Chicago Union Station

Chicago Union Station
Location 225 South Canal Street
Chicago, IL 60606
Coordinates 41°52′43″N 87°38′25″W / 41.87864°N 87.64025°W / 41.87864; -87.64025Coordinates: 41°52′43″N 87°38′25″W / 41.87864°N 87.64025°W / 41.87864; -87.64025
Owned by CUST (Amtrak)
Tracks 14 (South Concourse)
10 (North Concourse)[1]
Connections Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach
CTA "L" Lines: Connect at Quincy and Clinton stations
CTA Buses
Pace Buses
Megabus
Construction
Parking Yes; paid
Disabled access Yes
Other information
Station code CHI
Fare zone A (Metra only)
History
Opened 1925
Traffic
Passengers (2014) 3.377 million[2] Decrease 4.1% (Amtrak)
Services
Preceding station   Amtrak   Following station
TerminusPere Marquette
toward Grand Rapids
Blue Water
toward Port Huron
Wolverine
toward Pontiac, MI
Lake Shore Limited
Capitol Limited
Cardinal
Hoosier State
toward Indianapolis
toward New Orleans
City of New OrleansTerminus
toward Carbondale
Illini and Saluki
Texas Eagle
toward St. Louis
Lincoln Service
toward Los Angeles
Southwest Chief
toward Emeryville
California Zephyr
toward Quincy
Illinois Zephyr
Empire Builder
toward Milwaukee
Hiawatha Service
Metra
toward Manhattan
SouthWest ServiceTerminus
toward Joliet
Heritage Corridor
toward Aurora
BNSF Railway
Milwaukee District West
toward Antioch
North Central Service
toward Fox Lake
Milwaukee District North
  Former services  
Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad
toward Denver
Main LineTerminus
toward Minneapolis
Minneapolis – St. Paul Line
Pennsylvania Railroad
TerminusMain Line
Chicago – Columbus
toward Columbus
Chicago – Cincinnati
toward Cincinnati
Chicago – Louisville
toward Louisville
Designated May 1, 2002
One of the two grand staircases, where famous movie scenes, such as in The Untouchables (1987),[3] were filmed.
Union Station now serves as a terminal for all Amtrak trains to Chicago (orange), as well as a good number of Metra lines (green). Thin black lines represent former Amtrak routings.

Chicago Union Station is a major railroad station that opened in 1925 in Chicago, replacing an earlier station built in 1881. It is the only intercity rail terminal in Chicago, as well as being the city's primary terminal for commuter trains. The station stands on the west side of the Chicago River between West Adams Street and West Jackson Boulevard, just outside the Chicago Loop. Including approach and storage tracks, it is about nine and a half city blocks in size. Its facilities are mostly underground, buried beneath streets and skyscrapers.

Chicago Union Station is the third-busiest rail terminal in the United States, after Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station, both in New York City. It is Amtrak's overall fourth-busiest station.[2] It handles approximately 120,000 passengers on an average weekday and is one of Chicago’s most iconic structures, reflecting the city’s strong architectural heritage and historic achievements.[4] Its combination of Bedford limestone Beaux-Arts facades, massive Corinthian columns, sparkling marble floors, and magnificent Great Hall, all highlighted by brass lamps, create an environment that captures the imagination of passengers and visitors who enter its premises.[5] In addition to standing out architecturally, Union Station has features that reflect its commitment to sustainability. In 2011, its lighting system was replaced with more energy-efficient light bulbs and motion sensors, reducing the station’s carbon footprint by 4 million tons annually.[5]

Chicago Union Station was designated as one of America’s “Great Places” in 2012 by the American Planning Association (APA). The “Great Places” program by APA highlights places streets, neighborhoods, and public spaces around America that exhibit “exemplary character, quality, and planning.”[6] These places are unique in their cultural and historical significance, sense of community, and vision. Other criteria include “architectural features, accessibility, functionality, and community involvement.”[6] Chicago Union Station is considered a “Great Public Space” by APA, for promoting social activity and community cohesiveness. These spaces are safe and inviting, well-maintained, and attractive, both visually and in functionality. In addition, local culture and history are reflected within the space.

