilton in 1855, with a passenger station at the foot of Bathurst Street. The Encyclopedia says the 1857 depression, careless construction, competition, and quarrels in the management weakened the company, and that in 1882 it merged with its main rival, the Grand Trunk.
The Grand Trunk and the Esplanade
The Grand Trunk reached Toronto from two directions that did not at first meet. A TRHA article states that in October 1856 the company opened lines from Toronto to Montreal and from Toronto to Stratford. The Western Division ended at Queen’s Wharf, near the foot of Bathurst Street, and the Eastern Division ended at a first Don Station on the west side of the Don River. Until early 1857, horse-drawn omnibuses carried passengers between the two terminals.
The gap closed in early 1857, when the company built a right of way along the Esplanade joining the divisions. It also opened its first downtown station on February 12, 1857, beside the Ontario, Simcoe and Huron station on Front Street. Both were described as rudimentary wooden sheds. The lakefront setting of these lines is part of the story told in the article on the Toronto waterfront.
Disputed dates in the 1850s
Two TRHA pages do not agree on the Grand Trunk’s first Toronto facilities. One page says the Grand Trunk completed a temporary passenger terminal at Queen’s Wharf in October 1855, opened another temporary station in 1856 at the foot of Beachell Street, and set up a temporary station at Bay Street in 1857, which the engineer Walter Shanly called a “rude and temporary shed.” The other puts the opening of the Toronto to Montreal and Toronto to Stratford lines in October 1856. The same first page says the Ontario, Simcoe and Huron opened its first passenger station at Bay Street in 1853, while the second places that station on the south side of Front Street. The Great Western’s opening is given as 1855 on one page and December 1855 on the other. The sources consulted do not settle which version is right.
Union Station and later lines
| Date | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| May 16, 1853 | First train leaves Toronto for Aurora | TRHA timeline |
| February 12, 1857 | Grand Trunk downtown station opens on Front Street | TRHA |
| June 21, 1858 | First Union Station opens, plans scaled back because of an economic crisis | TRHA timeline |
| 1866 and 1867 | Great Western and Northern railways move out of the station | TRHA |
| July 13, 1871 | Toronto and Nipissing narrow gauge line starts service to Uxbridge | TRHA timeline |
| July 1, 1873 | Second Union Station opens, served by five companies | TRHA timeline |
| June 28, 1886 | First Canadian Pacific transcontinental train leaves Toronto, reaching Port Moody on July 4 | TRHA timeline |
| May 11, 1896 | Union Station expanded after four years of work | TRHA timeline |
The TRHA timeline calls the Toronto and Nipissing the first public narrow gauge railway in North America. One TRHA page records that the Great Western moved to a station of its own further east in 1866 although its trains still stopped at Union Station. The same page’s information box lists the Great Western and the Northern as serving Union Station from 1858 to 1871, which contradicts the 1866 and 1867 departures in its text; the text is the more specific.
The Grand Trunk’s later years
The Dictionary of Canadian Biography entry on Charles Melville Hays says he became general manager of the Grand Trunk effective January 1, 1896, and brought the line from near-bankruptcy to moderate success. The Canadian Pacific had performed better than the larger, more heavily indebted Grand Trunk, and Hays was willing to sell the Toronto to Hamilton track to the Canadian Pacific if he got favorable running rights. The Grand Trunk Pacific, begun under his transcontinental plan announced in 1902, went into receivership in 1919, and legislation then authorized federal acquisition of the Grand Trunk’s capital stock.
Frequently asked questions
When did the first train leave Toronto?
On May 16, 1853, on the Ontario, Simcoe and Huron Railway to Aurora, according to the Toronto Railway Historical Association.
When did the first Union Station open?
On June 21, 1858, at York and Front Streets, according to the TRHA timeline.
Which railways served Toronto in the 1850s?
The Ontario, Simcoe and Huron (renamed the Northern in 1858), the Great Western, and the Grand Trunk.
When did the Great Western and the Grand Trunk merge?
In 1882, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia.
Related reading
- An overview of Toronto’s history
- Union Station: history, architecture and role
- Frederic William Cumberland, engineer of the Northern Railway
- Toronto Harbour and the waterfront
- Liberty Village, shaped by the railway lines
Last verified: October 2026
Sources
- Toronto Railway Historical Association, “Over 170 Years of Railway History” timeline
- Toronto Railway Historical Association, “From the Archives: Toronto’s 1st Union Station”
- Toronto Railway Historical Association, Union Station history page
- Dictionary of Canadian Biography, “Cumberland, Frederic William”
- Dictionary of Canadian Biography, “Hays, Charles Melville”
- The Canadian Encyclopedia, “Great Western Railway”
Cite this page
APA: History of Toronto. (2026, October 25). Railways in 19th-Century Toronto: Great Western and Grand Trunk. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/toronto-railways-19th-century
MLA: “Railways in 19th-Century Toronto: Great Western and Grand Trunk.” History of Toronto, 25 Oct. 2026, https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/toronto-railways-19th-century. Accessed .
Chicago: History of Toronto. “Railways in 19th-Century Toronto: Great Western and Grand Trunk.” Last modified October 25, 2026. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/toronto-railways-19th-century.
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