The first railroad through Merced was the Central Pacific Railroad, a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific Railroad, which reached the village on January 15, 1872. Charles Henry Huffman, who was the SP's agent for land acquisition, founded Merced and moved there when the railroad opened. The original village was along Bear Creek, but the town center quickly became the SP station. A branch to Oakdale was completed in 1891. The SP later built a new station off 16th Street at N Street. The San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley Railroad opened through Merced in 1896. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway - the SP's main rival - purchased the line in 1899, providing it a parallel competing mainline through the Central Valley. In 1907, the Yosemite Valley Railroad began service from Merced to El Portal - the gateway to Yosemite National Park. The YVRR connected with both mainlines in Merced; its shops were northwest of downtown, while its station was adjacent to the AT&SF station. In 1917, the AT&SF built a new station at 24th Street and J Street. Unlike most of the railroad's stations in California, which were in the Mission Revival style, the Merced station was also influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement. The lower part of the walls was bare brick, while the rest was coated in stucco to approximate the look of adobe. The eaves of the gabled roof provided shelter for passengers, and the northwest end of the station was open with broad arches. Passenger service on both branch lines ended in the 1940s. Merced remained an important stop on the two mainlines, serving named trains including the San Francisco Chief and Golden Gate on the AT&SF, and the San Joaquin Daylight and Sacramento Daylight on the SP. On May 1, 1971, Amtrak took over intercity passenger service in the United States from the private railroads. Amtrak chose to run its San Francisco–Los Angeles service over the Coast Line rather than the Central Valley, and passenger service to Merced ended. Amtrak began the Oakland–Bakersfield San Joaquin on March 5, 1974. The San Joaquin was controversially routed over the AT&SF rather than the SP ; the AT&SF station in Merced was used by Amtrak. The SP station was renovated in the 1990s to serve as the city bus terminal. By the end of the century, the 1917-built station was in poor shape. In 2000, it was replaced by a new station on the same site. The new station, which was funded by Caltrans, copies the basic design of the former station but with modern improvements. It includes improved facilities for Yosemite Area Regional Transportation System bus service to Yosemite. The planned Merced station of the California High-Speed Rail system would be built along the ex-SP alignment at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way.