Layout

Platforms and tracks

Union Station is laid out with a double stub-end configuration, with 10 tracks coming into the station from the north and 14 from the south. Because passenger trains do not pass through Union Station, all passengers traveling through Chicago must change trains to reach their final destination. There are 2 through tracks to allow out-of-service equipment moves between the north and south side, including one with a platform to allow extra long trains to board. Between the north and south sides of the station is a passenger concourse. Passengers can walk through the concourse to get from any platform to any other without stairs or elevators.[7] Odd-numbered platforms (1–19) are on the north half of the station, and even-numbered platforms (2–30) on the south half. The north tracks are used by Amtrak for the Hiawatha Service and the Empire Builder, and by Metra for the Milwaukee District West, Milwaukee District North, and North Central Service routes. The south tracks are used for all of the other Amtrak and Metra services. Two station management structures (known as glasshouses), one on each side of the terminal, monitor train-to-track assignments and the flow of traffic in and out of the station. Actual oversight and control of switching and signalling is accomplished by two "train director" positions, one for each side of the station, located in the Amtrak control center in the headhouse of the station.

Inside the concourse are ticket counters for both Metra and Amtrak services, as well as three waiting rooms and a baggage claim for Amtrak passengers, a set of restrooms, and offices for Metra and Amtrak. The concourse also has a mezzanine level between platform and street level, containing a food court featuring local vendors as well as national chains.

Headhouse

The Great Hall

Located west of Canal Street, Union Station's headhouse occupies an entire city block. At its center is the Great Hall, a 110-foot (34 m)-high atrium capped by a large barrel-vaulted skylight. Arrayed around the Great Hall are numerous smaller spaces containing restaurants and services, and a wide passageway leading to the concourse. Above the headhouse are several floors of office space, currently used by Amtrak. Original plans called for many more floors of offices, forming a skyscraper above the Great Hall. This was never completed, although the plan has been revived in recent years.

Entrances

Numerous entrances provide access to Union Station's underground platform level. The main entrance is on Canal Street opposite the headhouse, but passengers can also reach the platforms directly from the headhouse via an underground passageway. Two secondary entrances are located in Riverside Plaza near the Jackson Boulevard and Adams Street bridges. On Madison Street, directly across from Ogilvie Transportation Center, are a set of entrances to the north platforms.

History

The current Union Station is the second by that name built in Chicago, and possibly the third rail station to occupy the site. The need for a single, centralized station was an important political topic in 19th and 20th-century Chicago,[8] as various competing railroads had built a series of terminal stations. The numerous stations and associated railyards and tracks surrounded the city's central business district, the Loop, and threatened its expansion. The various stations also made travel difficult for through-travelers, many of whom had to make inconvenient, long, and unpleasant transfers from one station to another through the Loop.

On December 25, 1858 the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad opened as far as Van Buren Street in Chicago. It built the first station at what would eventually become today's Union Station on the west bank of the Chicago River.

Union Depot

The first Union Station

On April 7, 1874 five railroads agreed to build and share a union station just north of the original Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago Railroad station site at Van Buren Street. These railroads were:

The Michigan Central, which had previously been using the Illinois Central Railroad's Great Central Station, soon decided to back out of the agreement, and continued to use the Illinois Central Depot. The Chicago and North Western Railway, not part of the original agreement, considered switching to the new station from its Wells Street Station but deferred instead. In 1911 it built the Chicago and North Western Passenger Terminal for its operations.

The remaining four original companies used the station when it opened in 1881. The headhouse of the Union Depot, a narrow building, fronted onto Canal Street and stretched from Madison Street to Adams Street.[9] Tracks led into the station from the south, and platforms occupied a strip of land between the back of the headhouse and the bank of the Chicago River. South of the station, Adams, Jackson, and Van Buren Streets rose over the tracks and the river on bridges.

