Ocala Union Station: Where Two Rivals Shared One Roof
Near Ocala, Florida
Ocala Union Station, opened in nineteen seventeen, was built jointly by two competing railroad companies: the Atlantic Coast Line and the Seaboard Air Line. Before its construction both railroads maintained separate depots in town. The agreement to share a single facility was a practical concession to efficiency and passenger convenience, though the two companies remained fierce competitors on every other front.
The building served both lines through the mid-twentieth century, when automobile and air travel gutted passenger rail across Florida. Amtrak removed Ocala from its route network in two thousand four. The station now serves bus passengers, but the architecture remains: it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in nineteen ninety-seven.
