South Shore-South Portsmouth, KY (SPM)

Depot Drive & US 23
South Shore, KY 41175

Station Hours

Annual Ticket Revenue (FY 2023): $62,249
Annual Station Ridership (FY 2023): 870

• Ownerships
• Routes Served
• Contact
• Local Community Links

• Facility Ownership: Amtrak
• Parking Lot Ownership: CSX Transportation
• Platform Ownership: CSX Transportation
• Track Ownership: CSX Transportation

• Cardinal

Ismael Cuevas
Regional Contact
governmentaffairschi@amtrak.com
For information about Amtrak fares and schedules, please visit Amtrak.com or call 1-800-USA-RAIL (1-800-872-7245).

• City of Portsmouth, OH
• Greenup County, KY

The South Shore – Portsmouth station, an enclosed shelter on the platform, was completed in early 2023 as part of a larger $3.5 million program of accessibility improvements.  The one-story red brick building features grey stone trim at the base and in the window sills, and it is topped by a seamed metal hipped-gabled roof. Wide eaves supported by graceful paired brackets protect passengers from inclement weather. Inside, the waiting area appears light and airy due to large tripartite windows, while metal benches line the walls. Complementing the depot are new light standards, fencing and a concrete platform with tactile edging. This new facility replaced an earlier shelter erected by Amtrak in 1976.

Amtrak, working with the City of South Shore, advanced a series of accessibility design and construction improvements that also included a new platform, ramp, guardrails, signage, lighting, passenger drop off aisle, and upgrades to the parking lot in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Replacing the former asphalt platform, the new 230-foot-long concrete platform, constructed alongside active CSX tracks, provides a level surface for wheeled mobility device, stroller and rolling luggage users. A new detectable warning system also runs along the full length of the platform and provides a tactile surface detectable by passengers with vision disabilities. In addition, Amtrak installed additional parking lot lighting at the request of the city.

As its name indicates, this station serves the community of South Shore, Ky., and the larger city of Portsmouth, Ohio, located across the Ohio River. The area that would become South Shore was part of a larger Shawnee settlement at the confluence of the Scioto and Ohio rivers in the late 18th century. At that time, the Shawnee on both sides of the river were living within an area that had been inhabited by the “Mound Builders” some 1,500 to 2,100 years ago. The remnants of those giant earthworks, which include several circular complexes as well as very straight long parallel-walled roadways, were mapped by archaeological surveyors Squier and Davis in 1847, and can still be viewed.

In the 1790s, European-American settlers founded the small town of Alexandria just west of where Portsmouth is today, closer to the Scioto River, on the site of the old Shawnee encampment. However, the site was prone to flooding, and by 1803, the residents had moved to higher ground. The only remaining evidence of the original town is the Phillip Moore Stone House, now a museum. The city of Portsmouth was incorporated in 1815.

The completion of the Ohio and Erie Canal in 1832 brought significant trade to the Portsmouth area, as did the construction of the Norfolk & Western rail yards there, facilitating the growth of the coal mining industry in the region. This portion of Kentucky and Ohio was also a major iron-producing region, given the availability of native ore, lime, coal and timber. During the 1830s, Kentucky was third in iron production in the United States.

Today, grey iron casting, uranium enrichment and shoe lace manufacturing are the major industries in the Portsmouth area. Mitchellace, Inc., founded in Portsmouth in 1902, is the world’s largest producer of boot laces and shoe care products. Portsmouth also takes pride in having been a childhood home of Leonard Franklin Slye, whom the world knows much better as Roy Rogers, star of Western movies and TV series.

After a disastrous flood in 1937, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built a floodwall to protect the city. In 1993, Louisiana muralist Robert Dafford began painting murals of Portsmouth’s history on the city’s floodwalls. The murals were mostly finished by 2003, and another section honoring Portsmouth’s baseball heroes was completed in 2006. The part of the floodwall included in the project is 20 feet high and extends for 2,090 feet along Front Street in the historic Boneyfiddle District of downtown Portsmouth.

Platform with Shelter