St. Petersburg station (Amtrak)
St. Petersburg station was a passenger train station in St. Petersburg, Florida. Located northwest of downtown, its former address was 3601 31st Street North,[1] though access to the site is now only from 37th Avenue North.
Contents
History
Atlantic Coast Line
The station was built in 1963 by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, and was the third station in the city's history built to serve Atlantic Coast Line passenger trains. It replaced a 1913 downtown St. Petersburg facility, following the city's request that rail service be relocated away from the downtown area.[2]
Seaboard Coast Line
By 1968, the station's operations came under the banner of the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, formed by the merger of Atlantic Coast Line with rival company Seaboard Air Line Railroad. The two formerly independent passenger operations were consolidated at this location, resulting in the closure of St. Petersburg's Seaboard Air Line Station.[3]
Amtrak
The station's service under Seaboard Coast Line continued until 1971, when Amtrak assumed operation of most of the nation's passenger rail service. Assigned station code STP, the St. Petersburg Amtrak Station was serviced by trains such as the Floridian and the Silver Meteor. In 1984, rail service to St. Petersburg came to an end following abandonment of the rail lines by owner CSX. Operations continued from the St. Petersburg station for Amtrak's Thruway Motorcoach bus service, linking passengers to rail connections in Tampa and Orlando. The station served as a boarding location for the bus service until the 1990s, when the station was closed.
Today
Today, the former St. Petersburg station has been renovated for use by a pharmaceutical company.[2] The trackside awning that covered the platform, along with the block lettering "Saint Petersburg" were removed and disposed of in an early 2008 effort to "commercialize" the property. All traces of the property's link to rail history were removed, save for a slight concrete rise on the South end of the tracks where the edge of the platform once stood, and the secondary platforms, which now serve as picnic and storage areas.
Amtrak continues to offer Thruway Motorcoach service for St. Petersburg and all of Pinellas County through a station located in Clearwater, Florida. The Clearwater-St. Petersburg Station retains the STP Amtrak code previously used by the 1963 St. Petersburg station.[4]
See also
References
- ↑ http://www.trainweb.org/usarail/stpetersburg.htm Trainweb.org
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Mulligan, M.: "Railroad Depots of Central Florida", page 47-48. Arcadia Publishing, 2008.
- ↑ Yogman, Ron (17 February 1972), "Cox Lumber Buys Seaboard Station", The Evening Independent (St. Petersburg).
- ↑ http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=am/am2Station/Station_Hours_Popup&pAssetID=1229726269556&c=am2Station#S
External links
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| Preceding station | Atlantic Coast Line Railroad | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terminus | St. Petersburg – Jacksonville |
toward Jacksonville
|
