Salem 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 Salem,

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

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 served by ''

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

'' corridor trains going to and from

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 co ...

, as well as the long-distance ''

Coast Starlight The ''Coast Starlight'' is a passenger train operated by Amtrak on the West Coast of the United States between Seattle and Los Angeles via Portland and the San Francisco Bay Area. The train, which has operated continuously since Amtrak's formati ...

.''

Greyhound Lines Greyhound Lines, Inc. (commonly known as simply Greyhound) operates the largest intercity bus service in North America, including Greyhound Mexico. It also operates charter bus services, Amtrak Thruway services, commuter bus services, and pac ...

and some regional buses also stop at the station.

History

This station was constructed for the

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...

in 1918 and is the third station to be built at this location. The two previous stations were built in 1871 and 1889. The 1871 depot burned down in 1885. It is commonly believed that the Queen Anne style 1889 depot burned down on March 5, 1917, but newspaper reports from the time say it was unsightly and, except for the baggage wing, demolished.Salem Depots Historic Explanation.pdf
/ref> The current Beaux-Arts-style structure was designed by Southern Pacific's Chief Architect

John H. Christie John H. Christie (1878–1960) was an American architect who worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad, and was the railroad's Chief Architect from 1924 to 1947. Christie was born Johann Heinrich Christiansen in 1878, emigrated from Germany, and wa ...

. It is constructed of

masonry Masonry is the building of structures from individual units, which are often laid in and bound together by mortar; the term ''masonry'' can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are bricks, building ...

, and 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 Eugene. A restoration project by the

Oregon Department of Transportation The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is a department of the state government of the U.S. state of Oregon responsible for systems of transportation. It was first established in 1969. It had been preceded by the Oregon State Highway Depar ...

(ODOT) was completed in 2000. Amtrak leases the station from ODOT for $1 a year, in exchange for maintenance of the building and grounds. An 1889

Railway Express Agency Railway Express Agency (REA), founded as the American Railway Express Agency and later renamed the American Railway Express Inc., was a national package delivery service that operated in the United States from 1918 to 1975. REA arranged transp ...

(REA) freight depot/baggage shed from the previous station was kept and is the oldest freight depot still in existence in the state. Either after the 1917 fire or in preparation for constructing the new depot, the Queen Anne-style REA depot was relocated from its original site to the south. The REA depot had not been used since the mid-1970s, but ODOT restored it in the late 2000s for use by Greyhound. The station and baggage depot were added to 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 v ...

on February 12, 2010. In 2011, daily ridership on Amtrak between Salem and

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

reached 24,146 boardings.

moved operations from its downtown station to here in 2013, first to the north wing of the station building and, upon completion of renovations in 2018, to the former freight shed.

References

External links

Historic images of the 1889 and 1918 depots
from Salem Public Library
Greyhound Lines station page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salem (Amtrak Station) Amtrak stations in Oregon Former Southern Pacific Railroad stations in Oregon Buildings and structures in Salem, Oregon Railway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Oregon Railway stations in the United States opened in 1918 Transportation in Salem, Oregon 1918 establishments in Oregon National Register of Historic Places in Salem, Oregon Transportation buildings and structures in Marion County, Oregon