The Rockville Railroad Station opened in 1873 when the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) was built. The B&O ran until 1971 and then in 1973 the Amtrak service was used, then the Shenandoah in 1976 and the Capital Limited in 1981.
The building itself is a brick Victorian picturesque building with some Eastlake details and was designed by Ephraim Francis Baldwin and moved a small distance to the south to make room for the new Rockville Station which is used for the Metro Rail System Red Line, MARC Brunswick Line commuter trains, and Amtrak Capitol Limited intercity trains.
History taken from Wikipedia (
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The station building is among the few original Metropolitan Branch stations to survive. It is a brick Victorian picturesque structure with some Eastlake detailing, particularly in the roofline and gable decoration. The station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 as the Rockville Railroad Station.
When Amtrak took over intercity passenger service on May 1, 1971, it did not include any service on the B&O; Rockville was served only by three daily commuter round trips to Brunswick and Martinsburg.:?67? Amtrak introduced the West Virginian (later renamed the Potomac Turbo and Potomac Special) in September 1971; it did not stop at Rockville.:?70? The Blue Ridge replaced the Potomac Special on May 5, 1973.:?68? The Blue Ridge was timed to serve as a commuter train; eastbound-only stops at Rockville and Gaithersburg were added on July 1, 1973.:?70? The Shenandoah, which stopped at Rockville in both directions, was added on October 31, 1976.:?68? The Blue Ridge began stopping at Rockville and Gaithersburg in both directions on weekends in 1977. The Shenandoah was replaced by the Capitol Limited on October 1, 1981, at which time weekend service ended on the Blue Ridge:?70?
Construction of a modern station for Amtrak, state-subsidized B&O commuter trains, and the new Washington Metro system began in 1981. On March 2, 1981, the old station and freight house were moved about 50 metres (160 ft) to the south to make way for construction. The new station opened on December 15, 1984, as part of a 7-mile (11 km), four-station extension of the Red Line from Grosvenor–Strathmore station to Shady Grove station. In 1986, the Blue Ridge was taken over by MARC as part of the Brunswick Line—the state-subsidized ex-B&O commuter service—leaving the Capitol Limited as the only Amtrak service to Rockville.
On January 26, 2010, two Metro employees were killed when they were hit by a piece of track equipment at the station. They were installing new train control equipment in the track bed on the outbound track of the Red Line, towards Shady Grove.
From September 11, 2021, to January 16, 2022, the Metro station was closed due to the Rockville Canopy Replacement Project. The station reopened on January 16, 2022.