The Most Beautiful Train Stations In America, According To Passengers

Just like an airport, a train station is often a city's chance to make a great first impression. And in the first half of the 20th century, called the Golden Age of Rail Travel, cities took this duty very seriously. A train station wasn't just a place to board a train; it was a statement about the city's wealth and personality. In an age renowned for its breathtaking architecture, this translated into ornate palaces all over the country, full of vaulted ceilings, Corinthian columns, chandeliers, and fanciful flourishes in every detail, right down to the brass doorknobs. 

After World War II, when trains were replaced with cars and planes, many of these stations fell into disrepair. However, as respect for both historic preservation and the environmental benefits of train travel grew, many of these stations were lovingly restored to their former glory. Now, they are thriving transportation hubs, full of shops, restaurants, art, and expos, and often the centerpiece of future development projects. We traveled around the country to find 10 beautiful stations that make it clear you've truly arrived.

Only one station on this list is "grand," and people the world over will know exactly which one we're talking about. Grand Central Terminal, a Beaux-Arts masterpiece in the heart of Manhattan more commonly known as Grand Central Station, is both the largest train station in America and arguably the most well-known and awe-inspiring. It's so much more than just a pretty train station: it's a cultural monument on par with New York City's greatest landmarks.

The 49-acre train station was built in 1913 to great fanfare. In its first decades, the nation's busiest train station was also home to a museum, movie theater, art gallery, and even an art school. After World War II, when train ridership plummeted, Grand Central was nearly demolished, a tragic fate that befell the equally opulent Pennsylvania Station in 1964. However, thanks to the Landmarks Preservation Act and the high-profile lobbying of Jackie Kennedy, the station was saved and refurbished for $435 million.

Today, the station serves as a gleaming monument to both transit and careful, loving historic preservation. It is both the gargantuan hub of the Metro-North Railroad, several subway lines and, as of 2023, the Long Island Railroad. It hosts 44 platforms, more than any other station in the world. But more than anything, Grand Central is known for its astounding beauty: the soaring constellation ceiling of the Main Concourse, the iconic clock atop the information booth, and the stunning exterior facade with statues of Greek gods and the largest stained-glass Tiffany clock in the world. Grand Central is also home to more than 65 stores, and the delectable Grand Central Market, a European-style market famous for its local gourmet eateries.

Standing outside the William H. Gray III 30th Street Station, one could be forgiven for mistaking it for another grand Philadelphia museum, the City Hall, or even the Lincoln Memorial. The majestic, 115-foot tall Art Deco station is flanked by six regal 70-foot limestone Corinthian columns, a fitting entrance to a station Architectural Digest once included in its list of the 37 most beautiful train stations in the world.

The 30th Street Station opened in 1933. At the time, it was renowned for both its beauty and exciting new technological innovations, which included using underground tracks for long-distance trains. It also contained a chapel, a mortuary, a hospital, and even a space on its roof for aircraft to land. Today, as the hub for Philadelphia's metro and commuter lines, the 30th Street Station is Amtrak's third busiest train station. 

It is also one of its loveliest. The Main Concourse features soaring 95-foot high coffered ceilings, adorned with eight Art Deco chandeliers that dangle off it like beautiful jewelry. Massive cathedral windows separated by gilded Corinthian columns give the station an airy, opulent ambiance. The Tennessee marble floors make passengers feel as though they're walking a red carpet to get to their train. Like many of the best train stations, 30th Street is a destination unto itself. Outside, The Porch offers a lush, shaded park full of food trucks, pop-up performances, and cultural events. The station is also the center of a proposed $2 billion development plan that will build 18 million square feet of new development and 40 acres of new green or open space.

Sure, many stations are pretty, but how many have hosted Presidential Inaugural Balls or Queen Elizabeth II? Union Station, another turn-of-the-century Beaux-Arts masterpiece located just steps from the United States Capitol, relishes its role as the unofficial capital of the nation's great train stations.

The 200-acre station — larger than the Capitol building it overlooks — was designed by Daniel Burnham, the architect behind Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition and New York's Flatiron Building. When Union Station was completed in 1908, it was the largest train station in the world, and the Washington Monument could lay sideways in its concourse. In its heyday, Union Station transported 42,000 people daily and featured a bowling alley, mortuary, baker, butcher, a YMCA, and even Turkish baths. It also offered an opulent Presidential Suite that hosted several U.S. presidents and royalty from around the world.

Anyone who's been to Union Station will tell you it's fit for a king. The station is renowned for its Main Hall, whose 30-foot barrel vaulted ceilings adorned with 23-carat gold leaf were modeled after the Baths of Diocletian in ancient Rome. The ceiling forms a series of elegant domes that curve graciously over a gleaming marble floor. The station also contains several event spaces that have hosted inaugural balls and other elite gatherings. During the day, Union Station is Amtrak's second busiest station after Grand Central, accommodating about 70,000 passengers. It also offers three levels of retail and food, with everything from fast casual food to Presidential Suite-worthy gourmet meals.

