Stamford Transportation Center

The 1861-built depot in 1868

The 1890s-built station in 1983

Regular daily train service began in Stamford on January 1, 1849. In 1867, a depot was built one block east of the present location. The railroad at that time consisted of two tracks and passed through town on ground level (crossing the streets at grade). In the mid-1890s two more tracks were added to the line and most crossings were elevated and bridged, so the 1867 depot, was razed and replaced.[7]

Architecture critic Paul Goldberger, writing for The New York Times in 1987, criticized the station for "a harshness almost unequaled in contemporary architecture" as well as for cost overruns and many functional failings, including the lack of shelter for the track platforms. The route from the cross-tracks waiting room to the platform was so long and indirect that passengers who waited indoors until a train's arrival was announced could not get to the platform in time to board it.[8]

A complete renovation of the station in the early 2000s, provided for in the original design of the overhead structure, addressed these problems. The two platforms were made island platforms, capable of serving four tracks. Added features included platform canopies, stairs and escalators directly from the waiting room for the tracks, and a new platform crossover, connecting to a 1,200-space addition to the parking garage.[9]

In 2006, the state indicated plans to replace the 1987-built garage.[10] That plan was cancelled in 2008; by 2012, the state planned to pursue privately-funded transit-oriented development on the garage parcel, with replacement parking possibly located up to a quarter-mile away.[11] Temporary repairs to the deteriorating original garage were made in 2015; even so, only 200 of the 727 spaces were usable by 2019.[9]

Construction of a new 928-space, $82 million parking garage northwest of the station began in October 2021.[12] It includes a 320-foot (98 m)-long footbridge connecting to the main waiting room. As of October 2023, it is expected to open in November 2023, after which the 1980s-built garage will be demolished at a cost of $9 million.[13]

The station has a 9-car-long side platform on the south side, a 10-car-long platform on the north side and two high-level 12-car-long island platforms.[14]^: 20 The main station concourse straddles the tracks of the Northeast Corridor, and contains the ticket booth, a passenger waiting area, and shops. Below the platform level is an MTA police station, other shops, a Greyhound/Peter Pan office and CT Transit Customer Information Center. Stairs and escalators lead to the platform level. On the south side of the station, across an access street, is a large parking garage connected to the concourse by one pedestrian bridge and directly connected to the east end of the platforms by a second bridge (both bridges connect to Level 4 of the garage).

A bus station is located just to the north of the train station, underneath a large bridge carrying Interstate 95. Taxis pick up passengers at a stand on the south side of the station. A car rental agency is located southwest of the station building.

M	Mezzanine	Crossover between platforms
P Platform level	Side platform, doors will open on the right
	Track 5	←      New Canaan Branch toward New Canaan (Glenbrook) → ←      New Canaan Branch, Shore Line East termination track ←      New Haven Line, New Canaan Branch, Danbury Branch toward New York–Grand Central (Old Greenwich or Harlem–125th Street)
	Island platform, doors will open on the left or right
	Track 3	←      New Haven Line, New Canaan Branch, Danbury Branch toward New York–Grand Central (Old Greenwich or Harlem–125th Street) ←      Northeast Regional toward Norfolk, Newport News or Roanoke (New Rochelle) ←      Vermonter toward Washington (New York–Penn Station) ←      Acela toward Washington (New Rochelle or New York–Penn Station)
	Track 1	←      Acela select trains do not stop here → ←      New Canaan Branch peak direction rush hour trains do not stop here → ←      New Haven Line select peak direction rush hour trains do not stop here →
	Track 2	←      Acela toward Boston (New Haven) → ←      Vermonter toward St. Albans (Bridgeport) → ←      Northeast Regional toward Boston or Springfield (Bridgeport) → ←      Shore Line East PM rush hours toward New London (South Norwalk) → ←      Danbury Branch PM rush hours toward Danbury (Noroton Heights or South Norwalk) → ←      New Canaan Branch PM rush hours toward New Canaan (Glenbrook) → ←      New Haven Line toward New Haven or New Haven State Street (Noroton Heights) →
	Island platform, doors will open on the left or right
	Track 4	←      New Haven Line toward New Haven or New Haven State Street (Noroton Heights) → ←      New Canaan Branch PM rush hours toward New Canaan (Glenbrook) → ←      Danbury Branch PM rush hours toward Danbury (Noroton Heights or South Norwalk) → ←      Shore Line East PM rush hours toward New London (South Norwalk) → ←      Northeast Regional toward Boston or Springfield (Bridgeport) → ←      Vermonter toward St. Albans (Bridgeport) →
	Side platform, doors will open on the right
G	Street level	Exit/entrance and parking

