Owned by Amtrak Tracks 3 Area 1 ha Architecture firm Furness & Evans | Line(s) Northeast Corridor Opened 1908 Owner Amtrak | |
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Location 100 South French Street
Wilmington, Delaware
United States Platforms 2 side platforms, 1 island platform Parking Garages and side street parking Address Wilmington, DE 19801, United States Architectural style Romanesque Revival architecture Connections Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach, DART First State Similar 30th Street Station, Newark station, Churchmans Crossing station, Suburban Station, Temple University station | ||
Joseph R. Biden Jr. Railroad Station, also known as Wilmington, is a passenger rail station in Wilmington, Delaware. One of Amtrak's busiest stops, it serves nine Amtrak trains and is part of the Northeast Corridor. It also serves SEPTA commuter trains on the Wilmington/Newark Line as well as local and intercity buses.
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Built in 1907 as Pennsylvania Station, the station was renamed in 2011 for then Vice President and former U.S. Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr., an advocate for passenger rail who routinely took the train from Wilmington to Washington, D.C. Located on Front Street between French and Walnut Streets in downtown Wilmington, the station has one inside level with stores, a cafe, ticket offices, a car rental office, and a post office. Passengers board their trains on the second-story train platforms.
Architecture
The station replaced an earlier station erected by the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad.
It was built in 1907 for $300,000 by the PW&B successor, the Pennsylvania Railroad. It was designed by renowned architect Frank Furness, who also designed the adjacent Pennsylvania Railroad Building (which housed the offices for the Delaware Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad) and the nearby Baltimore & Ohio Railroad's Water Street Station. (The Pennsylvania Railroad Building has since been renovated; as of 2014, it holds the offices of ING Direct United States.)
Admired for his use of new and innovative materials and his forceful architectural statements, Furness chose to have the trains move right through the second floor of the station, with room for a ticketing and retail concourse at ground level underneath the tracks. This unconventional arrangement celebrated the power of the locomotive and America’s industrial strength. The north end of the station has a four-faced rectangular clock tower that rises an extra story above the main roof. It is decorated with stone and terra cotta work that is repeated in plainer form throughout the station.
Wilmington Station has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1976. A renovation project was conducted in 1984. The National Register added the adjacent railroad viaduct in 1999. SEPTA has been running to Wilmington since 1989.
In 2009, the station began a two-year restoration; about two-thirds of the $37.7 million in funding came from United States government stimulus funds. During construction, customer operations, including platform access, were moved to a temporary station next door. The station reopened on December 6, 2010, and final work was completed in March 2011.
On March 19, 2011, the station's name was changed from Wilmington Station to Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Railroad Station. The ceremony honored U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who took over 7,000 round trips from the station during his U.S. Senate career and was noted as an advocate for Amtrak and passenger rail more generally. On January 20, 2017, within an hour after completing his tenure as Vice President, Biden boarded an Amtrak Acela train in DC bound for his namesake station.
Trains and local transit
The station is served by six Amtrak trains along the Northeast Corridor going south to Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and going north to Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. It is also served by the Silver Star and the Silver Meteor to Florida, and the Cardinal to Chicago. Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach service is provided through the station to Dover and Seaford, Delaware, and Salisbury, Maryland. It is also served by SEPTA Regional Rail's Wilmington/Newark Line with service to Philadelphia and Newark, Delaware. Like all stations in Delaware, SEPTA service is provided under contract and funded through DART First State, which also provides extensive local bus service as they have since 1994.
DART First State bus routes include 1, 2, 6, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 20, 21, 22, 28, 33, 35, 38, 39, 40, 45, 48, 54, 55, 59, 301, and 305 (seasonally).