Bangor (Amtrak station)

Bangor

The remodeled station in 2011.
Location 541 Railroad Street
Bangor, MI 49013
Coordinates 42°18′51″N 86°6′42″W / 42.31417°N 86.11167°WCoordinates: 42°18′51″N 86°6′42″W / 42.31417°N 86.11167°W
Owned by Bangor, Michigan
Line(s)
Platforms 1 side platform
Tracks 1
Construction
Parking Short-term only; free
Other information
Station code BAM
History
Opened 1926
Rebuilt 2005
Traffic
Passengers (2013) 3,856[1] Increase 6.6%
Services
Preceding station   Amtrak   Following station
toward Chicago
Pere Marquette
toward Grand Rapids

Bangor Station is an Amtrak station in Bangor, Michigan on the Pere Marquette. The renovated station includes an enclosed waiting area, washrooms, a coffee shop, free parking, and payphones.

The station serves northern Van Buren County and the South Haven area.

History

The brick Bangor Station was built in 1926 by the Pere Marquette Railway, replacing an 1870 wooden station that burned.

Amtrak shared the station with a toy train manufacturer from 1984 (when Amtrak service began) to 1991, when the manufacturer ceased production. The station was in declining condition, and Amtrak vacated it in favor of a smaller adjacent structure.

In November 2001, the City of Bangor purchased the station from CSX Transportation to prevent it from demolition. In 2004, they sold it to a health care provider, who doubled the floor space of the building by expanding the attic (once used as a sleeping space for railroaders) into a second floor. The city still owned the south portico, and they enclosed it as a waiting room.

In July, the Michigan Department of Transportation awarded a $125,000 grant to the city and Amtrak to rebuild the waiting room and railway platform (owned by Amtrak). After floor, windows, doors, and washrooms were replaced and the benches were refinished, the station was fully reopened to trains on May 6, 2005.

The portico is now the waiting room, the waiting room is now a coffee shop, and the freight agent office and freight room are now space for the health care provider.

References

  1. ↑ "Amtrak Fact Sheet, FY2013, State of Michigan" (PDF). Amtrak. November 2013. Retrieved 3 December 2013.

External links