Union Station
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Location | 1901 Front Street Meridian, MS United States |
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Coordinates | 32°21′50″N 88°41′47″W / 32.3639°N 88.6964°WCoordinates: 32°21′50″N 88°41′47″W / 32.3639°N 88.6964°W | ||||||||||
Owned by | City of Meridian | ||||||||||
Line(s) | Norfolk Southern Railway | ||||||||||
Platforms | 2 island platforms | ||||||||||
Tracks | 3 (2 in use) | ||||||||||
Connections | Greyhound | ||||||||||
Construction | |||||||||||
Disabled access | Yes | ||||||||||
Other information | |||||||||||
Station code | MEI | ||||||||||
History | |||||||||||
Opened | August 1906 | ||||||||||
Rebuilt | December 1997 | ||||||||||
Traffic | |||||||||||
Passengers (2013) | 11,500 5.1% | ||||||||||
Services | |||||||||||
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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.
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.