As a smaller city, Richmond doesn't have the same panoply of landmarks as New York or Washington, and one of its best-known symbols is the grand, 110-foot Second Renaissance Revival tower of the Main Street Station, completed in 1901. While many stations of the era are best known for their grand interiors, Main Street Station is most celebrated for its fanciful, creative exterior facade. Rather than the limestone common for the time, Main Street Station is made of Pompeiian brick decorated with fanciful embellishments like stone roses. The famed six-story Clock Tower abuts a hipped, sloped roof made of red clay tiles covering a facade of elaborate windows and arches.

Main Street Station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and named a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1976. The timing was lucky, though bittersweet. In 1972, the station was flooded during Hurricane Agnes at a time when it was already suffering from low usage. Amtrak discontinued passenger service in 1975. The following year, it was damaged in a fire, and in 1983, a six-alarm fire destroyed its upper floors and roof. In 2001, an extensive rebuilding and refurbishment campaign began, and in 2003, the station began welcoming trains again for the first time in nearly 30 years. Today, in addition to offering train and bus services all over the Northeast, the Main Street Station is one of Richmond's premier event venues. In 2017, its 100,000-square gable-roofed train shed was refurbished into a two-level event space offering sweeping city views.

Some stations on this list perfectly exemplify a particular style of architecture, the way Grand Central is seen as an exemplar of Beaux-Arts. Others, like the 30th Street Station, are an intriguing mix of styles. But Cincinnati Union Terminal, with its rounded dome and fanciful murals, is pure Art Deco, reflected in everything from the signage to its fanciful terraced green fountain in the front.

The 22-building, 287-acre station was completed in 1933 at the height of the Art Deco movement. It is particularly notable for its massive domed rotunda, which, at about 10 stories high, is the largest semi-dome in the Western Hemisphere. An enormous gold, rainbow-shaped arch crowns a large crescent window, from which golden ribbons branch out and encircle the dome. Below the gold, two large murals by Weinold Reiss also encircle the rotunda, telling stories of both American and Cincinnati history.

Cincinnati Union Station initially transported 216 trains per day, but demand declined rapidly after World War II, and train service ended in 1972. In 1990, the Cincinnati Historical Society and Cincinnati Museum of Natural History both opened up spaces inside the station in a space newly deemed the Cincinnati Museum Center, one of the best budget-friendly things to do in the city. Today, the Museum Center also comprises the Duke Energy Children's Museum, the Cincinnati History Library and Archives, and an Omnimax theater. Train service resumed at around the same time that the Museum Center opened, though ridership is low due to late-night hours. Still, this National Historic Landmark continues to thrive as the site of several museums and traveling exhibits, and as one of the world's great Art Deco gems.

Heading west, we arrive at yet another Union Station, and there are still a few more to come. This repetition isn't due to a lack of creativity. Around the turn of the 20th century, the term "union station" signified a single station where multiple railroad companies met and shared a single terminal. Architect Daniel Burnham, who also designed Washington's Union Station, saw a union station combining four railroad companies as crucial for freeing up more land for development in Chicago.

After 10 years of construction and $70 million (roughly $1 billion today), Chicago Union Station opened in 1925. It was $70 million well spent. The station was a Beaux-Arts masterpiece, centered around a Great Hall with soaring Corinthian columns, Tennessee marble floors, and a 115-foot-tall barrel-vaulted skylight. Ridership peaked during World War II but declined in the following decades. In 1984, Amtrak took over the station and instituted several large, expensive renovations, which have more or less continued on and off since then. Notably, crews restored the Great Hall to its former glory and opened up its skylight, which had been blacked out since World War II. They also created numerous lavish event spaces right off the Great Hall, notably the Burlington Room. The former Women's Lounge, flanked by large golden columns and glittering with murals and chandeliers, now features color-changing lights and an audiovisual system. Chicago Union Station is now a hub for numerous long-distance and commuter lines and is the third busiest station in the country, with 32 million passengers a year.

Many train stations are, by definition, a place to pass through. They make the experience as pleasant as possible, thanks to beautiful architecture and a variety of shops, mostly fast-casual chains. But Denver Union Station, a lovingly and lavishly renovated train station and hotel known affectionately as "Denver's Living Room," is a destination unto itself.

The grand Beaux-Arts station was first completed in 1914. In its heyday, it welcomed over 50,000 visitors daily and hosted world leaders like Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Ridership declined after World War II, and the station began to deteriorate. However, a $500 million renovation started in 2010 helped return Union Station to its former glory, and then some. The 12,000-square-foot Great Hall retained all its historic flourishes, with elegant chandeliers hanging from its vaulted ceilings in front of soaring arched cast-iron windows. 

