Birmingham, AL (BHM)

Ticket Revenue

FY 2011

$3,287,056

Station Ridership

FY 2011

48,196

Note: Fiscal year is from
October through September.

The Birmingham station is located at the southern end of downtown fronting the railroad. It features a small waiting room with an elevated platform constructed above both the station and 18th Street. The station occupies part of what originally was the last Birmingham passenger station operated by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, and is sometimes still referred to locally as the "L&N Station."

In late 2009, the city of Birmingham, having secured more than $30 million, resumed development work on a proposed intermodal transportation hub to be built in the vicinity of the current Amtrak station. The facility would accommodate Amtrak, intercity and local busses, taxis, car rentals, and bicycles. Birmingham has contributed about $14 million to the project, and an additional $22 million in grants was awarded through the Federal Transit Administration’s Bus and Bus Facilities program.

The complex will span the land between the railroad viaduct and Morris Avenue from 16th to 19th Streets. As of fall 2011, the vision for the intermodal center included two structures located on the eastern end of the property. One will house a large waiting area for Amtrak and Greyhound bus passengers while the other will provide space for local MAX busses.

Drawings submitted by project architects Giattina Aycock Architecture Studio and Hoskins Architecture show modern, glass fronted structures that will allow abundant sunlight to flood the interiors. Features include a clock tower—which recalls historic 19th and early 20th century depots—as well as a replica of a famous sign that stood near the old railroad station and read “Birmingham, The Magic City.” Space for retail and restaurants will help generate activity throughout the day and evening, and a surface parking lot will occupy the west end of the property. Design documents were sent to the Federal Transit Administration for approval in fall 2011, and construction is anticipated to begin in mid-2012.

Once completed, the intermodal center will be a fitting complement to Railroad Park, a new downtown greenspace that opened in 2010. Located on the south side of the busy railroad viaduct, the project transformed former industrial land into a 19 acre park. The parcel was reshaped to create small hills and a lake, and more than 600 hardwoods, evergreens, and flowering trees frame an amphitheater, playgrounds, and grassy fields. A walking path edged with native wildflowers follows the ridge of the hills and rises to the level of the viaduct, thereby affording railroad enthusiasts with sweeping views of the passing freight and passenger trains. Hand cast bricks and cobblestones unearthed on site were used to construct benches and other features, providing continuity between the past and present uses of the land. Wood paneled structures, including a park office and café, were designed to evoke the look of boxcars.

Birmingham began as the village of Elyton, which was a small pioneer farm settlement, little remarked upon and ignored in the battles of the American Civil War. It was after the war that the railroads and land barons built a town they named after England’s industrial giant, Birmingham, when real estate promoters sold lots near the planned crossing of the Alabama & Chattanooga and South & North railroads. The original city plan included over 1,160 acres, including an industrial zone and underpasses for the railroad beds.

Through the mid-twentieth century, Birmingham was the industrial giant of the American south. Formally organized in 1871, the town quickly became a commercial hub because of the natural abundance of coal, iron ore and limestone within the area—all necessary ingredients for making steel—and it continues to be a manufacturing hub from its origins to the present day . Its rapid growth in the early 20th century earned it the nickname, “the Magic City.” In the later 20th century, its economy diversified: large-scale banking, insurance, medicine, publishing and biotechnology all have come to the city. Today, Birmingham is recognized as one of the top cities for income growth in the American South.

Birmingham also became a center of the struggle for civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s. A watershed in the civil rights movement occurred in 1963, when Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference were invited to Birmingham for a series of protests that eventually led to the desegregation of public accommodations in Birmingham, as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1978, then Mayor David Vann proposed creating a civil rights museum in Birmingham; by 1990, the City Council incorporated a 15-member Board of Directors for the Civil Rights institute, which opened to the public on November 16, 1992.

Birmingham has been home to a long list of celebrities, including Willie Mays, Nat King Cole, Alice Faye, Phil Harris, Hank Williams Jr. and Fannie Flagg.

On April 6, 1909, the magnificent Birmingham Passenger Terminal Station, having been built for the then-remarkable sum of $3 million, opened as a replacement for an older Union Station. Covering 10 square blocks, its free-standing dome was flanked by twin towers; this newer station was a magnificent example of Byzantine-Turkish style architecture. The Birmingham Terminal served six railroads—all of those passing through the city except for the Louisville and Nashville and the Atlantic Coast Line—as well as the U.S. Post Office’s mail facility and Railway Express Agency. Even after the peak years during World War II, the terminal handled 42 daily train departures, through much of the 1950s. After the terminal finally closed in 1969, this “Great Temple of Travel” was razed to the ground.

This facility has a waiting room and is staffed by Amtrak employees.

Birmingham is served by two daily trains.