Temple, TX (TPL)

Ticket Revenue

FY 2011

$906,660

Station Ridership

FY 2011

16,471

Note: Fiscal year is from
October through September.

Amtrak is located in Temple’s historic Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe (ATSF) station, built in 1911. This red brick and stucco Santa Fe depot is a quintessential example of Prairie-Beaux Arts architecture. The Santa Fe’s trademark, a cross in a circle, is displayed in the brickwork. The depot is featured in Jay C. Henry’s Architecture in Texas 1895-1945. The depot once served as the Southern Division headquarters of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe, an ATSF subsidiary.

In 1985, Santa Fe vacated the building. Amtrak unstaffed the station in the early 1990s. The station was slated for demolition, but a community effort led to its preservation. In 1995, the city of Temple purchased the depot and five acres of surrounding land, then submitted a grant application to the Texas Department of Transportation for funds to restore the station. The city received $2.4 million in ISTEA funds and restorations began in September 1999. The Railway & Heritage Museum, formerly located in the 1908 Gulf, Colorado, & Santa Fe in Moody, Texas, depot, moved to Temple when the renovation was completed in the summer of 2000. Temple Transit has offices in the depot.

Temple, the “Wildflower Capital of Texas,” was named for Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway surveyor Bernard Moore Temple. It was founded in 1881 as a railroad town and was once the home of the Santa Fe Railway’s employee hospital. Both BNSF Railway Co., (the successor to ATSF) and Union Pacific have lines serving the city, and a BNSF rail yard and locomotive maintenance facility are located there. North of Temple, the Texas Eagle uses BNSF tracks; south of Temple, Union Pacific tracks.

The city is known for its health services, and is home to more physicians per capita than any other community in the country. The city is surrounded by lush prairie land, woodlands, and Lake Belton, a popular recreational destination and what is claimed to be one of the cleanest lakes in Texas.

Temple is the hometown of football legends “Mean Joe” Greene and Sammy Baugh, actor Rip Torn, and Spoon singer Britt Daniel. Temple is mentioned in the novel and film, No Country for Old Men.
Amtrak provides ticketing and limited baggage services at this facility.

Temple is served by two daily trains.