Puzzles, books and waiting-room style children’s model trains sit inside the train station at Rugby, waiting to be used by passengers of trains connecting Rugby with Chicago, Portland and Seattle.

Built by the Great Northern Railway in 1907, the Rugby Station, part of what made Rugby grow into the town it is today, is now an unstaffed location, making it a “platform stop,” as Amtrak’s Chicago-based representative Marc Magliari called it.

Magliari said the company doesn’t share information on where people go from particular locations, but a website, managed by Amtrak, shows the station had ticket revenue of $346,541 in fiscal year 2024, from 3,361 riders.

In a May 7, 2022, article of The Pierce County Tribune, Magliari said Amtrak renovated the platform to make it ADA compliant, referencing the Americans with Disabilities Act, and making it accessible to people with disabilities. Amtrak spent $2.6 million on the platform modification project when bathrooms were redone, lights were added, signs were replaced and other modifications to improve the function of the platform were made, according to Dale Neiwoehner of Rugby. He said Amtrak was very good about maintaining the original appearance of the building.