| Midway Amtrak regional station |
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| Station statistics | |||||||||||
| Address | 730 Transfer Road Saint Paul, MN 55114 |
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| Lines | |||||||||||
| Platforms | 1 side platform, 1 island platform | ||||||||||
| Tracks | 3 | ||||||||||
| Parking | Yes; free | ||||||||||
| Baggage check | Yes | ||||||||||
| Other information | |||||||||||
| Opened | March 1, 1978[1] | ||||||||||
| Accessible | |||||||||||
| Code | MSP | ||||||||||
| Owned by | Amtrak. Some track owned by Minnesota Commercial Railway[2] | ||||||||||
| Traffic | |||||||||||
| Passengers (2011) | 116,785[3] 9.2% (Amtrak) | ||||||||||
| Services | |||||||||||
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| Location | |||||||||||
Midway Station is the Amtrak train station in Saint Paul, Minnesota, so named after the Midway area which is roughly halfway between the downtowns of St. Paul and neighboring Minneapolis. Its Amtrak station code is MSP and serves as the only intercity train station for the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area. When it opened in 1978, it took over traffic from the Minneapolis Great Northern Depot, which itself had combined the services of the Minneapolis station and the Saint Paul Union Depot when Amtrak began operating in 1971.[1] The Great Northern depot was demolished, but the Saint Paul depot still exists and is being rehabilitated in order to handle trains again in 2012, at which time the Midway station is expected to close.[4]
The only current rail service at this station is the Empire Builder, named to honor Twin Cities-based mogul James J. Hill who constructed most of the rail system connecting the area to other major U.S. and Canadian cities (and whose nickname was "The Empire Builder"). Westbound trains are headed for Spokane, Washington (splitting to serve Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon) while eastbound trains are headed for Chicago. There are several intermittent stops between. About one-eighth of Empire Builder passengers board or alight at this station.
The station previously served the North Coast Hiawatha until that was consolidated into the Empire Builder in 1979. Amtrak's Thruway Motorcoach bus service has been available to connect to Duluth, Minnesota since 1985, when the North Star rail service was discontinued.
The station is located next to tracks owned by the Minnesota Commercial Railway and marks a division point between running on the Canadian Pacific Railway (former Milwaukee Road tracks between Chicago and St. Paul) and the BNSF Railway (former Great Northern Railway tracks between St. Paul and Seattle.)
There are two platforms at the station, though the Empire Builder only uses the side platform nearest the station building. There is a second island platform that serves two tracks, but it is rarely used. There are also two spurs behind the main platform which are used for storage and display of historic train cars.
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Midway Station is served by Amtrak's daily Empire Builder. Of the six Minnesota stations served by Amtrak, Midway was the busiest in FY10, boarding or detraining an average of about 350 passengers daily.[5]
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