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The station is owned by CN and is situated in the heart of downtown Montreal at 895 De La Gauchetière St. W. (), in the borough of Ville-Marie . Since the closure of Windsor Station , Gare Centrale is the main passenger railway hub in Montreal . HISTORY Gare Centrale sits above and next to the old Canadian Northern Railway 's now-demolished Tunnel Terminal . At the end of the 1920s , the newly formed Canadian National Railways struggled with disparate Montreal terminals (Bonaventure station, Tunnel Terminal, Moreau Street Station, and McGill Street) and sought to consolidate them. The solution chosen was to take advantage of the Mount-Royal tunnel and bring all western trains through the tunnel to a big electrified central station, which would then allow the development of air-rights, exactly like for Grand Central Terminal in New York City . Construction started at the end of the 1920s, but was halted during the Great Depression . Construction resumed during World War II and the new station finally opened on July 14 , 1943 as the first of a series of large-scale urban redevelopment projects undertaken by CNR and the federal government in downtown Montreal. The opening of a 'central' station was part of a consolidation project undertaken by CNR since 1929 with the enactment of the Canadian National Montreal Terminals Act, 1929 by Parliament ; this saw the closure of former temporary stations operated by CNR predecessors Grand Trunk ( Bonaventure Station ) and Canadian Northern . Gare Centrale was an important CN passenger station from 1943 until the creation of VIA Rail in 1978 . Following VIA's full absorption of CP 's passenger trains in 1979 , intercity rail traffic from Windsor Station was consolidated at Gare Centrale. INTERCITY TRANSPORT VIA Rail runs trains from Gare Centrale along the Windsor-Québec corridor to Toronto , Ottawa , and Quebec City , as well as long-distance services to Saguenay , Senneterre , Gaspé , and Halifax . Amtrak offers daily service to New York City . COMMUTER RAIL Gare Centrale also serves passengers using Montreal's Commuter Rail service known as AMT . The station is a hub for the Deux-Montagnes and Mont-Saint-Hilaire lines. Gare Centrale is in Fare Zone 1. It is one of the two downtown terminals for Montreal commuter trains, the other being Lucien L'Allier Connections AMT
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OTHER FACILITIES Gare Centrale is located adjacent to CN Headquarters and is an important link in the Underground City , with tunnels to Place Ville-Marie , Place Bonaventure , the Queen Elizabeth Hotel , 1000 De La Gauchetière and the Bonaventure Metro Station . The station includes Les Halles de la Gare, a shopping and restaurant complex. It also contains two Parking Facilities , one of which is a multi-level facility that is located above the station. EXTERNAL LINKS
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