Owned by State of Oregon Parking 25 long term spaces Disabled access Yes Area 1 ha Added to NRHP 12 February 2010 | Tracks 1 Bicycle facilities Yes Opened 1918 Rebuilt 2000 Platforms in use 1 | |
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Location 500 13th Street SE
Salem, OR
United States Address Salem, OR 97301, United States Connections Oregon POINT, Greyhound Lines Similar Portland Union Station, Albany station, Eugene–Springfield station, Oregon City station, Chemult station | ||
Salem is an Amtrak train station in Salem, Oregon, United States. It is served by the Amtrak Cascades and the Coast Starlight passenger trains.
History
This station was constructed for the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1918 and is the third station to be built at this location. The two previous stations were built in 1871 and 1889. The 1871 depot burned down in 1885. The Queen Anne-style 1889 depot burned down on March 5, 1917.
The current Beaux-Arts-style structure was designed by Southern Pacific's Chief Architect John H. Christie. It is constructed of masonry, and is one of five masonry depots that still exist along the original Southern Pacific West Coast line. The other depots are in Albany, Medford, Roseburg and Eugene.
A restoration project by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) was completed in 2000. Amtrak leases the station from ODOT for $1 a year, in exchange for maintenance of the building and grounds.
An 1889 Railway Express Agency (REA) freight depot/baggage shed survived the fire that destroyed the previous station and is the oldest freight depot still in existence in the state. After the 1917 fire, the Queen Anne-style REA depot was relocated from its original site to south of the passenger station. The REA depot has not been used since the mid-1970s, and now awaits restoration.
The station and baggage depot were added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 12, 2010. In 2011, daily ridership on Amtrak between Salem and Portland reached 24,146 boardings.
Greyhound Lines moved operations from its downtown station to here in 2013 and hopes to use the freight shed in the future.