It is now the 11th busiest Amtrak station in the country, and the second-busiest on the MBTA Commuter Rail system outside of Boston.

The station was designed in the Washington, D.C. office of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill by Milo Meacham under the direction of Marilyn Jordan Taylor.

Local architectural historian William McKenzie Woodward lauded the building for its aesthetics, calling its saucer dome "an obvious yet very gracious gesture toward the State House".

[4] In 2010, Architect praised the forethought of the designers in planning for the revitalization of Providence's downtown, saying that "[i]ts design accommodated the complex geometries of a circulation pattern oriented toward the Capitol and a structure aligned with the tracks, while its splayed plan opened out to what was then an imagined city, one that Providence eventually made happen.

In a 2018 count, Providence averaged 2,091 inbound MBTA passengers on weekdays, making it the second-busiest station on the system (after Salem) outside of Boston[2] The station has four passenger tracks serving two island platforms, plus the FRIP (Freight Rail Improvement Project) freight track on the west side.

[7] Kennedy Plaza, the main hub for RIPTA bus service, is located one-quarter mile (0.4 km) to the south along Exchange Street.

It consisted of five large brick structures, which still form the northern side of Kennedy Plaza in the center of Downtown Providence.

Amtrak has served Providence since its inception in 1971, with Northeast Corridor trains from Boston to New York and Washington.