Eugene station (alternately Eugene–Springfield station) is a train station in

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lane County, Oregon, United States. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie River (Oregon), McKenzie and Willamette River, Willamette rivers, ...

, United States. It is served by

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

's ''

Coast Starlight The ''Coast Starlight'' is a Amtrak Long Distance, long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak on the West Coast of the United States between Seattle and Los Angeles via Portland, Oregon, Portland and the San Francisco Bay Area. The train, ...

'' passenger train and is the southern terminus of the ''

Amtrak Cascades The Amtrak ''Cascades'' is a passenger train route in the Pacific Northwest, operated by Amtrak in partnership with the U.S. states of Washington (state), Washington and Oregon. It is named after the Cascade Range, Cascade mountain range that ...

'' corridor. The station is also served by the

Cascades POINT The POINT Intercity Bus Service is a four-route, intercity bus service sponsored by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT). The service is administered by ODOT's Public Transportation Division as part of its intercity grant program. The P ...

bus service.

History

The station was built in 1908 by the

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was oper ...

and was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

as the Southern Pacific Passenger Depot in 2007. The current station is the third passenger depot built at this location. Built of

masonry Masonry is the craft of building a structure with brick, stone, or similar material, including mortar plastering which are often laid in, bound, and pasted together by mortar (masonry), mortar. The term ''masonry'' can also refer to the buildin ...

, it 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 Salem. When Amtrak took over intercity rail operations in 1971, it cut back service to a single train through Eugene, what eventually became the ''Coast Starlight.'' A brief attempt at corridor service began in 1980 with the ''

Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley ( ) is a valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the east, the ...

,'' but ended in 1981. For the next 13 years, the only intercity service through Eugene was the ''Coast Starlight,'' which arrived northbound at lunchtime and southbound during the afternoon rush. However, in 1994, Amtrak extended the Seattle-Portland ''Mount Rainier'' to Eugene on a trial basis. This proved successful enough that the train was renamed the ''Cascadia'' in 1995. The ''Cascadia'' was merged into ''Amtrak Cascades'' along with all of Amtrak's other Pacific Northwest services in 1998, and a Portland-Eugene round trip was added in 2000. Southern Pacific sold the building to the Jenova Land Company in 1993, and ten years later the city of Eugene bought the depot as part of a plan to develop a regional transportation center. In 2004, the city oversaw a $4.5 million restoration project. Workers restored the exterior brickwork and trim and gutted and renovated the interior. New tile floors, oak and fir trim, covered ceilings, wooden benches and expanded bathrooms were installed.

References

External links

Waymarking.com gallery with old postcard imagesNational Register nomination
{{National Register of Historic Places Oregon Amtrak stations in Oregon Railway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Oregon Railway stations in the United States opened in 1908 Former Southern Pacific Railroad stations in Oregon Buildings and structures in Eugene, Oregon Transportation in Eugene, Oregon National Register of Historic Places in Eugene, Oregon 1908 establishments in Oregon Transportation buildings and structures in Lane County, Oregon

History

See also

References

External links