The space was also reimagined as "Denver's Living Room," full of comfortable couches, leather chairs, and tables from which to enjoy high-end, independent food and shopping. Options include The Terminal Bar, which serves local craft beer where the old ticket counter once stood; Milkbox Ice Creamery, the former barber shop remodeled into an old-fashioned ice cream store; PigTrain, which serves organic, fair-trade coffee; Bloom, an independent boutique selling flowers and elegant gifts; and Tattered Cover, a beloved independent bookstore, among many others. The Great Hall also functions as the lobby of the Crawford Hotel, a 112-room luxury hotel located on the train station's upper levels. Union Station also remains a busy train station with a stylish new open-air train hall, a large outdoor plaza, a bus terminal, a bike-share hub, and a light rail station.

We now arrive in Southern California in spectacular fashion. Santa Fe Depot is exactly the kind of SoCal welcome you'd expect: Palm trees, a grand fountain, fanciful Mediterranean architecture, all steps from the ocean. The Depot is one of the finest examples of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture anywhere and feels more like a Spanish villa or Mexican cathedral than a working train station.

When the Panama Canal was completed in 1914, San Diego anticipated becoming a major shipping port for ships traveling between the East and West coasts. To celebrate the opening of the canal, the city hosted the 1915 Panama-California Exposition, a sort of giant coming out party. Planners felt the city's existing small, wood Victorian train station would not be able to handle the throngs of visitors. The city enlisted architect Arthur Brown, Jr., who also designed the beloved San Francisco City Hall, to design a grand Mission Revival station in keeping with the aesthetic theme of the exhibition. The result is a Mediterranean palace made of bright white stucco and a red tiled roof, crowned on both sides by two gold-domed bell towers. Inside, chandeliers dangle from vaulted, arched ceilings connected by redwood beams, which tower over a Spanish-tiled floor dotted with hundred-year-old oak benches. The white walls are adorned with beautifully decorative ceramic tiles, where the words "Santa Fe" are surrounded by elaborate Hispano-Moorish patterns. Today, the Santa Fe Depot is the third busiest Amtrak station in California, linking to trains up the West Coast, the San Diego Trolley, and commuter trains. The 15 empty acres around the building will soon host a mix of shops, homes, and offices.

From the Santa Fe Depot, we'll take a Surfrider train up the beautiful Pacific coast to arrive at our final Union Station of the tour. Some might argue we saved the best for last — after all, how many train stations have hosted the Academy Awards? Los Angeles Union Station is a true Hollywood icon, from its cinematic beauty to its storied history. It was completed in 1939 to a grand, three-day, star-studded premiere attended by half a million people. This was more than just Hollywood showmanship. People were relieved to finally have a suitable train station after years of complications and political drama. Their patience was rewarded with an $11 million (almost $250 million in today's money) palace known as the "Last of the Great Train Stations."

The 52-acre transportation hub was built in a unique style called Mission Moderne, a mix of Spanish Colonial, Mission Revival, and Art Deco architecture, among others. The recently restored main station boasts intricately carved ceilings decorated with California wildflowers, which look like wood but are actually made of steel. Graceful Art Deco chandeliers dangle from these ceilings over tiled terracotta floors with a strip of inlaid marble, surrounded on both sides by towering floor-to-ceiling windows. Throughout the West Coast's busiest station, visitors can feel as though they're in a 1930s hacienda as they walk under rounded arches atop red terracotta tile and marble, replete with art exhibitions and period touches like chandeliers or an original wooden information booth. The station is so beautiful that it has appeared in a number of films over the years. Its star rose even higher in 2021 when the 93rd Academy Awards were filmed in its original ticket lobby.

It seems fitting to end our journey with a heartwarming renovation redemption story. Seattle's King Street Station was built in 1906 in Pioneer Square, the heart of the city. The busy station was crowned by a 242-foot tower modeled after the Campanile di San Marco in Venice, the brick bell tower that has long been one of the city's most famous landmarks. At the time, the tower was the tallest building in Seattle, fitting for a station that had become the Northwest's most important transport hub.

After World War II, ridership declined, as it did around the country. However, the station didn't just fall into disrepair — throughout the 1950s and '60s, precious architectural gems were destroyed. The original yellow oak benches were replaced with plastic. Brass chandeliers and sconces were replaced with fluorescent lighting. Glass tile mosaics and marble were sheared from the wall and replaced with sheetrock and Formica paneling. Windows were even boarded up.

The station's fortunes began to slowly improve in 1973 when it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 2008, Seattle's city government acquired the station for a whopping $10 and used the saved money for a $55 million restoration that restored all the original features. Today, the gleaming station is a major hub for long-distance trains, the Seattle Streetcar, commuter rail, light rail, and buses. In addition to the restored clock tower, the station is renowned for its beautifully restored Compass Room, a grand hall named for the great compass on its marble floors. The room is crowned beautifully by a multi-globe chandelier, while period wall sconces illuminate the iridescent glass tiles on the walls.

When compiling this collection, we were most interested in interior and exterior beauty more than anything. We looked through travel and transportation blogs, websites, and forums to find train stations that take your breath away, which we were pleased to realize is more common than one might expect in the United States. We also aimed to highlight a variety of architectural styles, interior design, and different histories that show the many ways beautiful spaces can be thoughtfully repurposed for a changing world.