Phoenix Union Station: The Last Train

Phoenix Union Station opened on September thirtieth, nineteen twenty-three, built as a joint venture by the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe railroads after the Arizona Corporation Commission ordered them to stop running competing stations blocks apart.

The building is a showpiece of Mission Revival style, an elegant civic structure for a desert city that was growing fast. At dedication, city officials called it a monument to the progressiveness and prosperity of the Salt River Valley.

For seven decades it served as Phoenix's gateway: soldiers heading to war, families arriving to start over, winter visitors chasing sunshine. Passenger service ended on June second, nineteen ninety-six, when Amtrak's last train departed. The building still stands, now a historic landmark without trains.

Phoenix is one of the largest American cities without passenger rail service today, a fact that traces directly back to the suburban, automobile-first planning decisions that followed the station's closure.