Traveling by train will never be as glamorous as it used to be, in part because technology has supplanted trains with faster (and cheaper) modes of transport, and in part because Amtrak stations are horrible. This one, although not as decrepit as some rural stations, is showing its age. Worn floors and a gravelly parking lot remind you that this once proud symbol of industrialization has followed the manufacturing industry into decline and ruin. The neighborhood surrounding this station tells the same story. One can imagine a time when these warehouses were brimming over with the wealth of commerce. But now this stretch of North Tryon is the most sickly of the street's ailing districts.
The station is sustained primarily by industrial rather than passenger transport, but the Amtrak trains still pass through occasionally. The station is functional, if not beautiful.