The station opened on August 3, 1965 as Milwaukee Union Station. Operated by the Milwaukee Road, it replaced their previous Everett Street Depot. The depot was built on West St. Paul Avenue in a modernistic style that proved unpopular quickly after it was erected. The Chicago and North Western Railroad closed their Milwaukee station and moved their passenger operations to the new Milwaukee Road depot in 1966. Following the formation of Amtrak in 1971, the Chicago and North Western withdrew all of its intercity trains and commuter service from the station. In November 2007, the facility was renamed the Milwaukee Intermodal Station following a $16.9 million renovation. The new facility included a larger waiting area with a glass atrium and improved space for Amtrak ticketing, as well as facilities for intercity buses, a restaurant, and retail space. In 2016, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation completed a rebuild of the train shed and platform to meet federal ADA standards. Canadian Pacific Railway acquired the trackage within the train shed when it bought what remained of the Milwaukee Road in 1986. The CP Rail C&M Subdivision runs on two mains through the station. There are 4 depot spurs used to store private railcars and Amtrak Hiawatha trains overnight. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation owns the station and platforms. The DOT's Statewide Traffic Operations Center is on the 3rd floor of the station. There is a 300-space parking lot just west of the station. The station has a restaurant and a large vending area. Checked baggage service is available for Amtrak passengers.
Services
The station's busiest service is the Hiawatha Service, with seven daily round trips to Chicago with an additional late-night southbound train on Fridays. It is the successor of Chicago-Milwaukee express trains operated by the Milwaukee Road from the 1930s onward. The Empire Builder, a long-distance train linking Chicago and the Pacific Northwest, also stops here once a day in each direction, with the eastbound train arriving in early afternoon and the westbound train arriving just before rush hour. Due to the wider availability of the Hiawatha Service, it normally only stops to receive passengers westbound and discharge passengers eastbound. However, for much of the spring of 2020, the Empire Builder temporarily allowed local travel between Chicago and Milwaukee to make up for the suspension of the Hiawatha due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As of November 2, 2018, the station is served by a stop on The HOP Milwaukee Streetcar.
