| Kirkwood | |||||||||||
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Kirkwood Amtrak Station (track side) |
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| Station statistics | |||||||||||
| Address | 110 West Argonne Drive Kirkwood, MO 63122 |
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| Lines | |||||||||||
| Platforms | 1 side platform, 1 jsland platform | ||||||||||
| Tracks | 2 | ||||||||||
| Other information | |||||||||||
| Opened | 1893 | ||||||||||
| Code | KWD | ||||||||||
| Owned by | City of Kirkwood, Missouri | ||||||||||
| Traffic | |||||||||||
| Passengers (2010) | 48,314[1] 15% | ||||||||||
| Services | |||||||||||
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The Kirkwood Amtrak station is a suburban train station in Kirkwood, Missouri, served by Amtrak, the national railroad passenger system. Located in downtown Kirkwood, it is one of three Amtrak stations in the St. Louis metropolitan area; the other two are the Gateway Multimodal Transportation Center located in downtown St. Louis, and the Amtrak station in Alton, Illinois. The station is run entirely by volunteers.
Of the twelve Missouri stations served by Amtrak, Kirkwood was the fourth busiest in FY2010, boarding or detraining an average of approximately 130 passengers daily.[2]
In 1852, land where the current station is located (Argonne Avenue and Kirkwood Road) was obtained from Owen Collins by the Pacific Railroad for a right of way. The track for the Pacific Railroad to Kirkwood was completed in 1853. The first train arrived May 11, 1853, for an auction sale of lots, making Kirkwood the first planned suburb west of the Mississippi. The town was named for the chief engineer for the railroad, James Pugh Kirkwood.
In 1863, a frame depot was built. Here members of the first school board met to draft the charter of the Kirkwood School District, which was granted in 1865. In 1893, Douglas Donovan was hired by the Missouri Pacific Railroad to construct the current stone station to replace the wooden station. The current station remains today as an outstanding example of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture.
Commuter trains ran to and from Kirkwood until 1961. A train turn-table was located near the present Farmers Market for the engines to be turned for the return trip to St. Louis and for the helper engines, which were used to help freight trains manage the "Kirkwood Hill," prior to the arrival of diesel engines.
Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Kirkwood_(Amtrak_station) Kirkwood (Amtrak station)] at Wikimedia Commons