Fargo Station is a

train station A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing ...

Fargo, North Dakota Fargo (Help:IPA/English, /ˈfɑɹɡoʊ/) is a city in and the county seat of Cass County, North Dakota, Cass County, North Dakota, United States. According to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 125,990, making it the ...

, United States. It is served by

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada. ...

's ''

Empire Builder The ''Empire Builder'' is an Amtrak long-distance passenger train that operates daily between Chicago and either Seattle or Portland via two sections west of Spokane. Introduced in 1929, it was the flagship passenger train of the Great Northe ...

''. It is the only railway station in use in the Fargo-Moorhead area and is the third-busiest in North Dakota. The platform, tracks, and station are currently all owned by

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

. The station is currently located in the former BNSF freight house. The former main station building is now home to Great Northern Bicycle Co.

History

Fargo station was originally built by the Great Northern Railway in 1906. It was designed by Samuel L. Bartlett in a

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...

style. He also designed other stations for the Great Northern, including stations in

Minot Minot ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Ward County, North Dakota, United States, in the state's north-central region. It is most widely known for the Air Force base approximately north of the city. With a population of 48,377 at the ...

and

Rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

, North Dakota. The Great Northern also built a nearby freight warehouse in Fargo, listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. At the time of the station's construction, Fargo was served by both the Great Northern Railway and the

Northern Pacific Northern Pacific may refer to: * Northern Pacific Airways, an upcoming airline * Northern Pacific Field Hockey Conference, an NCAA Division I conference * Northern Pacific Hockey League, an American Tier III junior ice hockey league * Northern Pac ...

. The station was served by Great Northern trains, while Northern Pacific operated its own station along Fargo's Main Avenue. In 1970, the two railway companies merged to form the

Burlington Northern The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States-based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1996. Its historical lineage begins in the earliest days of railroadin ...

. Freight trains used the Northern Pacific tracks, while passenger trains used the Great Northern tracks. All passenger service in Fargo began using the Great Northern depot. From 1971, passenger service was operated by Amtrak. Amtrak currently uses the former BNSF freight house as the station building, as the main building became unused in 1986. The former main station building is now used for retail. Various businesses have operated in the building, since 1995. Fargo station is listed as a contributing property on

Downtown Fargo District as the Great Northern Depot.

Operation

Fargo station is served by Amtrak's ''

'' service. Westbound trains are headed for

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the ...

(splitting to serve

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region ...

and

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous ...

) while eastbound trains are headed for

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

. There are several intermittent stops between. About one-eighth of ''Empire Builder'' passengers board or alight at this station. The station previously served the ''

North Coast Hiawatha The ''North Coast Hiawatha'' was a streamlined passenger train operated by Amtrak between Chicago, Illinois, and Seattle, Washington. Operating from 1971 to 1979, the train was a successor to the Northern Pacific Railway's ''North Coast Limited ...

'' until that was consolidated into the ''Empire Builder'' in 1979. The Minnesota Department of Transportation has proposed

regional rail Regional rail, also known as local trains and stopping trains, are passenger rail services that operate between towns and cities. These trains operate with more stops over shorter distances than inter-city rail, but fewer stops and faster serv ...

services to connect Fargo-Moorhead with the

Twin Cities Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in sta ...

in Minnesota. The route is listed as a Phase 1 project for Minnesota's regional rail projects, to be completed by 2030. Due to existing infrastructure, Fargo Amtrak station would be used. Fargo station is served by MATBUS within one block of the station. Route 11 stops at the corner of 4th Avenue North and 5th Street North on its way from the downtown transfer hub to the Northport neighborhood in northern Fargo.

Ridership

While the largest city in

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, ...

, Fargo has only the third-most rail passenger traffic in the state, behind

and Williston. This is chiefly because Amtrak's daily ''Empire Builder'', which makes stops in six other North Dakota cities, stops in Fargo during the middle of night—between 2 am and 4 am—on both its eastbound and westbound journeys. In Amtrak's 2010 fiscal year, an average of about 60 passengers boarded or detrained at the station each day.

Station layout

References

External links

Fargo Amtrak Station (USA Rail Guide – Train Web)Great Northern Bicycle Co
{{Amtrak North Dakota stations Amtrak stations in North Dakota Buildings and structures in Fargo, North Dakota Former Great Northern Railway (U.S.) stations Railway stations in the United States opened in 1906 Towers in North Dakota Clock towers in North Dakota Romanesque Revival architecture in North Dakota