UNION STATION CHICAGO UPGRADE

The Union Station Access Project will facilitate train travel throughout the Midwest Longer term improvements not funded by this project would include improving the connection to the CTA Blue Line and improving ventilation in the station. Rebuilding rail access to Union Station through Chinatown to eliminate a 3-point turn that all trains to Champaign/Carbondale currently make, moving Michigan and East Coast trains off congested freight lines, and providing the missing link for a route between McCormick Place, Union Station, and O’Hare Airport.Expanding passenger capacity in Union Station by taking out unnecessary walls and re-aligning tracks and platforms.Repurposing old mail platforms under the old Post Office to create additional space for passenger service lines – a creative idea first advanced by our colleagues at the High Speed Rail Association back in 1996.The Concourse receives over 120,000 daily visitors, including passengers from 60 Amtrak trains and 300 Metra commuter and intercity trains.Įnter the Access Project, a $418 million proposal to strengthen the hub of these vital transportation networks. This is very good news for Chicago, for the Midwest, and for the planet.īut the station itself is old and crowded, and approaching tracks are convoluted. Regionally, Amtrak passenger rail lines radiate out to the entire nation and provide the hub for the Midwest regional rail network and its plans for expansion. Locally, spokes radiate out from Union Station to suburbs served by Metra. Union Station is the hub of two transportation wheels. This is very good news for Chicago, for the Midwest, and for the planet.

UNION STATION CHICAGO UPGRADE

And just last month, the Biden administration and USDOT announced $233 million in grants awarded to upgrade intercity passenger rail service out of the State of Good Repair Program, including $3 million for Chicago’s Union Station. The project partners recently applied for $251 million in federal funding from the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s new MEGA grant program, which provides federal funding for large projects of regional significance. The $418 million project is a joint effort by Amtrak, the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), the City of Chicago, Metra, Cook County, and Michigan’s Department of Transportation. The renovations won the Best Adaptive Reuse award from Landmarks Illinois in 2007.Senator Durbin speaks at Chicago’s Union Station, ahead of Amtrak CEO Gardiner, Representative Garcia, Mayor Lightfoot, and Transportation Secretary Osman A real estate developer purchased the building and, by adding two additional interior floors, re-developed the structure into a mixed-use office and retail building.

Prior to its designation as a landmark, the building had long been slated for demolition, and its sub-basements were damaged by the 1992 Chicago Flood. It was designated as a Chicago Landmark on January 11, 2006. The power house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 10, 2004. It is one of two remaining railroad power houses in Chicago and the only remaining power house for the Chicago and North Western. The power house ceased to serve the station in the 1960s, but when the terminal was demolished and replaced by Ogilvie Transportation Center in 1984, the power house survived. The Chicago Tribune reported in 1948 that the power house output enough power to serve a city of 15,000 people. The building contained four rooms, a large engine room and boiler room and a smaller engineer's office and reception room. The power house was built in cream brick with terra cotta trim, cornices, and ornamentation the corner of the house at Clinton and Milwaukee features a 227-foot (69 m) brick smokestack. The irregularly shaped building borders Clinton Street, Milwaukee Avenue, Lake Street, and the former Chicago and North Western tracks, which are now used by Metra for its Union Pacific District. Construction on the building finished in 1911, the same year the terminal opened.

The building was designed by Frost & Granger in 1909 it was mainly designed in the Beaux Arts style but also exhibits elements of the Italian Renaissance Revival style. The Chicago and North Western Railway Power House is the historic power house which served the 1911 Chicago and North Western Terminal in Chicago, Illinois.

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