Buffalo–Depew 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 intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

train station in

Depew, New York Depew () is a village (New York), 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 ...

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

Buffalo Central Terminal Buffalo Central Terminal is a 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. The ...

as Buffalo's main Amtrak station. ( Buffalo–Exchange Street station, 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 Amtrak Long Distance, overnight passenger train operated by Amtrak between Chicago and the Northeastern United States, with sections to New York City and Boston. The central segment of the route runs along the s ...

''.) 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 most widely recognized as the national symbols of Canada, national symbol of Canada. History of use in Canada By the early 1700s, the maple leaf had been adopted as an emblem by ...

'' 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 platforms, ...

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

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 then 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 List of named passenger trains, named train, passenger trains and onetime flagship of the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad (a predecessor of the later New York Central Railroad). On September ...

'' (now part of the ''Empire Service'') and '' Niagara Rainbow'' 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/ Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway 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 is a city in Wayne County, Michigan, Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring Metro Detroit, suburb of Detroit, Dearborn borders Detroit to the south and west, roughly west of downtown Detroit. In the 2020 United States ...

(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