West Palm Beach, FL (WPB)

Amtrak/Tri-Rail Station
209 South Tamarind Avenue
West Palm Beach, FL 33401

Station Hours

Annual Ticket Revenue (FY 2023): $3,945,999
Annual Station Ridership (FY 2023): 44,807

• Ownerships
• Routes Served
• Contact
• Local Community Links

• Facility Ownership: City of West Palm Beach
• Parking Lot Ownership: City of West Palm Beach/Palm Beach County
• Platform Ownership: Florida Department of Transportation/South Florida Regional Transportation Authority (SFRTA)
• Track Ownership: Florida Department of Transportation

• Floridian
• Silver Meteor

Todd Stennis
Regional Contact
governmentaffairsnol@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 West Palm Beach
• Tri-Rail
• Palm Tran buses

The West Palm Beach depot was designed by Harvey & Clarke Architects for the Seaboard Air Line Railroad and opened with the arrival of the Orange Blossom Special on January 29, 1925. The depot is prominently sited on the west side of downtown, with its main entry – marked by a double-height round arched portal – terminating the view down Clematis St. The design team was influenced by the architecture of Spain and Italy, combining elements such as shady arcades, stuccoed walls, red tile roofs and whimsical cast stone decorations into a more general Mediterranean Revival style. A tower with keyhole slot windows punctuates the building and creates a focal point from afar.

The Amtrak waiting room and ticket desk occupy the former express area of the depot, where parcels and other shipments were handled, while the old waiting room is used by Greyhound. The latter features an oversized fireplace with a mantel incorporating urns, putti and fancy scrollwork. Due to its design integrity, the depot was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

Today the station is an intermodal nexus for intercity passenger and commuter rail, local and intercity buses, and taxis. Tri-Rail commuter train passengers use this station to access Palm Beach International Airport via a bus route or taxi. Amtrak began passenger service at West Palm Beach in 1971, and Tri-Rail initiated passenger service between West Palm Beach and Miami in 1989. The historic station was restored and rededicated in April 1991. Planned by Oliver and Glidden Architects, the work included restoration of ornamental cast stone elements, exterior masonry, doors and windows and iron and tile work. The red clay tile roof was replaced, as were the electrical, lighting, plumbing and heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.

In summer 2012, the city finished an improvement project that made the depot more welcoming to all visitors. New sidewalks with a shell texture finish were installed and more than five dozen trees—such as sabal palms, highrise oaks and Malayan coconut palms—were planted around the building. Seating was also added. The improvements were funded with a $750,000 Transportation Enhancement grant from the Federal Highway Administration, to which the city provided a $150,000 local match.

The first formal homestead claim in the area near what would become West Palm Beach came on July 28, 1873, on the shores of the Lake Worth lagoon. In those days, Lake Worth was a freshwater lake supplied entirely by ground seepage. In 1878, the Providencia, carrying 20,000 coconuts, wrecked on Palm Beach Island, the strip of land between the lake and the Atlantic 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 Railway (FEC) magnate, began buying land on Palm Beach Island and the mainland. The next year, he moved his railroad operations to the 48-block planned city that he laid out on the west bank of Lake Worth; thus West Palm Beach began as a community to house railroad workers and the servants working for the two grand hotels on Palm Beach Island. In 1894, when West Palm Beach became the southern terminus of the FEC, 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.

In 1903, West Palm Beach officially became a city. Like much of the region, it grew rapidly during the 1920s Florida land boom, and much of the historic architecture in the area dates from that period. West Palm Beach’s economy now includes commercial fishing, and it 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.

Station Building (with waiting room)