Summary
Between 1912 and 1914, the Canadian Pacific Railway built a diversion of its mainline between Toronto and Smiths Falls. On paper it was called the Campbellford, Lake Ontario & Western Railway but in all public advertising it was simply referred to as Canadian Pacific’s Lake Ontario Shore Line. One of the passenger stations on this new line was located at Centre Street a short distance north of Whitby’s main intersection. The station building was a single-storey rectangular brick structure with a hipped roof, a standard CPR “Class C” station design which was also built at other points along this particular line. Service to Whitby over this new line commenced on June 29th, 1914, and initially only saw four passenger trains per day (one Toronto-Ottawa through train and a local Toronto-Belleville train in each direction). This quickly doubled to eight trains per day by the 1920’s.
Once the Great Depression set in and began to affect rail passenger ridership in Canada, CN and CP came to an agreement in 1933 to pool their passenger service between Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal. From this point forward the majority of passenger service would move by way of Canadian National’s tracks to the south, and the ones still offered by Canadian Pacific that were not pooled with CN mostly used the original 1884 mainline further north. Only a handful of passenger trains were left using the Lakeshore Line, though it continued to remain the primary corridor for Canadian Pacific’s freight service along the north shore of Lake Ontario. The pool train agreement persisted for over two decades after the end of the depression, and as a result service to Whitby Station never recovered. By 1940 service to Whitby was reduced back to four trains per day. Ridership was further affected by the popularization of automobiles in the early to mid 20th century, intensified by the completion of Highway 401 through the south end of Whitby in 1952.
Canadian Pacific ended all service to its Whitby Station in 1958, though the building continued to be used as a train order office until 1961 and likely in some other auxiliary service after that point. Passenger service would briefly return to Whitby in 1968 only to end a few years later in 1971, this time for good. The station building was finally torn down six years later in 1977, though the railway line presently remains as a busy freight corridor for Canadian Pacific.
A postcard of Whitby Station looking to the east. On the left we can see the approach signal for the junction with the former Port Whitby & Port Perry line. Photo by George Wilson, courtesy of the Whitby Public Library. 
Another postcard taken the following year in 1915, now looking in the opposite direction with a train approaching. Courtesy of the Whitby Public Library. 
4-6-2 Pacific type no. 2205 belches smoke at the platform of Whitby Station with an eastbound passenger train in tow. While this photo is undated, it appears to be from within the first few decades of the Lake Ontario Shore Line’s opening. Courtesy of the Ross Gray Collection. 
This photo of Whitby Station was dated 1964, though the presence of the train order signal suggests it was taken in 1961 or earlier. The lack of baggage carts or schedules on the platform also suggests no passenger service. Courtesy of the Al Paterson Collection.
Condensed Station Info:
| Location: | Served By: | Current State: | Date Built: | Date Demolished: |
| Centre Street north of Beech Street | Canadian Pacific Railway (1914 – 1958, 1968-1971) | Demolished | 1914 | 1977 |