Biggar
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Location | Main St and First Ave, Biggar, Saskatchewan Canada |
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Coordinates | 52°3′13″N 107°59′11″W / 52.05361°N 107.98639°WCoordinates: 52°3′13″N 107°59′11″W / 52.05361°N 107.98639°W | ||||||||||
Platforms | 1 side platform | ||||||||||
Tracks | 1 | ||||||||||
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Parking | yes | ||||||||||
History | |||||||||||
Opened | 1910 | ||||||||||
Previous names | Grand Trunk Pacific Railway | ||||||||||
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Designated | 1976 |
The Biggar Railway Station is a heritage railway station operated by Via Rail located in the town of Biggar, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Biggar received its first railway service in 1907 when the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) built a branch line through the area. The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTP) transcontinental railway project was built through Biggar the following year in 1908 and the GTP designated the town as a division point on the main line between the railway's eastern terminus at Winnipeg, Manitoba and the railway's western terminus at Prince Rupert, British Columbia.
The town was named in honour of William Hodgins Biggar, who was the railway company's General Counsel.
The station building was constructed by the GTP in 1909 and opened in 1910. It was one of the largest GTP stations in western Canada and featured a 24-hour-per-day restaurant for passengers and railway employees.
In 1920, the bankrupt GTP system was nationalized by the Government of Canada and it was merged into the Canadian National Railways (CNR), a federal Crown corporation. Under CNR, later shortened to CN or CN Rail, the Biggar Railway Station saw continued use as a station stop for that company's premier transcontinental passenger train, the Super Continental.
In 1978, CN transferred its passenger railway service to Via Rail, a new federal Crown corporation dedicated exclusively to operating Canada's passenger trains. In 1981, Via Rail budget cuts saw the Super Continental discontinued, thus Biggar lost its passenger service, however this returned in 1985 when the Via Rail budget cuts to the Super Continental were reversed.