 Carbondale, IL | Illini / Saluki | Centralia, IL  |
Du Quoin (pronounced Do Coin I think?) is an Amtrak station serving this small city of just over 5,000 people in Southern Illinois. It's biggest claim to fame is hosting the Annual DuQuoin State Fair (one of two Illinois State Fairs, supplementing the main one in Springfield). The station is a stop on the Illini and Saluki but is skipped by the City of New Orleans. There was service from this station to New Orleans and St. Louis and Kansas City by way of the River Cities route before it was discontinued in 1993. The station was traditionally a flag stop on the Illini (such as in the 1997 timetable).
Although the town is small, on the opposite side of Main Street and the railroad tracks from the station is a small parking lot with an extra wide bus shelter and bike racks for the Du Quoin Area Transit, that includes a few trips per weekday (about 4 to 5) down to Carbondale on the Chestnut Route. There are also some transit connections to Centralia the next Amtrak Station north but I believe these require a transfer and South Central Transit's website is lacking a little bit with easy to understand information.
The station is quite simple, consisting of a short ground-level platform with just a yellow line and no tactile warning strip. Two very old-fashioned yellow pipe-looking railings line the side of the platform since the tracks are at a slightly higher grade than the parking lot below. When I visited in Summer 2025 a new ADA compliant platform was under construction just north of this original platform, giving the station well needed improvements. Only one door could be open on stopping trains, although maybe two could have been open at the original platform. Passengers enter the original platform as part of this construction project from a new opening cut in the yellow-pipe looking railings down a clearly newly paved path to the southern parking lot. This platform is located along the western of the two tracks that run through station. The platform is between and almost equidistant the grade-crossings of Main Street and Park Street.
The station depot has very AmStation vibes although I can't tell if it was actually built as a genuine AmStation or just in the same early 1980s style. There is a flat brown overhanging roof that covers a building containing offices for the Du Quoin Chamber of commerce as well as a small Amtrak waiting area with a single door out to the platform area. This waiting area has brown floors. The walls are largely cinderblock walls, interrupted by faux stone pillars and a white acoustic tile roof. There is a windows on three sides plus a normal white plastered interior wall that was definitely added after the station was built. Amentias for waiting passengers are two brown wooden benches and a modular black bench of four attached seats. A wheelchair mobile lift and soda machine are outside the station facing the parking lot. There are no restrooms or water fountains. The depot has lots of signs saying No Trespassing: Amtrak passengers only and that it is open from 6:30am to 10:30pm with a time lock to automatically lock it. There are buttons to push in the event of an emergency if a passenger is stuck inside.
The depot stretches between the train tracks and parallel Chestnut Street. There should be small parking lots on each side of the depot but when I visited in 2025 construction was taking up the entirety of the north parking lot with only the south parking lot open. When I visited there was also only a single station sign reading “Amtrak Welcome to Du Quoin” on the roof of the depot facing the tracks. The sign at least has the modern Amtrak logo, no pointless arrow. There was also a single older format blue sign saying Parking Lot with a modern Amtrak logo replacing the pointless arrow on this sign.
Photos 1-47: July 4, 2025
