Texarkana (Amtrak station)

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Texarkana
Station statistics
Address 100 East Front Street
Texarkana, AR 71854
Lines
Texas Eagle
Other information
Opened 1930
Code TXA
Traffic
Passengers (2007) 5,760 ▼ 4.3%


Texarkana Union Station or the Texarkana Amtrak station is a train station in Texarkana, Arkansas, United States served by Amtrak, the national railroad passenger system. Although the Arkansas-Texas border bisects the center of the structure, the current Amtrak waiting room and ticket office is located in a former Railway Express Agency office on the Arkansas side of the structure. When Amtrak's Texas Eagle is stopped in Texarkana, the west end of the train is in Texas, and the east end of the train is in Arkansas.


Contents

[edit] History

Texarkana Union Station was constructed and operated by Union Station Trust, a subsidiary organization created as a joint effort between the Missouri-Pacific, Texas & Pacific, Cotton Belt and Kansas City Southern railroads. E.M. Tucker, chief architect for Missouri Pacific, designed the building with a track layout and overhead concourse reminiscent of the style he had used when rebuilding Little Rock Union Depot after a 1921 fire.

Postcard view of Texarkana Union Station, showing east end of structure now utilized by Amtrak.
Postcard view of Texarkana Union Station, showing east end of structure now utilized by Amtrak.

The present structure replaced an earlier Texarkana station on the same site, and was opened for business on April 17, 1930. The station and the federal courthouse anchor the south and north ends of State Line Avenue, the dividing line between Arkansas and Texas. In 1876, Congress mandated that the Texarkana railroad station would straddle the state line, and the building has entrances and exits into both states. Missouri Pacific and Texas and Pacific, the two carriers with the most passenger trains serving Texarkana Union Station, were able to operate through the facility without a backup move. Kansas City Southern and Cotton Belt passenger trains both made back-up moves to access the station.

Provisions were made in the original station design for a restaurant, but as a result of the Great Depression, the only food service was provided by a snack bar and news stand.

[edit] Name Trains serving Texarkana Union Station

[edit] Mail and Express Service

Postal cancellation applied to letters worked by the Texarkana, Arkansas, Terminal RPO in November 1924.
Postal cancellation applied to letters worked by the Texarkana, Arkansas, Terminal RPO in November 1924.

During the heyday of private railroad passenger train service, Texarkana served as a major distribution point for mail and express, and a large Terminal Railway Post Office was located in and adjacent to the station. In addition, express cars originating at such distant points as New York City were routed to Texarkana, where the shipments were sorted for transportation in different trains to their final destination.



[edit] References

  • Potter, Janet Greenstein (1996). Great American Railroad Stations. ISBN 0-471-14389-6. 

[edit] External links


Preceding station   Amtrak   Following station
Texas Eagle
toward Chicago