| Prince | |||||||||||
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Looking east at the Prince Depot |
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| Station statistics | |||||||||||
| Address | 5034 Stanaford Road West Virginia Route 41 Prince, WV 25907 |
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| Lines | |||||||||||
| Platforms | 1 side platform | ||||||||||
| Tracks | 2 | ||||||||||
| Parking | Yes | ||||||||||
| Other information | |||||||||||
| Opened | 1946 | ||||||||||
| Code | PRC | ||||||||||
| Owned by | Fayette County Commission | ||||||||||
| Traffic | |||||||||||
| Passengers (2010) | 3,364[1] 2.2% | ||||||||||
| Services | |||||||||||
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Prince is an Amtrak station in Prince, West Virginia, served by the Cardinal. Because it is on the CSX (originally Chesapeake & Ohio Railway) mainline while the unincorporated area of Prince itself is not, this station serves as the main depot for the Beckley area.
Of the ten West Virginia stations served by Amtrak, Prince was the seventh busiest in FY2010.[1]
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The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway built the first facility in 1880 that was enlarged in 1891 to serve both freight and passengers.[2] In 1942, the C&O president, Robert R. Young, saw a need for "a stylish, streamlined, and efficient passenger rail system" that lead to the development of the current station.[2]
The design of the Prince train station is Art Deco.[3] Built in 1946, the architectural firm was Garfield, Harris, Robinson, & Schafer that was headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.[4] The main terminal building is 125 by 22 feet (38 × 6.7 m) and the waiting area features tall ceilings and large windows, as well as a large wall mural depicting mining and the importance of coal.[2]
The depot has a minimum of ornamentation. Each end of the 500-foot (152 m) canopy is rounded and topped with Streamline Moderne stainless steel lettering spelling out "Prince".[5] The canopy is oriented so that the sun would warm waiting passengers in the winter time, while shading them in the summer.[2]