When Amtrak took over intercity passenger service in May 1971, it continued to use the former Seaboard Air Line Railroad (SAL) depot at 2210 NW 7th Avenue in Allapattah, two miles north of downtown.

[2] Opened on June 20, 1978, the building is one of many built under Amtrak's Standard Stations Program, an attempt to create a unified brand and identity for the company's passenger facilities in its early years.

[2][4] In the early 1990s, the Florida Department of Transportation began planning an intermodal station to link Tri-Rail, Amtrak, and Metrorail to the Miami International Airport.

These plans were completed as the Miami Intermodal Center, located 4 miles (6.4 km) south of the current station and an equal distance west of downtown.

Metrorail opened to the station in 2012, Tri-Rail commuter trains began serving the new platforms in April 2015, and Amtrak was originally expected to serve this station in 2016, but an error during design resulted in the constructed platforms too short to accommodate the longer trains Amtrak uses during the winter.

[12] Amtrak reversed course of utilizing the Miami Intermodal Center in December 2024, sending a short letter to transportation officials negotiating the station lease's final details.