Tracks 1 Parking Free Phone +1 800-872-7245 Rebuilt 2002 Platforms in use 1 | Connections Twin Transit Opened 1912 Connection Twin Transit Added to NRHP 1988 | |
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Address 210 Railroad Ave, Centralia, WA 98531, USA Similar Kelso Multimodal Transport, Centennial Station, Olympic Club Hotel, Fort Borst Park, Skagit Transportation Center | ||
The Centralia Union Depot is an Amtrak train station in Centralia, Washington, United States. It is served by the Cascades and Coast Starlight trains.
Contents
The track and platforms are owned by BNSF Railway. Local transit connections are provided by Twin Transit.
History
The station was constructed by the Northern Pacific Railway (NP) and opened in 1912. It is the third station to have been constructed in Centralia since rail service began in 1880.
The large brick structure was built to accommodate a 400% population boom in the area from 1900-1914. Only 2 years after its opening, Centralia Union Depot was being served by 44 passenger trains and 17 freight trains daily. The station faced 14 hotels along Tower Avenue, as well as 5 theaters and 8 banks in the downtown core.
The demise of NP with its merger into Burlington Northern Railroad (BN) in 1970 and the creation of Amtrak to provide passenger rail service in 1971, coupled with increased automobile traffic on Interstate 5 saw the Centralia Union Depot deteriorate, much as the city's downtown core was experiencing economic decline. Local civic leaders recognized the problem during the mid-1980s and began a two-decade project that would see the structure acquired by the city and restored as part of a larger downtown revitalization project.
The 1996 merger of BN with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to form the BNSF Railway (BNSF) spurred both the city and the state Department of Transportation (Rail Branch) to negotiate with BNSF to acquire the depot. Following its purchase, the city began the design process for the historic restoration which took place as follows:
The restoration project was completed in April 2002 and celebrated in the city's "Railroad Days" festival.
The depot is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Schedule
Although the Amtrak Cascades runs between Eugene, Oregon and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, there is no train that starts at one terminus and ends at the other. However, each day eight Amtrak Cascades trains (four northbound and four southbound) stop at the Centralia Union Depot.
Boardings and Alightings
Of the eighteen Washington stations served by Amtrak, Centralia was the twelfth busiest in fiscal year 2010, boarding or detraining an average of about 65 passengers daily.