Chicago Union Station
Chicago Union Station is an intercity and commuter rail terminal located in the West Loop neighborhood of the Near West Side of Chicago. Amtrak's flagship station in the Midwest, Union Station is the terminus of eight national long-distance routes and eight regional corridor routes. Six Metra commuter lines also terminate here.
Union Station is just west of the Chicago River between West Adams Street and West Jackson Boulevard, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. Including approach and storage tracks, it covers about nine and a half city blocks (mostly underground, beneath streets and skyscrapers, some built with the earliest usage of railway air rights).
The present station opened in 1925, replacing an earlier union station on this site built in 1881. The station is the fourth-busiest rail station in the United States, after Pennsylvania Station, Grand Central Terminal, and Jamaica station in New York City,[3] and the busiest outside of the Northeast Corridor. It handles about 140,000 passengers on an average weekday (including 10,000 Amtrak passengers).[4] It has Bedford limestone Beaux-Arts facades, and an interior with massive Corinthian columns, marble floors, and a Great Hall, highlighted by brass lamps.[5]
The station connects to multiple transit authorities including the Chicago Transit Authority bus and Chicago L lines, Metra, Pace, Greyhound, and more either within the station or within walking distance.
Name
[edit]Chicago Union Station is named a union station, like many train stations across the United States that were shared by several railroad companies.[6] The station is the third union station to occupy the site between West Adams Street and West Jackson Boulevard. The station is known by the acronym CUS, as well as by its Amtrak station code CHI.
Location
[edit]Chicago Union Station is situated in the West Loop Gate neighborhood of the Near West Side of Chicago, just west of Chicago's Loop. The station's underground concourse and train sheds abut the Chicago River; passageways extend west beneath Canal Street to the main station building, one block over.[7]
Services
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