Birmingham, AL (BHM)

1819 Morris Ave.
Birmingham, AL 35203

Station Ownership

Facility:
CSX

Parking:
City of Birmingham

Platform(s):
CSX

Track(s):
CSX

Amtrak Contact

Todd Stennis

Routes Served:

• Crescent

History

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."

The City of Birmingham, Alabama, having secured the necessary $30 million to $35 million, is starting over on their project to build an intermodal transportation hub. The intermodal facility would expand the MAX bus central station and include Amtrak, Greyhound and airport bus shuttles. They are currently advertising for new architects for the facility, and plan to have them by November 1st. The City will then meet with the architects, Amtrak, Greyhound and Transit Authority representatives to plan the facility's design, using current requirements. It is hoped that construction will be completed in three years.

Between the 1830s and 1860s, the area that became 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.

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.