Charlotte is an Amtrak station located on North Tryon Street, about 1.5mi to the northeast of downtown Charlotte. It is the southern terminus for the Carolinian and Piedmont, as well as an intermediate stop on the Crescent. It is Amtrak's third-busiest station in the Southeast United States, just behind Sanford station and New Orleans station.The current station was built in 1961 by Southern Railway, as a replacement for the former Southern Railway passenger station located near the intersection of Trade Street and 4th Street in downtown. (The former downtown station was torn down in 1962 as Southern Railway's passenger services were being eliminated.) Southern Railway used the 1961 station as a stop for its passenger trains until 1979, when it turned over its remaining passenger routes to Amtrak. The old Seaboard Air Line Railroad Passenger Station, located on the current CSX Charlotte-Wilmington mainline, is just off Tryon Street a couple of blocks south of the Amtrak station. It is currently being used as a homeless shelter known as the Urban Ministry Center.The current station's exterior incorporates dark brown brick and large, angled concrete panels covered in pebble-dash. Interspersed with these heavy, solid elements are transparent walls of glass, which—coupled with clerestory windows beneath the roof—allow ample natural light to flood the waiting room. In keeping with the aesthetics of Mid-Century Modern architecture, the station has minimal applied ornamentation. The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) and Amtrak expanded the waiting room in 2002 and added an additional ticket window.