Union Station

Planned appearance of the second Union Station
New Union Station, Chicago
The 1925 dedication of the new station.
Chicago Daily News Building
Chicago Union Station in 1943 during its busiest time during World War II
Amtrak's Phase II Heritage P42 at track level

Planning and construction

Growth in passenger traffic, as well as a civic push to consolidate numerous railroad terminals, led to a proposal for an enlarged Union Station on the same site. The second Union Station would be built by the Chicago Union Station Company. This was a new company formed by all the railroads that had used the first station, save for the Chicago and Alton, which became a tenant in the new station.

The architect was Daniel Burnham of Chicago, who died before its completion. The firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst and White completed the work to Burnham's designs. Work began on the massive project in 1913, and the station finally opened twelve years later on May 16, 1925; some viaduct work continued into 1927. The construction cost was projected to be $65,000,000. Construction was delayed several times by World War I, labor shortages and strikes. The construction of the station also involved the demolition and relocation of some previously existing buildings such as the Butler Brother's Warehouse along the Chicago River. It is one of about a dozen monumental Beaux-Arts railroad stations that were among the most complicated architectural programs of the era called the "American Renaissance", combining traditional architecture with engineering technology, circulation patterning and urban planning.

Union Station was hailed as an outstanding achievement in railroad facility planning. The station's ornate Beaux-Arts main waiting room, the "Great Hall", is one of the great interior public spaces in the United States. It has vaulted skylight, statuary, and connecting lobbies, staircases, and balconies. Enormous wooden benches were arranged in the room for travelers to wait for connections, and two specially-designed underground taxicab drives were built to protect travelers from the weather. The station featured a large, open concourse along the river, with massive steel arches holding up the roof, and several stairways leading passengers down to the platform.

Air rights

The large amount of land above the tracks and platforms has tempted property owners and developers. Possibly inspired by the "Terminal City" built atop New York's Grand Central Terminal, Chicago moved to develop the air rights above Union Station's tracks. The first building to be built was that of the Chicago Daily News in 1929. Designed in the Art Deco style, it was the first structure to add a public promenade along the river, which would be named "Riverside Plaza". Soon after, in 1932, the new Chicago Main Post Office opened. Also in the Art Deco style, it was a gigantic structure that occupied two full city blocks.

The Great Depression and subsequent World War II halted development, but in the 1960s, work began on Gateway Center, a Modernist complex of five buildings. Only the first four were built, and construction lasted into the 1980s through several economic cycles.

In 1990 the Morton International Building opened. Now named for Boeing, it is the tallest building yet to be constructed over the tracks. It received awards for its innovative engineering.[10] With the construction of River Point[11] beginning in 2013 and 150 North Riverside [12]beginning in 2014, the entire length of the tracks from Union Station north to Fulton Street and south to Polk Street has now been enclosed by overhead development.

Wartime, decline, and resurgence

During World War II, Union Station was at its busiest, handling as many as 300 trains and 100,000 passengers daily, many of them soldiers. After the war, however, traffic both at Union Station and on the American passenger rail system declined severely with the growth of highway construction and private ownership of automobiles. In 1969 the expansive Beaux-Arts concourse at Union Station was demolished to make way for a modern office tower. A new, modernized (but smaller) concourse was constructed beneath the tower.

In 1991, this concourse was renovated[13] by Lucien Lagrange Associates. Included was a renovation of the Great Hall, and the restoration of the skylight, which had been blacked-out during the war and not restored. Restoration of Union Station continues. Numerous spaces within the station have yet to be renovated, and many sit unused, especially within the headhouse.

Due to security concerns following the September 11 attacks, the pair of taxicab drives was closed by Amtrak. Passenger traffic has increased and is exceeding the capacity allowed by the 1991 renovation.[14] Numerous improvements have been planned to accommodate the expected growth in passengers from the planned high-speed trains of the proposed Chicago Hub Network.

