The 1997 renovation of this 1906 depot that formerly served passengers on the Mobile & Ohio, the Southern, the Alabama & Vicksburg, and the New Orleans and Northeastern Railroads ensures that it will continue to serve passengers on multiple modes of transportation for many decades in the future.
Meridian Union Station is a stop on the Amtrak Crescent train, which runs daily between Pennsylvania Station in New York City and Union Passenger Terminal in New Orleans.
From the city of Meridian's website: (
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"The 1907 illustrated handbook of Meridian, Mississippi, states the city of Meridian is a "child of the railroad." The railroads developed in Meridian in the 1850s, with the Mobile and Ohio and the Southern Railroad of Mississippi lines forming a junction at the small community. Meridian would grow to become the largest city in Mississippi at the turn of the 20th century with five major rail lines and 44 trains coming in and out of Meridian daily.
The Meridian Terminal Company, composed of officers of the Mobile and Ohio, the Southern, the Alabama and Vicksburg, the New Orleans and Northeastern, and the Alabama Great Southern rail lines, was formed to build a new passenger depot. The new depot and railway express agency were completed in August of 1906 at a cost of $250,000 and constructed in Mission Revival architecture. The original depot included a central tower, which was demolished in the late 1940s. Further demolition to Union Station occurred in 1966, when all but the eastern wing of the remaining passenger depot was removed."
From Wikipedia: (
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"Union Station, also called the Meridian Multi-Modal Transportation Center, is an intermodal transportation center in Meridian, Mississippi. The station is located at 1901 Front Street in the Union Station Historic District within the larger Meridian Downtown Historic District, both of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Consisting of a new addition and renovated surviving wing of the 1906 building, Union Station was officially dedicated on December 11, 1997. It is a center of several modes of passenger transportation, including Amtrak train service on the Norfolk Southern rail corridor, Meridian Transit System, Greyhound, Trailways, and other providers of bus services.
Meeting rooms on the mezzanine level are designed for community activities, the existing east wing houses Meridian's economic development agency. Located beside the station, a former Railway Express Agency building has been renovated and adapted as the Meridian Railroad Museum, inviting patrons to learn more about Meridian's railroading history.
HISTORY
The railroading history of Meridian began in the 1850s with the Mobile & Ohio and the Alabama and Vicksburg lines forming a junction at the small community. Meridian would grow to become the largest city in Mississippi at the turn of the 20th century, with five major rail lines; it had 44 trains coming in and out of Meridian daily.
The Meridian Terminal Company, composed of officers from the Mobile & Ohio, the Southern, the Alabama & Vicksburg, and the New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad lines, was formed to build a new passenger depot. The new depot and railway express agency were completed in August 1906 at a cost of $250,000 and constructed in Mission Revival Style architecture. The original depot construction included a central tower, which was demolished in the late 1940s. Further demolition to Union Station occurred in 1966, when all but the eastern wing of the remaining passenger depot was removed.
Plans for a new depot
Union Station's central tower
In 1991, a Multi-Modal Transit Study Committee was established to investigate the potential of a MMTC facility. In June of the same year, the Mississippi Department of Transportation approved the use of Federal Transit Administration planning funds for a feasibility study to evaluate the demand and possible sites for a MMTC in Meridian.
The Study Committee, made up of community leaders and organizations, property owners, government officials and interested citizens, participated in the initial charrettes conducted by the engineering firm preparing the feasibility study. It was the collective vision of the committee to develop a model which would not only serve the transportation needs of the East Mississippi/West Alabama area, but which could also serve as a national model for small city inter-modal operations."