Alliance station is an

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 inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

train station in

Alliance, Ohio Alliance is a city in eastern Stark County, Ohio, United States. With a small district lying in adjacent Mahoning County, the city is approximately northeast of Canton, southwest of Youngstown and southeast of Cleveland. The population was 21 ...

, United States. Located at 820 East Main Street, the station consists of an uncovered platform on the south side of the east-west tracks, with a shelter and a small parking lot nearby. Amtrak spent $1.5 million to improve the station in 2011. It built a new shelter and installed a 550-foot long concrete platform, signage and light poles. Developed by d+A Design+Architecture, LLC of Yardley, Pennsylvania, the shelter is composed primarily of rich red brick and has an enclosed, one-story waiting room with large windows. On the facades facing the street and the tracks, the waiting room is marked by stylized projecting bays faced with coursed ashlar stonework that adds texture to the overall elevation. The design is similar to the Okeechobee station (Florida), Connellsville station (Pennsylvania), and Winnemucca station (Nevada). Alliance is served by the ''Capitol Limited'' train from Washington to Chicago. Because the station consists of only one platform, westbound trains switch to the usual eastbound tracks to pass the station. Amtrak is the only way, other than by car or the

Stark Area Regional Transit Authority SARTA, (Stark Area Regional Transit Authority), is a public sector transit agency servicing Stark County, a county in Ohio containing Canton, Alliance, and Massillon. In addition to its regular line service within Stark County, SARTA runs one bu ...

(SARTA) bus from elsewhere in

Stark County, Ohio Stark County is a county located in the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 374,853. Its county seat is Canton. The county was created in 1808 and organized the next year. It is named for John Stark, an officer in th ...

, for travel to Alliance, the home of

Mount Union College The University of Mount Union is a private university in Alliance, Ohio. Founded in 1846, the university was affiliated with the Methodist Church until the spring of 2019. In the fall of 2020, Mount Union had an enrollment of 1,958 undergraduate ...

, as the city has neither commercial bus nor airline service. The ''Pennsylvanian'' train served Alliance from 1998 to 2003. The station serves the Ohio cities of

Youngstown Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio, and the largest city and county seat of Mahoning County. At the 2020 census, Youngstown had a city population of 60,068. It is a principal city of the Youngstown–Warren metropolitan area, which ...

and

Akron Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city prop ...

, which are forty minutes or more away by car. Canton is 30 minutes away by car.

History

The station site in earlier years served

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

, then

Penn Central The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American Railroad classes, class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania Railroad ...

passenger trains northwest to Cleveland, west to Detroit, west to Chicago and east to Philadelphia and New York City. Amtrak service began at the station when the ''Capitol Limited'' was rerouted north in fall, 1990 from Canton station in Canton.Amtrak National Timetable, October 28, 1990, p. 45

Transit connections

The Alliance Transit Center operated by the

(SARTA) is located within walking distance of the station, which serves as a point of convergence for all routes that serve Alliance (Routes 130, 131, 135, 136, 139). However, the current early morning arrival times of the ''Capitol Limited'' make connecting to buses difficult. All SARTA service to Alliance ends three hours before the arrival of the Chicago-bound train and doesn't resume until three hours after the arrival of the Washington D.C.-bound train.

Station layout

References

External links

Alliance Amtrak Station (USA Rail Guide -- Train Web)
Amtrak stations in Ohio Buildings and structures in Mahoning County, Ohio Buildings and structures in Stark County, Ohio Alliance, Ohio Railway stations in the United States opened in 1990 1990 establishments in Ohio Transportation in Mahoning County, Ohio Fort Wayne Line Former Pennsylvania Railroad stations {{Ohio-railstation-stub