The number of people taking Metro-North to Stamford doubled from 2,155 in 1996 to 4,226 in 2006. In recent years, additional office space has been built near the train station to allow commuters to avoid Interstate 95, which is typically very congested during rush hour. For example, The Royal Bank of Scotland completed a $400 million office building in 2008 within 200 yards of the station.[15]

Stamford is the busiest Metro-North Railroad station outside of New York City, with the only busier station being Grand Central Terminal. As of 2016, average weekday commuter ridership for the center was 30,000 passengers, ranking among the busiest in the metropolitan area.

The station, along with the Greenwich railroad station, is receiving increasing numbers of reverse commuters who work in Stamford but live in New York City. Reverse commuting has doubled from 1997 to 2007 and increased 150 percent since 1990, with 1,900 reverse commuters as of 2007. Younger employees, often single and with enough money to live in Manhattan, for instance, sometimes prefer to live there, although more housing and nightlife have come to Downtown Stamford in recent years. Metro-North has added trains and express service to serve these commuters. As financial companies move to Stamford from Manhattan, some employees often become reverse commuters. Larger companies that are farther away than a few minutes walk from the station routinely provide shuttle service for their workers.[16]

Stamford Transportation Center with a Metro-North M8 train headed towards Grand Central.

Stamford receives very frequent rail service on the New Haven Line. During peak hours, trains at Stamford come in intervals as little as three or seven minutes apart.[17] Reverse commute trains during rush hours also operate relatively frequently, at intervals of ten to twenty minutes.[17] Off-peak trains in both directions arrive at Stamford every thirty to forty minutes, but usually within a half-hour of each other.[17]

The station divides the New Haven Line into an outer zone and an inner zone. Outer zone trains usually run local from New Haven to Stamford, then run express to Grand Central, normally stopping only at Harlem-125th Street. Inner zone trains usually originate here and run local all the way to Grand Central. Passengers transferring between zones can make cross-platform interchanges in Stamford.

As of 2014, Stamford has been a central stop for a special "Yankee Clipper" Train. The direct train runs to and from all weeknight and weekend games to Yankees–East 153rd Street to serve New York Yankees baseball games and New York City FC soccer matches at Yankee Stadium. The trains are timed to arrive between 45 minutes and 2 hours prior to the start of the game, and depart between 20 and 45 minutes after they end.[18]

Due to ridership growth, ConnDOT announced on March 19, 2007 that it would extend more Shore Line East trains to Stamford during peak hours.[19] To coincide with the extension of this service, Metro-North added another five trains on the New Haven Line to cope with the increases in passenger demand at Stamford.[19] Shore Line East service to Stamford was suspended indefinitely on March 16, 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic.[20][21]

Amtrak also operates three routes which stop at Stamford: the Acela Express, the only high-speed rail service in the United States, the Northeast Regional, providing local service along the Northeast Corridor, on which Stamford is a vital station, and the Vermonter, the only train from Connecticut that goes to Vermont. Stamford is now the second-busiest Amtrak station in Connecticut, after New Haven's Union Station.[22]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Stamford Transportation Center.

• Stamford, CT – Amtrak
• Stamford, CT – Station history at Great American Stations (Amtrak)
• Metro-North station page for Stamford Transportation Center
• List of upcoming Metro-North train departure times and track assignments from MTA
• Washington Boulevard entrance from Google Maps Street View
• Entrance south of tracks from Google Maps Street View
• Station Building on State Street from Google Maps Street View
• Stamford Amtrak-Metro North-Shore Line East Station (USA Rail Guide - Train Web)
• Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. CT-9, "New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, Stamford Station, 44 Station Place, Stamford, Fairfield County, CT", 15 photos, 25 data pages, 1 photo caption page