Buffalo–Depew station is an

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 ...

train station in

Depew, New York Depew () is a village in Erie County, New York. The population was 15,303 at the time of the 2010 census. It is part of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area. The village is named for Chauncey Depew, a politician and one of the original ...

, a suburb of Buffalo. It was built in 1979 to replace the

Buffalo Central Terminal Buffalo Central Terminal is an historic former railroad station in Buffalo, New York. An active station from 1929 to 1979, the 17-story Art Deco style station was designed by architects Fellheimer & Wagner for the New York Central Railroad. Th ...

as Buffalo's main Amtrak station. (

Buffalo–Exchange Street station Buffalo–Exchange Street station is an Amtrak station in Buffalo, New York. The station serves six Amtrak trains daily: two daily ''Empire Service'' round trips between Niagara Falls and New York City and one ''Maple Leaf'' round trip between T ...

, located near downtown Buffalo, has limited parking space and is located on a line that is not easily accessible by the

Lake Shore Limited The ''Lake Shore Limited'' is an overnight Amtrak intercity passenger train that runs between Chicago and either New York City or Boston via two sections east of Albany. The train began service in 1975; its predecessor was Amtrak's Chicago– ...

.) It is located east of downtown Buffalo. The station was built to a standard design common to most Amtrak stations built from the 1970s to the early 1990s. Standard features at Depew include concrete block walls, floor-to-ceiling windows and a cantilevered black roof. The station is served by eight trains per day: two ''

Empire Service The ''Empire Service'' is an Inter-city rail service operated by Amtrak within the state of New York in the United States. The brand name originated with the New York Central Railroad in 1967. Trains on the line provide frequent daily service ...

'' round trips, one ''

'' round trip, and one ''

Maple Leaf The maple leaf is the characteristic leaf of the maple tree. It is the most widely recognized national symbol of Canada. History of use in Canada By the early 1700s, the maple leaf had been adopted as an emblem by the French Canadians along th ...

'' round trip. It has a single

side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platform ...

adjacent to the southernmost of the four tracks of the Rochester Subdivision. The Lake Shore Subdivision, used by the ''Lake Shore Limited'', diverges to the south between Buffalo–Depew and downtown Buffalo.

History

Station building at Buffalo-Depew, July 2015

By the late 1970s, the once-thriving Central Terminal had been cut back to only four daily trains, nowhere near enough to justify rehabilitating the 50-year-old terminal. Amtrak decided to build a new station in Depew. Service began on October 28, 1979; hours after the last train pulled out of Central Terminal. The ''

Empire State Express The ''Empire State Express'' was one of the named passenger trains and onetime flagship of the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad (a predecessor of the later New York Central Railroad). On September 14, 1891, it covered the 436 miles ...

'' (now part of the ''Empire Service'') and ''

Niagara Rainbow The ''Niagara Rainbow'', known as the ''Empire State Express'' before 1976, was an American passenger train service operated by Amtrak between New York City and Detroit via Buffalo and Southwestern Ontario in Canada. The service ran between Oc ...

'' were routed through the new station on the day it opened; previously, the only Buffalo stop for both trains had been Buffalo-Exchange Street. They were joined in 1981 by the ''Maple Leaf,'' which offered a one-seat ride from New York to Toronto. Previously, one train per day that connected with

Via Rail Canada Via Rail Canada Inc. (), operating as Via Rail or Via, is a Canadian Crown corporation that is mandated to operate intercity passenger rail service in Canada. It receives an annual subsidy from Transport Canada to offset the cost of operating ...

Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway The Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway was a railway based in Hamilton that ran in Southern Ontario from 1892 to 1987. It never reached the other two cities in its name, although it did have branch lines extending to Dunnville and Port Maitl ...

service to Toronto stopped at Exchange Street. The original building was a trailer which had previously served as the temporary station building in Dearborn, Michigan (Dearborn opened on October 1, 1979). The permanent building, which opened in 1980, was financed by the New York Department of Transportation. The station is near the site where in 1893, Empire State Express Locomotive #999 attained its alleged top speed of , making it the fastest locomotive of its time. On September 23, 2014, a bison statue was dedicated on the lawn in front of the depot. It recalls two similar pieces that once occupied prominent spots inside Buffalo Central Terminal. Funding for the fiberglass statue was raised by railroad heritage and advocacy groups within the state. A new bison statue has also been placed in Buffalo Central Terminal by the Buffalo Central Terminal Restoration Corporation.

References

External links

Buffalo–Depew Amtrak Station (USA Rail Guide – Train Web)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buffalo-Depew station Amtrak stations in New York (state) Railway stations in Buffalo, New York Depew Railway stations in the United States opened in 1979