The station is located at the Boylan Wye, a railroad junction used by CSX and Norfolk Southern, and adjacent to the Depot Historic District in downtown Raleigh.

[7] The facility is open daily at 6:00am–11:00pm, which includes a ticket office, passenger assistance, baggage service and a civic hall (waiting area).

[11] Being a stub-end station, Union Depot was inconvenient to operate, especially as passenger trains became longer and obstructed the Boylan Wye.

The station's ownership passed to CSX Corporation when SCL's parent company, Seaboard Coast Line Industries, merged with Chessie System.

Amtrak was forced to reroute its trains between Raleigh and the Northeast through Selma along the CSX A-Line and the North Carolina Railroad.

Until the early 1950s the Southern Railway ran the Carolina Special and two other trains daily from Greensboro, through Raleigh, to Goldsboro, where an Atlantic Coast Line Railroad connection could be made to Wilmington.

A second island platform and third track, along the Norfolk Southern H-Line, are planned to serve the under-development Durham-Wake commuter rail line.

A northern concourse, with a new island platform and station track, on the CSX Aberdeen Subdivision (also known as the S-Line) is planned for the future Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor.

[31][45][46][47] In December 2023, NCDOT was awarded nearly $1.09 billion in Federal Railroad Administration grants that will be used to upgrade the Aberdeen Subdivision between Raleigh and Wake Forest.

[48] With construction along the line to begin in 2024, NCDOT has a tentative completion date of 2030, which includes the station's northern concourse expansion.

Designed by Perkins Eastman and developed by Hoffman and Associates, it will feature a 6-10 bay off-street transit facility, with two high-rise buildings on top and a pedestrian bridge that connects directly to Raleigh Union Station.

[50] Amenities include 350 unit apartments, 200 room hotel, 18,000 square feet (1,700 m2) for retail, and 550 space parking garage.