Rail service in White Plains can be traced as far back as December 1, 1844 with the establishment of the
New York and Harlem Railroad, which became part of the
New York Central and Hudson River Railroad in 1864 and was eventually taken over by the
New York Central Railroad. As an NYC station, it originally served both commuter trains in the
New York Tri-State Area and long distance trains toward
Albany, New York and
Boston, Massachusetts, via
Chatham, New York. As with most of the Harlem Line, the merger of New York Central with
Pennsylvania Railroad in 1968 transformed the station into a
Penn Central Railroad station. Penn Central's continuous financial despair throughout the 1970s forced them to turn over their commuter service to the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority which made it part of Metro-North in 1983. The current station house was built in 1987 as a replacement for the previous
Warren & Wetmore-built depot originally built in 1914 for the NYC, razed in September 1983. The former was similar to that of the current
Poughkeepsie station on the
Hudson Line, and continued to operate through the reconstruction. Under the 2015–2019
Metropolitan Transportation Authority Capital Plan, the station, along with four other Metro-North Railroad stations, would receive a complete overhaul as part of the
Enhanced Station Initiative. Updates would include cellular service, Wi-Fi, USB charging stations, interactive service advisories, and maps. The renovations at White Plains station will cost $91.3 million and will be completed by the end of March 2021. The three-phase renovation will improve the exterior, interior, platforms, restrooms, and bridges, and thus, costs much more than the renovations at the four other Metro-North stations. ==Station layout==