In 2010, Amtrak (the current owners of the Chicago Union Station Company) announced that the Great Hall would become air-conditioned for the first time since the 1960s.[15] That year a Chicago Tribune investigation revealed high levels of diesel soot on the underground platforms of Union Station.[16] Metra established an "Emissions Task Force" to study this problem and recommend solutions to improve air quality in the underground areas.[17]

Union Station remains a busy place: as of 2007, approximately 54,000 people use the station on a daily basis, including 6,000 Amtrak passengers.[18] Union Station currently serves all Amtrak intercity trains to Chicago, as well as Metra commuter rail lines – the North Central Service, Milwaukee District/North Line, Milwaukee District/West Line, BNSF Railway Line, Heritage Corridor and SouthWest Service.

In June 2015, it was announced that Amtrak would be renovating the station, including opening up previously-closed spaces and replacing the worn staircases, with marble from the original quarry near Rome.[19]

Historical services

Prior to Penn Central and Amtrak's consolidation of downtown terminals, Union Station was already served by lines in all directions.

Union Station served as a terminal for the following lines and intercity trains:

Pre-Amtrak major trains

Burlington Route

Chicago and Alton/Gulf, Mobile and Ohio

Milwaukee Road

Pennsylvania

Some of these trains and their names have survived to present Amtrak services, such as the Empire Builder, the California Zephyr, and the Hiawatha.

The name Ann Rutledge was used by Amtrak as a Chicago-St. Louis-Kansas City route until a name and service consolidation in 2009. There is also a Lincoln Service that operates in Illinois. See also: Ann Rutledge; Illinois Service; Missouri Service.

Connections

Unlike other major American intercity/commuter rail hubs, such as Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station in New York, 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, South Station in Boston, and Union Station in Los Angeles, Union Station does not have any direct connection to local rapid transit service. However, there are several rapid transit stations within walking distance of Union Station, and numerous bus lines that stop directly at Union Station.

CTA Brown, Orange, Pink, and Purple Lines

CTA Blue Line

CTA Buses

Pace Buses

Future plans

A public meeting was held in December 2011 to discuss the future goals and designs of Union Station, with ideas being exchanged on how the station can accommodate the expected 40 percent growth in passengers by 2040.[5] The results of this dialogue were incorporated into the May 2012 Chicago Union Station Master Plan Study. The study, led by the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT), in collaboration of Amtrak (station owner), Metra (station’s primary tenant), and other local and federal organizations, calls for increasing the station’s capacity and quality of service.[4] According to the City of Chicago’s website on the study, short-term improvements call for improving station entrances and expanding waiting rooms, as well as enhancing bus lanes on Clinton and Canal Streets and creating a bus terminal on Jackson Boulevard between Canal and Clinton. For the medium-term (5- to 10-year horizon), ideas include widening commuter platforms, using unutilized mail platforms for intercity passenger trains, reorganizing facilities for better capacity and flow, and improving street access to and from the station. Long-term, proposals include increasing capacity and improving the ambiance of the station by significantly expanding or replacing station facilities in the 200 or 300 blocks of South Canal Street. Adding track and platform capacity along Clinton Street or Canal Street are also analyzed.

CTA Transit Center

In May 2015, construction of a CTA bus transit center that is scheduled to open in 2016 began.[20] The new off-street bus transit center, to be located south of Jackson Boulevard between Canal Street and Clinton Street, will serve CTA buses as well as other transportation providers. The center will be on land that has been occupied by a surface parking lot.[21] It will feature an elevator to the Amtrak underground pedestrian tunnel, allowing commuters to pass between Union Station and the bus staging area without crossing at street level.

