Editing Cornwall, Ontario (section)

=== Rail ===
The Grand Trunk Railway (CN Rail) built an east-west line through Cornwall in 1856, and its original station dated to that year. The [[New York and Ottawa Railway]] (NY&O) followed with a north–south line crossing the St. Lawrence, with a station in Cornwall dating to 1898.<ref name="canada-rail" /> Canadian Pacific created a succession of subsidiaries and plans for a Cornwall line starting in the 1880s, culminating in the Glengarry and Stormont Railway in 1915, which connected to CP's Ontario and Quebec Railway mainline to the northeast, creating an alternative route to Montréal.

The expansion of the St. Lawrence Seaway in the 1950s significantly disrupted the city's rail infrastructure, resulting in CN relocating its line northward and the NY&O abandoning its line altogether. A new CN passenger station, which is still in use by [[Via Rail]], was constructed in 1957, and the century-old Grand Trunk station was demolished shortly after, in 1962. The NY&O's passenger service ended in 1957, and its passenger station was demolished in the 1960s as well.<ref name="canada-rail" /> CP passenger service ended even earlier, in 1952, and the CP passenger station was demolished in 1969.<ref name="canada-rail" /> CP abandoned the line altogether in 1995.

Currently, Cornwall only has one significant rail line, the CN Kingston Subdivision, which functions as the CN mainline between Toronto and Montreal. It also serves as a component of Via Rail's [[Québec City–Windsor Corridor (Via Rail)|Québec City-Windsor corridor]]. Passenger trains between [[Montréal]] and [[Toronto]] stop at the [[Cornwall railway station]], which is located in the city's north end. Via's [[Via Rail#High-frequency rail project|High-Frequency Rail]] (HFR) proposal, which would generally improve passenger rail service in Eastern Ontario, would not pass through Cornwall as most of the service improvements are planned to be focused on new lines constructed on abandoned rail rights of way as well as existing Via-owned lines such as the Via Brockville Subdivision.

==== Street railway ====
{{See also|Cornwall Electric|Cornwall Street Railway}}
Around the turn of the 20th century, Cornwall had a burgeoning electric street railway system, which transported freight and passengers throughout the city. The [[Cornwall Street Railway|Cornwall Electric Street Railway]] began passenger operations in 1896 and freight operations in 1899. Passenger operations ended in 1949 with a switch to [[trolleybus]] service, and electric freight operations ended in 1971 with the system's sale to CN Rail and subsequent [[dieselization]].<ref name="trainweb">{{cite web |url=http://www.trainweb.org/elso/csr-elec.htm |title=Cornwall Street Railway Light and Power Company |website=Trainweb.org |date=22 October 2009 |access-date=9 December 2019}}</ref> During its time, the street railway was significant in the city's social and industrial development. Ultimately, its passenger tram service, after conversion to trolleybus, became the present-day Cornwall Transit, which provides municipal diesel bus service to this day.