Wilmington Station

For other uses, see Wilmington station (disambiguation).

Wilmington Amtrak station SEPTA Regional Rail commuter station
Wilmington Station during the 2010 reconstruction, as seen from the parking garage across the street
Station statistics
Address	100 South French Street Wilmington, DE 19801
Coordinates	39°44′12″N 75°33′6″W
Lines	Amtrak:   Acela Express   Cardinal   Carolinian   Crescent   Palmetto   Northeast Regional   Silver Star   Silver Meteor   Vermonter SEPTA Regional Rail:   Wilmington/Newark Line
Connections	Thruway Motorcoach DART First State: 2, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 28, 32, 35, 38, 45, 59, 301, and 305 (seasonally)
Platforms	2 side platforms, 1 island platform
Tracks	3
Parking	Yes; Garages and side street parking
Bicycle facilities	Yes; in parking garage on French Street south of the tracks
Baggage check	Available for Cardinal, Carolinian, Crescent, Palmetto, Silver Meteor and Silver Star services
Other information
Opened	1908
Rebuilt	2011
Accessible
Code	WIL
Owned by	Amtrak
Fare zone	4 (SEPTA)
Formerly	French Street
Traffic
Passengers (2010)	696,979  4.9% (Amtrak)
Services
Preceding station   Amtrak   Following station Baltimore toward Washington, D.C. Acela Express Philadelphia toward Boston South Station Baltimore toward Chicago Cardinal Philadelphia toward New York City Baltimore toward Charlotte Carolinian Baltimore toward New Orleans Crescent Baltimore toward Savannah Palmetto Newark toward Newport News or Lynchburg Northeast Regional Philadelphia toward Boston South Station or Springfield Baltimore toward Miami Silver Meteor Philadelphia toward New York City Silver Star Baltimore toward Washington, D.C. Vermonter Philadelphia toward St. Albans SEPTA Churchmans Crossing toward Newark Wilmington/Newark Line Claymont toward Temple University
Wilmington Amtrak Station U.S. National Register of Historic Places Architect: Frank Furness Architectural style: Romanesque Revival NRHP Reference#: 76000581 Added to NRHP: November 21, 1976

Joseph R. Biden Jr. Railroad Station, normally called Wilmington Station, is a passenger rail station in Wilmington, Delaware, formerly known as Pennsylvania Station. The station is located on Front Street between French and Walnut Streets in downtown Wilmington. It has one inside level which has stores, a cafe, Amtrak and SEPTA ticket offices, a car rental office, and a post office; passengers board their trains on the second story train platforms. It is served by Amtrak trains along the Northeast Corridor going south to Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and going north to Philadelphia and New York, 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's Wilmington/Newark Regional Rail 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.

Continental Airlines code shares on some Amtrak trains between Wilmington and Newark Liberty International Airport. For this reason, Wilmington Station is assigned the IATA airport code of ZWI.

Wilmington Station changed its name to Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Railroad Station at a public ceremony on 19 March 2011, in honor of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who took over 7,000 round trips from the station during his U.S. Senate career. It will still be referred to simply as Wilmington in station announcements.

Architecture

The station was built in 1907 by the Pennsylvania Railroad, and replaced an earlier station erected by the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad. This station, along with the adjacent Pennsylvania Building (which housed the offices for the Delaware Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad) and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad's Water Street freight depot, were designed by renowned architect Frank Furness.

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.

A two-year, $37.7 million restoration of the station was active throughout 2010; about ⅔ of the funding for this project was from United States government stimulus funds. All customer operations, including platform access, was housed in a temporary station adjacent to the main station during the restoration period. The station reopened to customers December 6, 2010, and final work was completed in March 2011.

Ridership

Of the two Delaware stations served by Amtrak, Wilmington was the busier during the 2010 fiscal year, boarding or detraining an average of approximately 1900 passengers daily. It is the twelfth-busiest station within the Amtrak system.

See also

• Wilmington and Western Railroad
• List of Delaware railroads
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Wilmington, Delaware

External links

Media related to Wilmington Station at Wikimedia Commons

• Friends of Furness Railroad District
• Amtrak – Stations – Wilmington, DE
• SEPTA station page for Wilmington
• Wilmington Amtrak & SEPTA Station (USA RailGuide -- TrainWeb)
• NRHP Station Listing with Photos
• NRHP Viaduct Listing with Photos
• Front Street entrance from Google Maps Street View
• French Street entrance from Google Maps Street View
• west end of station from Google Maps Street View