 Ships with large numbers of immigrants were served by special immigrant passenger trains of Colonist cars ran directly into the wharf side sheds on Pier 2, co-ordinated by the North Street Station.The station opened on August 8, 1877 with a special ceremonial train carrying Canadian Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie, followed by a public opening the next day.The North Street Station was a union station as it served the Intercolonial but also the Windsor and Annapolis Railway (known as the Dominion Atlantic Railway after 1893) and the Halifax and Southwestern Railway after 1901.