By the 1890s, Montgomery had the service of a number of railroads including the Western Railway of Alabama (which together with the Atlanta & West Point RR comprised the West Point Route), the Louisville and Nashville, Alabama Midland Railway (soon to become part of the Atlantic Coast Line RR), the Savannah, Americus & Montgomery Railway (Seaboard Air Line), the Mobile and Ohio, and the Montgomery & Eufaula Railway (by 1895, the Central of Georgia).

Passenger traffic had increased to the extent that there were over forty trains a day coming into and leaving Montgomery. People were complaining about the lack of services, inconveniences and trouble it was to ride, and railroad commissions and companies began to listen. Earlier, in the 1880s, a plea had frequently been registered for a shed to protect passengers from the elements as they entered or departed the train station. In the mid-’90s the Railroad Commission granted permission for a shed adjacent to the station on Water Street, and while it did help, it was not a complete solution. The Louisville and Nashville Railroad, which had superseded the North and South RR and the Moblie and Montgomery RR, proposed to the other companies that a grand Union Station be built for passenger traffic; all lines would then construct freight depots while all passenger service would enter and depart through the new terminal.

The elegant new depot opened in May 1898, just as the United States and Spain went to war. A six hundred feet Train Shed protected passengers from the elements; a monumental lobby, decorated in a combination of Arts and Crafts and Neo-classical, offered comfort to those who waited for their trains. African-American riders had their own area, which, though not as fine as that of Caucasian travelers, provided some modicum of comfort.