The Ocala Union Station (also known as Union Station Plaza) is a historic site in

Ocala Ocala ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Marion County within the northern region of Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city's population was 63,591, making it the 54th most populated city in Florida. Home to ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It is located at 531 Northeast First Avenue, and was built in 1917 by both the Atlantic Coast Line and

Seaboard Air Line Railroad The Seaboard Air Line Railroad , which styled itself "The Route of Courteous Service," was an American railroad which existed from April 14, 1900, until July 1, 1967, when it merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, its longtime rival, t ...

. Prior to this, ACL and SAL had separate depots in Ocala. The former ACL station was originally built by the Florida Southern Railroad, while the former SAL station was built by the

Florida Transit and Peninsular Railroad The Florida Railroad was the first railroad to connect the east and west coasts of Florida, running from Fernandina to Cedar Key. The line later became part of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, and, where still in use, is operated by CSX Transport ...

.Mulligan, M.: "Railroad Depots of Central Florida", pages 40, 84, 117-119. Arcadia Publishing, 2008. On December 22, 1997, it was added to the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

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 v ...

History

Ocala Union Station saw many passenger trains through the years, mainly from the Seaboard Air Line. This was due to the fact that the station was located on their mainline, also known as the "S-Line", while ACL's line was a secondary route. Seaboard's trains included the New York-originating ''

Silver Meteor The ''Silver Meteor'' is a passenger train operated by Amtrak between New York City and Miami, Florida. Introduced in 1939 as the first diesel-powered streamliner between New York and Florida, it was the flagship train of the Seaboard Air Line ...

,'' ''

Silver Star The Silver Star Medal (SSM) is the United States Armed Forces' third-highest military decoration for valor in combat. The Silver Star Medal is awarded primarily to members of the United States Armed Forces for gallantry in action against an e ...

,'' ''Sunland,'' and ''Palmland''. The station's ACL New York-originating trains included the '' West Coast Champion'' and ''Havana Special.'' Those trains made connections at

Jacksonville Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...

primarily for trains to Mid-Western cities, including the ''

City of Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at t ...

,'' ''

South Wind A south wind is a wind that originates in the south and blows in a northward direction. Words used in English to describe the south wind are auster, buster (a violent south gale), föhn/foehn (alps), ghibli (Libya with various spellings), friage ...

,'' ''

Dixie Flagler The ''Dixie Flagler'' was a streamlined passenger train operated by the Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) between Chicago, Illinois and Miami, Florida. It began in 1939 as the ''Henry M. Flagler'', a regional service between Miami and Jacksonville, ...

,'' '' Dixie Flyer,'' ''Dixie Limited,'' ''

Flamingo Flamingos or flamingoes are a type of Wader, wading bird in the Family (biology), family Phoenicopteridae, which is the only extant family in the order Phoenicopteriformes. There are four flamingo species distributed throughout the Americas ...

,'' and ''

Seminole The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, an ...

''. In 1971, most passenger service in the United States was transferred to Amtrak, and the ''Silver Meteor'' retained its stop in Ocala, running along the former Seaboard, then

Seaboard Coast Line The Seaboard Coast Line Railroad was a Class I railroad company operating in the Southeastern United States beginning in 1967. Its passenger operations were taken over by Amtrak in 1971. Eventually, the railroad was merged with its affiliate lin ...

tracks. However, the ''West Coast Champion'' was discontinued, and passenger service ended for good on the ACL tracks. Throughout the latter part of the 20th century, Amtrak would move trains off and onto the S-Line. Some of these trains include the ''Silver Meteor'', ''Silver Star'', '' Floridian'', and '' Palmetto''. In 1997, the city of Ocala spent 4 millions dollars to renovate the station to its former glory. Finally, Amtrak revived the '' Silver Palm'' along the now

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

owned S-Line in 1996, where it would keep its name, sleepers, and diner until 2002. In 2002, the train would be renamed back to ''Palmetto''. Two years later, the ''Palmetto'' was truncated to

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Br ...

on November 1, 2004, prompting Amtrak to revive ''Silver Star'' service to Tampa along the CSX A-Line shared by the current ''

'', and part of the suspended ''

Sunset Limited The ''Sunset Limited'' is an Amtrak passenger train that for most of its history has operated between New Orleans and Los Angeles, over the nation's second transcontinental route. However, up until Hurricane Katrina in 2005, it operated betwe ...

'', and finally ending passenger service to Ocala. Today, the station operates as a bus terminal for Ocala's SunTran, and Amtrak's

Thruway Motorcoach Amtrak Thruway is a system of through-ticketed transportation services to connect passengers with areas not served by Amtrak trains. In most cases these are dedicated motorcoach routes, but can also be non-dedicated intercity bus services, tran ...

bus service between

and Lakeland. The platform north of the

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...

was abandoned after a derailment took out the canopies in 2009. In 2013, fences were installed all around the station platform to prevent people from walking onto the still very active tracks of the

Wildwood Subdivision The Wildwood Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in Florida. It runs along CSX's S Line from Baldwin south to Zephyrhills via Ocala and Wildwood for a total of 155.7 miles. The S Line is CSX's designation for the line tha ...

(excluding the abandoned section). Ocala union station,florida looking west

CSX leased the former ACL line to the

Pinsly Railroad Company Pinsly Railroad Company, based in Westfield, Massachusetts, is a short line railroad holding company. It is one of the oldest such companies in the United States, and has owned railroads continuously since its founding in 1938. Pinsly's sole rail ...

in 1988 who established the Florida Northern Railroad. The ACL line on which the FNOR operates used to run from Jacksonville to

Trilby A trilby is a narrow-brimmed type of hat. The trilby was once viewed as the rich man's favored hat; it is sometimes called the "brown trilby" in Britain Roetzel, Bernhard (1999). ''Gentleman's Guide to Grooming and Style''. Barnes & Noble. and ...

, but now only runs between Lowell and Candler. This line has seen sporadic freight service since it was severed at its current terminuses in the 1980's. Ocala's SunTran bus service began using the station in 1998, and still uses it to this day. The Shuttleliner limo/van service offers several trips daily to

Orlando International Airport Orlando International Airport is a major public airport located 6 miles (10 km) southeast of Downtown Orlando, Florida. In 2021, it handled 19,618,838 passengers, making it the busiest airport in the state and seventh busiest airport i ...

from the station. In 2013, Greyhound moved out of the station to the Pilot Travel Center at 4032 West Highway 326, two blocks east of

Interstate 75 Interstate 75 (I-75) is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes and Southeastern regions of the United States. As with most Interstates that end in 5, it is a major cross-country, north–south route, traveling from S ...

."Greyhound leaving city, moving station to I-75/CR 326" by Susan Latham Carr (OcalaSun Monday, November 4, 2013)
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References

External links

*

a
National Register of Historic Places

1954 Seaboard Air Line Timetable

{{National Register of Historic Places in Florida Railway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Florida Buildings and structures in Ocala, Florida National Register of Historic Places in Marion County, Florida Former Amtrak stations in Florida O O Union stations in the United States Railway stations in the United States opened in 1917 Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach stations in Florida Transportation buildings and structures in Marion County, Florida Railway stations closed in 2004 1917 establishments in Florida