Amtrak’s Wilmington station wins award for design

The renovated Amtrak Wilmington Train Station in North Carolina was recognized for its design excellence at the 2011 Brunel Awards International Railway Design Competition. It was selected from a pool of more than 150 entries submitted from 14 countries. The Amtrak-led renovation balanced the need to modernize the station while retaining its historic charm. The project included detailed restoration to various parts of the station including the grand staircase located in the lobby and the historic men's and women's waiting rooms on the second floor of the station. It also provided for a new passenger information display system and enhancements to the station's accessibility to people with disabilities. The Brunel Awards competition recognizes and promotes the best in railway architecture, engineering, landscape and environmental design, product design, locomotive and car design, graphic arts and corporate branding amongst railways from Europe, Asia and the Americas. The Wilmington Train Station is the 12th busiest station in the Amtrak system with 717,772 passengers in Fiscal Year 2011. In addition to Amtrak, the Wilmington Station also serves two commuter services; SEPTA and the Delaware Transit Corporation. In March 2011, the station was rededicated the Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Railroad Station in honor of the long-time Amtrak rider, strong advocate of passenger rail and current Vice President of the United States. Amtrak is also being recognized with a Brunel Commendation for the Superliner I Coach Overhaul completed by its in-house Mechanical Department. This project involved restoring stored or wrecked train cars and returning them to service. As a result of this effort, Amtrak has increased capacity on many of its Long Distance trains.