Altoona Transportation Center

Railroad and bus station in Altoona, Pennsylvania, US

The Altoona Transportation Center is an intermodal passenger facility in downtown Altoona, Pennsylvania. It is served by the daily Amtrak , Greyhound Lines intercity buses, and AMTRAN local bus service (for which is serves as the hub). The station was built in 1986, replacing a temporary station, which had in turn replaced the 1887 built Pennsylvania Railroad station in 1972.

The Altoona Transportation Center stands on the site of the old Altoona station, which was constructed in 1887 immediately to the West of the Logan House Hotel. When Amtrak took over intercity passenger service in May 1971, it retained two daily round trips serving Altoona – the and the combined /. The Spirit of St. Louis was renamed on July 12, 1971, and began operating separately from the Broadway Limited between Pittsburgh and Harrisburgh. The Duquesne was renamed Keystone on November 14, 1971, and discontinued on April 30, 1972. To replace it, the National Limited was rescheduled to no longer cross Pennsylvania late at night. Amtrak and Penn Central vacated the old station effective November 6, 1972; it was demolished to make room for a parking garage. Although Penn Central originally planned a $400,000 replacement station, a trailer instead served as a ticket office and waiting room. The National Limited was discontinued on October 1, 1979. Projected costs ranged anywhere from 10 million dollars to 3 million dollars. On August 12, 1982, the Altoona Area Chamber of Commerce voted unanimously in favor of a new Transportation Center. By October of the same year Harry Weese and Associates, an architectural firm from Washington D. C., had been chosen to conduct a series of surveys in order to determine the optimal location for the proposed structure. Ultimately, urban renewal parcels 14A, 14B, 16A, and 16B were chosen, and the Transportation Center was merged into an existing Altoona Parking Authority project, creating the hybrid parking garage/transit facility that exists today. The facility opened on October 23, 1986 after being completed for $3.2 million, an estimated $500,000 under budget. Service resumed on June 1, 2020.