Trails & Rails and APRHF Rail Rangers program

On certain days of the week, volunteers with the National Park Service's Trails & Rails program provide commentary for Amtrak passengers traveling out of Chicago Union Station.[22] One program operates on select Wolverine and Blue Water trains to New Buffalo, Michigan; it is sponsored by the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and has been in operation since May 2011. Volunteers talk about the urban history of Chicago and the sand dunes along the southern part of Lake Michigan. A second program operates on select Lincoln Service and Texas Eagle trains to Springfield, Illinois; it is sponsored by the Lincoln Home National Historic Site. Volunteers cover such topics as the I&M Canal and Abraham Lincoln. A third Trails & Rails program also operated out of Chicago on the Southwest Chief to La Plata, Missouri between May 18, 2013 and July 19, 2015. This program was sponsored by Texas A&M University and the non-profit American Passenger Rail Heritage Foundation (APRHF) in La Plata. Volunteers provided two round-trip programs per week and covered such topics as the "breadbasket" of Illinois, the Mississippi River, and the rolling hills of Northeast Missouri. Despite volunteers no longer being on the train, the reference manual used by Trails & Rails volunteers is still available for passengers at Outside The Rails. After the National Park Service ended its partnership with the APRHF in July 2015, the APRHF launched its Rail Rangers program, which continues to provide a similar service on private railroad car excursions out of Chicago.

See also

Current significant rail stations in Chicago:

Former significant rail stations in Chicago:

References

  1. ↑ "Chicago Union Station Facts". Chicago Union Station. Amtrak Media Relations. 2015. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  2. 1 2 "Amtrak Fact Sheet, FY2014, State of Illinois" (PDF). Amtrak. November 2014. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  3. ↑ Filming locations for The Untouchables (1987), IMDb.com
  4. 1 2 City of Chicago. “Chicago Union Station Master Plan Study Completed.” http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/cdot/provdrs/future_projects_andconcepts/news/2012/may/chicago_union_stationmasterplanstudycompleted.html (accessed February 11, 2013).
  5. 1 2 3 American Planning Association. “Great Places in America: Public Spaces, 2012.” http://www.planning.org/greatplaces/spaces/2012/ (accessed February 11, 2013).
  6. 1 2 American Planning Association. “Great Places.” http://www.planning.org/greatplaces/ (accessed February 11, 2013).
  7. ↑ Condit, Carl W. (1973). Chicago 1910-29, Building, Planning, and Urban Technology. The University of Chicago Press. pp. 273, 279, 297. ISBN 0-226-11456-2. LCCN 72-94791.
  8. ↑ Mayer, Harold M. (January 1945). "The Railway Terminal Problem of Central Chicago". Economic Geography 21 (1): 62–76. doi:10.2307/141384.
  9. ↑ Map of the Central Portion of Chicago, 1895 (Map). Rand, McNally & Co. § B5. Retrieved January 16, 2011.
  10. ↑ "Annual Excellence in Structural Engineering Design Competition" (PDF). Structural Engineers Association of Illinois. Retrieved January 16, 2011.
  11. ↑ http://www.chicagoriverpoint.com/
  12. ↑ http://150northriverside.com/
  13. ↑ "Chicago Union Station". Metra. Retrieved June 23, 2010.
  14. ↑ HDR/CANAC (2002). Chicago Union Station Capacity Study (Report). Amtrak/Metra. Retrieved January 16, 2011.
  15. ↑ "Major Makeover Coming for Union Station". CBS Chicago. October 5, 2010. Retrieved January 16, 2011.
  16. ↑ Hawthorne, Michael (November 5, 2010). "Metra Riders Subjected to High Amounts of Diesel Soot". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved January 16, 2011.
  17. ↑ "Metra convenes task force to improve air quality" (Press release). Metra. November 9, 2010. Archived from the original on November 17, 2010. Retrieved January 18, 2011.
  18. ↑ On the Bi-Level, June 2006; October 2007.
  19. ↑ Hilkevitch, Jon (29 June 2015). "Amtrak plans Union Station makeover". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 30 June 2015.
  20. ↑ "Union Station transit center work to impact West Loop traffic". Chicago Tribune. May 6, 2015. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
  21. ↑ "Lane closures start Friday for new Union Station Transit Center". Chicago Sun-Times. May 6, 2015. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
  22. ↑ http://www.nps.gov/pwr/trailsandrails/index.htm

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