The "Empire Builder" originally stopped at the station from 1929 until 1971. In 1971, Amtrak consolidated all passenger rail service for the Twin Cities at the Great Northern Station in Minneapolis, and in 1978 moved to the Midway Station in Saint Paul, about halfway between the downtowns of the two cities. Service returned to the Union Depot from Midway in 2014 after it was delayed for almost two years from the depot's initial grand re-opening in 2012 due to negotiations with the owners of the railroads (Canadian Pacific Railway, BNSF Railway, and Union Pacific Railroad) in the area and the construction of new complex signals on the Merriam Park Subdivision.