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San Marcos to Temple – US Rail Journeys Series 3 Episode 25
‘San Marcos to Temple’ covers around 105 miles of our journey. We reach Temple, the fourth station on this part of the journey, after nearly 3 hours.
To see the photographs that accompany this podcast please click on a thumbnail to open the gallery:
San Marcos:
We soon reach San Marcos station. It is an intermodal transit centre. The primary destination for passengers is towards Dallas–Fort Worth. 19.4% of passengers commute locally and 12.5% of passengers travel as far as Chicago and Los Angeles.
In addition to the Texas Eagle the station offers the Capital Area Rural Transportation System and Greyhound Lines buses.
On the banks of the San Marcos River, the city is home to Texas State University and the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment. It has a rapidly growing population which in 2010 was 44,894, rising to 67,553 in the 2020 census.
The area is believed to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the Americas.
Austin:
Austin station is just west of downtown Austin. The Missouri Pacific Railroad builds the station in 1947. Today it is served by the north and southbound Texas Eagle. There is a small waiting room, ticket office and toilet for passengers.
2022 saw 26,665 passengers using the station.
Taylor:
The next station is Taylor where 3,570 passengers use the station in 2022. There are no staff at the station which consists of a small pavilion with picnic tables. It shares a plot of land with a Union Pacific yard office.
Taylor dates from 1876 when the Texas Land Company auctions lots in anticipation of the arrival of the International-Great Northern Railroad . The city is named after Edward Moses Taylor, a railway official. Initially Taylorsville, becoming Taylor in 1892.
Temple:
As the episode ends we reach Temple. We are 15 minutes early! I’ll tell you all about Temple in the next episode.
Next up:
If you enjoy these podcasts please join me in a couple of weeks as we continue our journey on the Texas Eagle.
Links:
To visit the Amtrak website please follow this link.
This podcast is also available through Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox , Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, Stitcher and Vurbl and others.
Music:
AKM Music licenses Steam Railway and Look at the Detail for use in this podcast.
