Government of Canada and VIA Rail to build new Windsor Station

The Government of Canada and Via Rail Canada, Inc., are investing in a new train station at Windsor, Ontario, that will feature improved and expanded facilities. VIA's new Windsor station will be fully accessible and will be built on a site near the existing building. Scheduled for completion in the fall of 2011, it will replace a structure originally built by Canadian National in the early 1960s and expanded by VIA in 1982. The majority of the Can$6 million (US$5,850,804) in funding for the new Windsor station and related improvements will come from Government of Canada's Economic Action Plan. VIA's Windsor Station Project is linked with other work currently or soon to be underway throughout the Quebec-Windsor Corridor, which generates almost 90 percent of VIA's ridership and 75 percent of its revenue. In particular, announced by VIA last year were improvements to the Chatham Subdivision with federal funding of $17 million to add a new rail traffic control system and major improvements to the track structure between Windsor and Chatham. The construction of the new station is part of an unprecedented Can$923 million (US$ 900,048,682) capital investment in passenger rail modernization and expansion by the Government of Canada. This investment is stimulating job creation, skills development and private sector activity across the country. Additional infrastructure projects are aimed at improving service quality and cost efficiency at other points across VIA's coast-to-coast route network.