Union Station (Phoenix, Arizona)


Phoenix Union Station is a former train station at 401 South 4th Avenue in downtown Phoenix, Arizona, United States. From 1971 to 1996 it was an Amtrak station. Until 1971, it was a railroad stop for the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific Railroads. Union Station was served by Amtrak's Los Angeles–New Orleans Sunset Limited and Los Angeles–Chicago Texas Eagle. The station is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Architecture

Phoenix Union Station was constructed in 1923 by the Santa Fe and the Arizona Eastern Railroads. The Station is one of the best examples of Mission Revival architecture, along with Brophy College Preparatory, in Phoenix. The Mission Revival style, a popular building style between 1890 and the 1920s, was typified by such Union Station features as stucco wall finishes, arcades, red tiled roofs, curvilinear gables, massive piers, and impost moldings.
According to the "Phoenix Historic Building Survey" by the Phoenix City Council, September 1979:
; Historic Name: Union Station of the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe Railroads
; Description
; Significance:

History

Rob Bohannan presented this history at ARPA's dedication of the clock and plaque donated by ARPA members, January 11, 1992. Used with permission:
In 1995, the last full year Amtrak stopped at Union Station, 21,495 passengers boarded or alighted here.
Since Amtrak left in 1996, the Olympic Torch train has stopped here twice, and tourist trains like the GrandLuxe have also occasionally used Union Station.
In 2000, the Arizona Department of Transportation and the Arizona Rail Passenger Association presented "Transpo 2000," an exposition of a modern Talgo trainset at Union Station.

Historic designations

Current services

No regular passenger trains call at Union Station. However, as recently as 2010, there were efforts to bring back passenger rail service to Phoenix. The facility was used until 2020 for a data center for Sprint, which was a Southern Pacific subsidiary. The building was sold in 2020 and the new owners propose it to be a food hall or other event space, as a centerpiece of a larger project.
Amtrak operates the Sunset Limited three times a week from the town of Maricopa, which is in Pinal County south of downtown Phoenix. A private company, White's Taxi Shuttle, operates a taxi service to the Phoenix metro area; as of 2017 there is Amtrak Thruway service to and from Maricopa with stops in Tempe and Phoenix. The Sunset Limited also directly serves Tucson, and many Phoenix passengers travel to Tucson as an alternative to boarding the train in Maricopa.
Amtrak's Southwest Chief train route operates through Flagstaff daily, and Amtrak provides guaranteed through-ticketed Amtrak Thruway connecting shuttle service via or from Metrocenter Mall and the town of Camp Verde to and from the trains at Flagstaff.
The nearest Valley Metro Rail station, the Downtown Phoenix Hub, is half a mile away.
, passenger rail service between Phoenix and Tucson is in the planning phase. Future extensions of the route could reach to Los Angeles. By 2035, Amtrak has proposed to have rail service connecting 16 stations in Arizona.
In June 2023, Amtrak submitted a grant application requesting $716 million for various long distance proposals. Among them is to bring Sunset Limited service back to Phoenix.