Summary

The first passenger station in the vicinity of modern-day West Toronto was built by the Grand Trunk Railway in 1855 while construction of the railway was progressing westward from Toronto. It appeared as Carleton Station on timetables and was located on the south side of St. Clair Avenue just west of the intersection with Old Weston Road – immediately adjacent to the small hamlet of Carleton. While no photos of this station are known to exist, it would have been a small, rectangular structure with either limestone, brick, or wooden walls. Up to four chimneys would have protruded from a simple pitched roof, each connected to a wood stove or fireplace for warmth during cold winters. The first train arrived at Carleton Station on October 18th, 1855, though it only ran between Toronto and Brampton. Service was extended to Guelph, Stratford, and Sarnia over the next four years. The arrival of the railway greatly benefitted the local economy of Carleton Village and its population would grow to 150 residents by 1865.

Numerous other railways would be built through the vicinity of Carleton over the next two decades. The narrow-gauge Toronto, Grey & Bruce Railway was built through Carleton in the late 1860’s and early 1870’s, originally by laying a third rail inside the existing tracks of the Grand Trunk. Service over the TG&B began on July 17th, 1871, and six of their trains would stop at the Grand Trunk’s Carleton Station each day. This arrangement would only last a short time as rail traffic congestion forced the TG&B onto its own right-of-way parallel to the Grand Trunk in 1875. TG&B trains would continue to stop at Carleton though its unknown whether they built their own station. By 1877, the Grand Trunk alone had a total of ten trains stopping at Carleton Station per day. The arrival of the Credit Valley and Ontario & Quebec Railway to a point located about 0.8 kilometres south of Carleton led to the creation of the village of West Toronto Junction in 1884. It would merge with the nearby villages of Carleton and Davenport into the Town of West Toronto Junction in 1889. Simultaneously, the Grand Trunk had commenced a commuter train service between Toronto and Weston in 1887. A dedicated commuter stop was built on the north side of the Old Weston Road crossing, located less than half a kilometre south of the original Carleton Station. It was denoted as “Carleton, Weston Road” on timetables and was intended to provide passengers with a quicker connection to Canadian Pacific trains at West Toronto Junction than Carleton Station could. By 1890, both were served by seven commuter trains per day in addition to a few regional trains.

The Grand Trunk’s commuter trains were short lived and ended at some point during the early 1900’s. In 1907, the Grand Trunk built its West Toronto Station on the north side of Old Weston Road where the commuter stop was previously located. It substituted both the commuter stop and Carleton Station which were removed at about the same time. The new station differed greatly from its predecessors in terms of architecture. Its exterior walls primarily made use of vitrified brick. The roofline was somewhat complex with a dormer above the bay window and a rounded section above the waiting room’s large polygonal bay. All parts of the roof were flared outwards at the eaves. While a fine example of railway architecture of the period, it was largely overshadowed by Canadian Pacific’s much larger West Toronto Station once it was replaced four years later. The Grand Trunk encountered financial difficulties through the early 20th century, culminating in its nationalization and subsequent absorption into the newly-formed Canadian National Railway in 1923. Owing to its position on a secondary line, the station would only see about nine trains per day by 1925 with very little increase over the following decades. Canadian National’s introduction of economical Budd Rail Diesel Cars on trains between Toronto, Stratford, and London in the postwar era would largely be responsible for an increase to sixteen trains per day at West Toronto by 1957. However, the popularization of automobiles and construction of numerous provincial highways during the same period would reverse this trend as passenger ridership decreased broadly. Service to West Toronto was reduced to nine trains by 1974, slightly increasing to ten after Canadian National’s passenger service was assumed by VIA Rail in 1977. The station was finally closed to passengers in 1989, after which it sat abandoned for a decade. Members of the West Toronto Junction Historical Society made numerous efforts to negotiate with Canadian National with the hope of preserving the station for its historical value and potentially readapting it into a passenger station in the future. Unfortunately, their efforts were not successful and West Toronto Station was torn down in August 1999. It was among the oldest surviving railway stations in Toronto at the time of its demolition.

The proposed St. Clair-Old Weston GO Station, to be built under the SmartTrack Stations Program, will be located on the opposite side of St. Clair Avenue from where the original Carleton Station was. Upon its expected opening in 2026 the new St. Clair-Old Weston GO will return direct passenger rail service to this part of the city for the first time in 37 years.

Condensed Station Info:

Location:	Served By:	Current State:	Date Built:	Date Demolished:
Old Weston Road and Westport Avenue	Grand Trunk (1855 – 1923) Canadian National (1923 – 1977) VIA Rail (1977 – 1989)	Demolished	1855 (First) 1907 (Second)	1907 (First) 1999 (Second)