Raleigh New Union Station is UGLY! - Trains Magazine

Bonas,  

If you really want to see an ugly Amtrak station you should check out the one in Providence, RI.  Amtrak built it in the mid 1980's to replace an older cavernous station that is now some kind of office buildings.  From the ground the current station is a low gray windowless concrete block.  In some pictures the dome is visible but as you come to the station all you see is the gray block.  Police cars parked around it make it look like a prison without the charm.  There is a clock tower but that doesn't really help.  I can't imagine a more ugly building.  

But inside it is different.  It is a fairly small station with a central waiting room.  There the dome is both visible and attractive and benches are in a circle around the edges of the dome.  As you enter from Gaspee Street you walk by a news stand and gift shop.  Tickets and information on on the left; the Cafe La France on on the right and it serves decent and reasonably priced food.  In the back is the baggage room and rest rooms.  And although small it is big enough for Providence.   There are stairs and an escalators down to the tracks along with elevators.  In addition to Amtrak trains MBTA commuter trains run north to Boston and south to Providence Airport and then Wakefield, a suburban commuter stop.  And since my time is spent inside I don't think about the outside.  

But outside is still ugly as sin.  

John