West Palm Beach, FL (WPB)

201 South Tamarind Avenue
West Palm Beach, FL 33402

Station Ownership

Facility:
City of West Palm Beach

Parking:
City of West Palm Beach

Platform(s):
Florida Department of Transportation

Track(s):
Florida Department of Transportation

Amtrak Contact

Todd Stennis

Routes Served:

• Silver Meteor
• Silver Star

History

The West Palm Beach station was built in the Mediterranean Revival style by Harvey & Clarke for the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, and opened with the arrival of the Orange Blossom Special on January 29, 1925. This station has been on the National Register of Historic Places since June 19, 1973.

The station also is an intermodal nexus for commuter rail, bus, and taxi, since the 1997 closure of the Palm Beach Airport station. Tri-Rail commuter train passengers have used this station to access Palm Beach International Airport via bus route and taxi. Amtrak began passenger service at West Palm Beach in 1971, and Tri-Rail began passenger service between West Palm Beach and Miami in 1989. This station, which now houses a recently opened small restaurant, was last restored and rededicated in April 1991.

The first formal homestead claim in the area near what would become West Palm Beach came on July 28, 1873, on the shores of Lake Worth. In those days, the Lake Worth lagoon was a fresh water lake supplied entirely by ground seepage. In 1878, the Providencia, carrying 20,000 coconuts, wrecked on Palm Beach Island, the strip of sea barrier between the lake and the ocean. The resulting proliferation of coconut palms led to the area’s name.

By 1893, Henry Morrison Flagler, the Standard Oil and Florida East Coast Railroad magnate, began buying up land on Palm Beach. He also purchased land across the narrow Lake Worth and in 1894 and moved the business which dealt with his railroad operation across to the 48-block planned city that he laid out. West Palm Beach therefore began as a community to house the servants working for the two grand hotels on Palm Beach, as well as become the terminus for the railway. In 1894, 78 people met at the town police station, or Calaboose, and voted to incorporate the town into what was then Dade County. The shanty town that had grown up gave way to brick and stone buildings with incorporation. That was also the year that the Florida East Coast Railroad came to West Palm Beach.

In 1903, the town officially became a city. The city of West Palm Beach grew rapidly during the 1920s with the Florida land boom, which only lasted five years until the market ran out of buyers to pay the high prices. However, much of the historic architecture in the area dates from that time. Today, West Palm Beach’s economy includes commercial fishing and is a center for the research and production of aeronautical and electronic equipment. Tourism is important to the city, which underwent another development boom in the 1970s and 1980s and engineered a successful downtown revival in the 1990s.

In 2008, planners met to consider a “grand central station” for West Palm Beach, possibly with underground tracks, in an effort by state and local agencies to boost transit use and create transit-oriented development. This would extend Tri-Rail service up to Jupiter, Fla., and bring passenger traffic back onto existing rails through more densely populated areas. If this plan succeeds, riders would board Amtrak and Tri-Rail trains at a more central location at Evernia Street, instead of the Tamarind Street location.

Amtrak provides both ticketing and baggage services at this facility.

West Palm Beach is served by four daily trains.

ADA Compliance

Federal law requires compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by 2010. The following is a list of items typically required for transportation and public facilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Please check the regulations for guidance or contact us for more information.