The Grand Trunk Railway was the most important rail service of pre-confederation Canada. It ran from Levi, Quebec to Sarnia, Ontario. By 1882 the Grand Trunk Railroad had absorbed most of the small rail lines in Ontario, including Paris’s two earliest lines: The Great Western, and the Buffalo and Lake Huron Railways. The Grand Trunk RR built a beautiful new station on Helen Street and demolished the old 1866 station at the Junction. This rail line quickly became the main corridor for railway traffic. In 1905, the big bridge over the Grand River was twinned and remains so today.

Paris now has one railway running through it, but sadly the train doesn’t stop here anymore. This railway of course, is Canada’s second national rail line, The Canadian National Railway, formed from the Grand Trunk Railway.