Tensions boiled after the local newspaper, the Yakima Signal, was blown up with dynamite after being prepared to move north.

The station would serve successor railroad Burlington Northern's transcontinental Mainstreeter and North Coast Limited until the eve of Amtrak on April 30, 1971.

Amtrak rerouted the North Coast Hiawatha on the traditional Empire Builder route via Stevens Pass.

Burlington Northern began rehabilitating the line in 1995 and was reopened to traffic by successor railway BNSF in December 1996.

[5] Advocates pushed for reactivating passenger rail service via Stampede Pass, and a 2020 study by the Washington State Joint Transportation Committee presented the route would generate 192,000 to 205,000 annual trips between Spokane and Seattle.

[6] The draft Amtrak Daily Long-Distance Service Study recommends a revival of the North Coast Hiawatha via Yakima.