Lancaster, PA (LNC)

Ticket Revenue

FY 2011

$10,108,623

Station Ridership

FY 2011

539,338

Note: Fiscal year is from
October through September.

The Lancaster Station opened in 1929 in the northern section of the city, about a mile from downtown. The building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was constructed by the Pennsylvania Railroad, mostly of brick while the station’s façade features large, concrete columns framing tall, rounded windows over the main entrance. The main lobby is enormous with high ceilings, a paned skylight and art deco hanging lights. Antique wooden benches line the lobby, while a steel staircase brings passengers down to the platform level. The station, using monumental architecture on a smaller scale, achieves an air of dignified beauty worthy of Lancaster’s colonial history and is Pennsylvania’s third busiest depot.

Efforts to renovate and redevelop the station have been ongoing for more than a decade, and recently began anew. All of these efforts stem in some way from the 1998 Lancaster Regional Transportation Station Master Plan, which called for numerous interior and exterior improvements including aesthetic enhancements such as repainting walls and repairing floors and ceilings, as well as more parking and adding air conditioning and additional programming spaces. In 1999, the station completed the first major renovations, spending $1.2 million to renovate the restrooms and install passenger elevators.

The Lancaster County Planning Commission proposed and is funding the design and construction of infrastructure improvements to the existing station. The Design Phase Engineering Agreement was executed in 2003.

The work contract for the most recently completed phase was signed in 2007 and early estimates put the cost of the work below $10 million. However, once renovations began, engineering estimates increased the anticipated amount of work on the old building. The plan from the mid-2000s called for increased parking, a separate waiting area for bus passengers, shops, restaurants, new Amtrak offices, upgrades to the nearly 80-year-old station’s heating and installation of an air conditioning system as well as the realignment of the station’s driveway to meet North Duke Street.

By the end of 2011 the cost of renovations had reached $14 million so the project contributors regrouped to plan the future efforts. In early 2012, Amtrak, PennDOT, Lancaster County Planning Commission and Lancaster County Transportation Authority will move from a study of the remaining work to what has been dubbed the “Capstone” project which will address the much anticipated rehabilitation of the passenger areas, including interior work to the waiting room, concourse, restrooms and hallways, and exterior work to stairways and platforms.

Lancaster’s history is as interesting and grand as its train station. The city began as Hickorytown, a small crossroads village, in the early 1700s. Early in the colonies’ history, it was the largest inland city, and now has one of the largest National Register Historic Districts in the country, including the train station. The city served as the capital of Pennsylvania from 1799 until 1812, and even as the capital of the American colonies for one day on September 27th, 1777, when the Continental Congress fled the captured Philadelphia, and before they moved on to York.

The city, named for Lancaster in England, takes its symbol from the House of Lancaster – the red rose. Locals take this history to heart, and even built their county prison in the 1850s to resemble Lancaster Castle.

Lancaster has always been a travel hub. In its earlier days, the city sat on the edge of the American frontier, and its hardware store was one of the last supply stops for pioneers traveling westward. Both the Conestoga wagon and the Pennsylvania rifle, two staples of the westward expansion, were made in Lancaster County. Likewise, the city was the terminating point of the country’s first long-distance, paved road, 1795’s Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike.

The city has also made many other eclectic contributions to American culture. Milton Hershey began his career in chocolate in Lancaster, where he perfected his skills before founding his eponymous chocolate company. Frank W. Woolworth, similarly, opened his first five-and-dime store on Queen Street, and although his company closed in 1998, it was an icon of American life for an entire century.

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

Lancaster is served by 28 weekday trains and 16 trains on the weekend.

Amtrak’s Keystone Service is financed in part through funds made available by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.