The present Houston station, which opened on October 26, 1959, was built by the
Southern Pacific Railroad to replace Grand Central Station, which was just east of the present station. That station operated from September 1, 1934 until the property was sold to the U.S. Government in 1959 to become the site of the
Houston main post office. Grand Central Station had replaced the original Houston & Texas Central depot of 1886. When Amtrak was created it was one of two stations in Houston that served Amtrak trains, the other being
Union Station, now part of
Daikin Park. All Amtrak trains moved to Southern Pacific Station by the end of July 1974, and all trains were canceled or rerouted out of Houston except the
Sunset Limited. The station continued to be owned and operated by the
Southern Pacific Railroad after the creation of Amtrak, and it has been owned and operated by the
Union Pacific Railroad, who bought out Southern Pacific. A third station used by the
Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad was at the top of the Main Street viaduct, next to the campus of the (UHD). It was no longer an active passenger station by the end of 1958; it never served Amtrak and was demolished, save for a section of platform under the Main Street viaduct. In the 2000s, the station was proposed to be replaced by the
Houston Intermodal Transit Center, just north of downtown, on the Union Pacific main line. The project was cancelled in 2010. ==References==