 Albion, MI | Wolverine | Ann Arbor, MI  |
Jackson, Michigan is a stop on all Wolverine trains. These trains stop at one of the oldest railroad stations still in passenger use that opened on September 1, 1873 by the Michigan Central Railroad. The station is a Victorian-Italianate brick station with one main floor (there are what look like two steeples with second floors at each end of hte large building) including a slate roof to avoid the embers of steam engines lighting the building on fire. The two-story brick building leads out to a low-level platform along the northernmost of two through tracks through the station. This platform begins at the grade-crossing of Cooper Street and runs east. This platform is basically at track level. A few pedestrian grade-crossings connect to a very narrow additional platform that serves the second through track through the station area. This second through track has switches that lead into a small train yard and the Amtrak Signal Maintenance Building just east of the station. For accessible boarding a MobiLift is just chilling on the platform
The platform is covered for most of its length by an attached porch that juts out from the historic station building. This is held up by very historical looking green columns at regular lengths along the platform. The platform has a couple of modern black benches on the platform. A plaque on the platform says “Modern Rail Systems was privileged to implement the Amtrak signalization for the new high speed railway corridor. In consideration of the four years of hospitality afforded to our talented work crews by the residents of Jackson, Michigan and Amtrak, please enjoy these benches as a token of our appreciation.”
For signage the platform includes a few modern blue text on grey platform signs at regular intervals. There is also an old pointless arrow sign for Jackson, MI above the door into the depot along with a similar sign by the street entrance that says Amtrak rail passenger station.
Streetside, the depot leads out to a brick street driveway area with a few short-term parking spaces directly outside. This driveway has a triangle with trees in it just beyond formed by the corner of Park Avenue and Michigan Avenue. These streets provide both entrances to the depot that is at an angle (along with the railroad tracks) to the regular Jackson street grid. There is a Michigan Historical site sign about the station's roll in the underground railroad and getting some former slaves to Canada to their safety, the opposite side discussions Jackson as a prominent railroad hub and the building of the Italianate-style union station built in 1873.
The station has a small gravel (but surrounded by fencing) long term parking lot with lots of signs that parking is for Amtrak customers only. Between this parking lot and the eastern end of the platform there is a small boarded up Redbrick building that runs alongside the platform. This was the former Railway Express/Freight Building
The interior of the depot includes a historic looking waiting room with lots of wooden benches (some with armrests and some without armrests). The windows in the single-story waiting room are lined with wood, although the floor looks like modern linoleum. A wood lined ticket office juts out from the walls with views into both the waiting room and out to the single-low-level platform beyond. The station was staffed full time until 2018 when this was reduced to one shift 5 days a week. As of 2025 the Amtrak website says the station is unstaffed, but when I visited in April 2025 it felt like there was a ticket agent, although I think they may have just been a caretaker. I did ask them if the train was on time, and they came up to the window to inform me it was a few minutes late. There was also an Amtrak police officer who did the same journey as me (although I got on and off in Niles) as a round-trip to the station from Battle Creek with less than an hour between the middle Detroit-bound Wolverine train, and last Chicago-bound Wolverine train of the day. He spent the layover sitting in the ticket office.
In an alcove at the north end of the waiting room is a little alcove between the station's restrooms. In this alcove is a mural that includes a RTG Tubroliner train under a historic image of the station, plus some other paintings of the station at other times in history. These Turboliners were the trains that primarily stopped at the station in 1978 when the depot was restored, operating in Midwest Corridor service from 1973 until 1981 when high costs of operations sidelined them. There are also various other plaques from the 1978 restoration including donations to the station's woodwork restoration fund, a 1980 FRA award for design excellence, and lots of other historical plaques. There is also a timetable of 65 trains that stopped in Jackson normally (a few Monday through Saturday only, a few Sunday only) in February 1926 as an example of how Jackson was a Union Station of sorts and used to have a lot more train service.
The waiting room in a separate area has a plaque that reads "To honor those men and women who have left from this depot since 1873 to places known and unknown, including the thousands who served their county in times of war and peace."
Photos 1-74: April 29, 2025
