The Centralia Union Depot is an Amtrak train station in Centralia, Washington, United States. It is served by the Cascades and Coast Starlight trains.The track and platforms are owned by BNSF Railway. Local transit connections are provided by Twin Transit.HistoryThe station was constructed by the Northern Pacific Railway (NP) and opened in 1912. It is the third station to have been constructed in Centralia since rail service began in 1880.The large brick structure was built to accommodate a 400% population boom in the area from 1900-1914. Only 2 years after its opening, Centralia Union Depot was being served by 44 passenger trains and 17 freight trains daily. The station faced 14 hotels along Tower Avenue, as well as 5 theaters and 8 banks in the downtown core.NP later merged into the Burlington Northern Railroad (BN) in 1970, and Amtrak began operating passenger rail service on the Seattle–Portland route on May 1, 1971. Amtrak trains initially did not stop in Centralia, but were added during a service change on July 12, 1971. The demise of NP, coupled with increased automobile traffic on Interstate 5 saw the Centralia Union Depot deteriorate, much as the city's downtown core was experiencing economic decline. Local civic leaders recognized the problem during the mid-1980s and began a two-decade project that would see the structure acquired by the city and restored as part of a larger downtown revitalization project.
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