Daily Trains from Olympia-Lacey
OLW is Multimodal: Intercity Transit
Olympia-Lacey Depot (OLW) offers daily
service from 14 trains (Amtrak Coast Starlight and Cascades)
plus two Intercity Transit bus routes (Routes 94 &
64.) The community busses winding through Yelm, Lacey and
Olympia make nearly 80 stops daily at the depot and a
park/ride lot between the hours of 5:45 a.m. and 9:30 p.m.
Bus 64 from downtown Olympia (College St./Amtrak) currently
makes 28 stops daily, 6:15 a.m. to 8:03 p.m., services the
Lacey Transit Center and terminates
at the station. Bus 94 from
downtown Olympia or Yelm (Yelm Via Boulevard) currently
makes more than 50 stops daily, 5:45 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.
It is currently the last bus out to downtown from our
station nightly both weekdays and weekends.
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Station Painting
Our station opened in 1993 and a
rendering by J. Craig Thorpe that was painted prior to construction was pictured atop the 1993 National Amtrak Calendar.
That launched a career as a transportation artist for Thorpe. But the Olympia station opened without any financial support from Amtrak for station staff.
The volunteers sold the building to Intercity Transit which
maintains it. |
| Left, the
Chambers Prairie Station that preceded "AmShack" in East Olympia
that was built by Union Pacific Railroad and razed in the late
1960s. Center is the original Northern Pacific Station for
Olympia near the state Capitol. Photos by Fisher and Labbe are
courtesy of the Northern Pacific Railroad Historical
Association. Right, is a 1912 photo of the Northern Pacific
Depot at Lacey, Washington. Photo from the Harold Meir
Collection, Courtesy St. Martin's University Abbey. Special
thanks to Father Peter Tynan, University Chaplain and Abbey
Monk. Locomotive is a Baldwin 4-6-0 built about 1890. |
Our History
Since the Northern Pacific first built track to Tenino in 1872, the
Olympia area has been often spurned for passenger train service. NP
chose Tacoma over Seattle and Olympia for its West Coast terminus. At
the urging of the territorial governor, private landowners began laying
track on their own to connect Olympia with the "Prairie Line" to Tacoma
that ran east from Tenino (known eventually as the Port Townsend
Southern) to enable Olympia passenger service. That same citizen
commitment from the late 1880s continued one hundred years later when
Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater residents began planning a full-service
train station to serve the Amtrak Pioneer and other trains to replace a
three-sided stop at Chambers Prairie in East Olympia (Today, we refer to
it as 'AmShack.')
The initial
fundraising campaign for the station began in 1987 and was to mark the State of Washington
centennial in 1989. This "Centennial Station" that resulted was built largely from community donors and laborers working mostly without compensation. Approximately $100,000 was raised in cash and $300,000 in products and services to build Centennial Station. Washington State provided $60,000 in additional funds to install utilities after the building was completed.
Donors purchased bricks on the station platform during one local donation drive. There were at least 30 Olympia-area depots that preceded it in history (many pictured
inside the station.)
Talgo Clock, Cypress Corbels, Stained
Glass,
Vaulted Ceilings, Custom Light Fixtures
Olympia-Lacey Centennial Amtrak Station was designed by an Olympia architect, Harold Dalke, to capture the feel of an early 20th Century train station. To a model railroader, the 1993 building's classic lines are like the plastic model stations used on Lionel train layouts. The OLW Depot features180-year-old solid cypress corbels, vaulted interior ceilings, stained glass with historic railroad logos, light fixtures scaled from Grand Central Station,
and a classic platform clock donated by the Talgo Corporation in a ceremony by a
visiting Spanish prince.The corbels were refinished at the wood shop of Panorama City and purchased by individual donors for installation.
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Bob Bregent
Original Depot Project Manager
He was manager during construction of the station. He recalls asking a representative of the State Department of Transportation for assistance.
"He literally laughed in my face and said 'Nobody rides the train anymore. We're not giving you one red penny.'
"
Bregent said there isn't anything the State
of Washington could have told advocates to galvanize them more.
-Thurston Talk |
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Rich DeGarmo
Father of the Volunteer Station Model
He was one of the key founders of Olympia-Lacey Centennial Station and the designer of our unique volunteer-run depot model. Richard William DeGarmo, 85, of Tumwater, died Sept. 9,
2024 following a very long illness. Survivors include Susan DeGarmo, his wife who herself was a station volunteer. Amtrak initially refused to stop at our station until Rich worked out a volunteer schedule that allowed Olympia-Lacey train stops in 1993 without any on-site paid Amtrak employees. His legacy continues and lives on with our all-volunteer depot.
Typical volunteer shifts at the station are about five hours and largely
between the hours of 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. |
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