Amtrak Standard Stations Program

Interior and exterior of former Dearborn station building, constructed in 1978 and closed in 2014

The Amtrak Standard Stations Program was an effort by Amtrak to create a standardized station design. Amtrak believed that these station designs would enhance Amtrak's corporate image. This effort was formally launched in 1978.

Background

The program was spurred by the need for Amtrak to build new stations. As a new entity, the company did not initially have any of its own facilities – stations and depots were inhereted from its constituent railroads. In many locations, existing station buildings were in disrepair. In other locations, route realignments, ownership conflicts, or a lack of existing facilities necessitated the construction of new station houses. Additionally, existing grand terminals in many large cities had more capacity than Amtrak's requirements and were expensive to retain. These reasons and others prompted the effort to provide those locations with more modern and appropriately sized facilities.

Cleveland Lakefront station was an early Amtrak attempt to design and build a modern train station, seen near opening in July 1977

The first new station Amtrak constructed itself was Cincinnati River Road in 1973, however that is not of a standard design. Early attempts by Amtrak to create a modest "modern" station designs include the Richmond Staples Mill Road station (opened in 1975) and Cleveland Lakefront station (opened in 1977). Amtrak president Paul H. Reistrup expressed a desire for Amtrak stations to look familiar in each locality.

Amtrak would formally outline its Standard Stations Program in its 1978 Standard Stations Program Executive Summary. The program was intended to amplify a sleek, modern image. It was also intended foster a unified corporate identity through a consistent "look" and branding, with each standard station utilizing not only one of several similar station building designs, but also the same interior and exterior finishes, signage, and seating. The program's manual outlined the reasoning of for such efforts.

Amtrak is not a railroad of the past, but rather, a transportation system of the present and future. We must compete with the airlines and their jetports, the interstate highway system and its convenient and modern service stations and restaurants, and inter-city busses with their new or upgraded terminals.

Our passenger stations are also our only permanent presence in most communities…Amtrak’s public image can be greatly enhanced, or easily destroyed by our facilities.

Unlike the railroads of the past, we have no place for grandiose, monumental stations that cannot be financed by our projected revenues.

— Amtrak Standard Stations Program Manual

Standard designs were seen as cost efficient as they would eliminate design costs that would otherwise be incurred with each and every station were they uniquely designed and would also expedite construction.

Station designs

Model of a standard station

Amtrak model 50S station plans

The station structures were intended to be functional, flexible, and cost-efficient. With spikes in ridership during the 1970s due to oil shortages, there was a perceived potential for permanent ridership gains. Therefore, Amtrak designed the stations to be easily expanded. End walls of the stations were designed to be able to be removed in order to build additions without incurring disruptions to the functioning of the stations.

Designs were mostly rectangular, and all except the largest model were one story. Walls were to be built of either textured, precast concrete panels, split concrete block or brick in what was described as a “play of bronze and tan” colors. A prominent cantilevered, flat black metal roof was to sit atop the buildings, with deep eaves to protect passengers from bad weather. Stations had floor-to-ceiling windows. Often, the top edge of the walls had a band of clerestory windows, which from a distance provided an optical illusion that the roof was floating above the station. The square footage and amenities of stations were to be determined by what their peak hour passenger count was.

Five initial standard station design models were presented with varying ideal sizes and intended capacities:

• Type 300A
  • The largest model was designed to accommodate 300 or more passengers at a time. This design was 18,100 square feet (1,680 m²) and was to be ideally located on a 8.9-acre (3.6 ha) parcel. The two built examples of this design are the Miami and Midway stations.
• Type 150B
  • a 8,220-square-foot (764 m²) station for a peak count of 150-300 passengers, on a five acres (2 ha) parcel
• Type 50C and 50S
  • a 1,920-square-foot (178 m²) station for a peak count of 50-150 passengers, on a four acres (1.6 ha) parcel
• Type 25D
  • a 1,150-square-foot (107 m²) station for a peak count of 25-50 passengers, on a two acres (0.8 ha) site
• Type E
  • an unmanned station, 240 square feet (22 m²) for a peak count of less than 25 passengers, ideally situated on a one acre (4,000 m²) parcel

Outcome

Midway, one of two 300A stations, constructed in 1978

Amtrak constructed standard stations in the 1970s and 1980s, but ultimately built relatively few of them. Strapped for funds, it instead gravitated towards either building even cheaper modular stations or seeking local funding for station development, in some cases even cooperating with private developers. Many "stations" opened in the 1980s and 1990s were very minimal, sometimes lacking any facilities besides a platform and appropriate signage or only featuring simple bus stop-style platform shelters. Many of the standard stations have been replaced with more modern intermodal facilities or by restored previous historic stations throughout the 2000s and 2010s. As of 2016 the documentation is still referenced when necessary in planning or constructing new stops.

List of standard stations

Hammond–Whiting station, constructed in 1982

Interior and exterior of the former Schenectady station building, constructed in 1979 and demolished in 2017.

Station Name	City	Design	Opened	Closed	Notes
Albany–Rensselaer	Rensselaer, New York		1980	2002	demolished 2010
Anaheim–Stadium	Anaheim, California		1984	2014	Rebuilt and renamed "Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center"
Ann Arbor	Ann Arbor, Michigan		1983
Buffalo–Depew	Depew, New York		1979
Canton–Akron	Canton, Ohio	50C	1978	1990
Carbondale	Carbondale, Illinois		1981
Dearborn	Dearborn, Michigan		1979	c. 2011	demolished, replaced with current John D. Dingell Transit Center
Flint	Flint, Michigan		1989
Grand Forks	Grand Forks, North Dakota		1982
Hammond–Whiting	Hammond, Indiana		1982
Huntington	Huntington, West Virginia		1983
Miami	Miami, Florida	300A	1978		pending closure
Midway	Saint Paul, Minnesota	300A	1978	2014
Normal	Normal, Illinois		1990	2012
Omaha	Omaha, Nebraska		1983
Rochester	Rochester, New York	150B	1978	2015	demolished, replaced with Louise M. Slaughter Rochester Station
Schenectady	Schenectady, New York		1979	2017	demolished, replaced with current facility
Tacoma	Tacoma, Washington		1984		pending closure

Others

Du Quoin station

Cleveland Lakefront station – prototype opened in 1977

Du Quoin station – built in the late 1980s, shares characteristics with standard stations

Richmond, California station – constructed in 1978, closed in 1997, shares characteristics with standard stations

Richmond Staples Mill Road station – prototype opened in 1975

See also

• List of Amtrak stations
• Amshack, derisive term occasionally applied to, among other stations, those of this sort