The City of Chicago’s Department of Transportation has been conducting this study, in a collaborative effort with extensive participation from Amtrak (the station’s owner), Metra (the station’s primary tenant), and other stakeholders. It has been in progress for about one year.
Union Station now often operates close to capacity. Continuing growth in both commuter rail service and Amtrak long distance and intercity passenger rail service, combined with the potential for future growth in high-speed intercity passenger rail, has compelled the City and affected railroads to consider future options for accommodating further growth in station traffic.
The Master Plan Study has identified potential ideas for adding tracks and platforms, as well as possible opportunities for improving passenger flows. Short, medium, and long-term opportunities have been identified ranging from re-purposing platforms originally designed for handling mail, to better connections to other rail and transit services, to the construction of new multilevel subways.
Union Station is one of the region’s key transportation facilities and economic drivers. It is the third-busiest railroad terminal in the United States, serving over 300 trains per weekday carrying about 120,000 arriving and departing passengers – a level of passenger traffic that would rank it among the ten busiest airports in the U.S. Most travelers at Union Station take Metra commuter trains. The Station is also the hub of Amtrak’s network of regional trains serving the Midwest as well as most of the nation’s overnight trains, which connect to the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts. Today’s Station originally opened in 1925, and significant alterations were made to the Concourse level, located east of Canal Street, in 1970. Most passenger station activities today take place in the Concourse. Soon after Amtrak was established in 1971, it concentrated all intercity passenger train operations in Chicago at Union Station. Amtrak gained ownership of Union Station in 1984 and completed a major re-modeling in 1992. Amtrak is planning further improvements to both the Concourse and the headhouse in 2012 and beyond. CDOT’s planning efforts will assist Amtrak in preparing for these improvements.
An open house Public Meeting was held on December 15, 2011 at Union Station to discuss possible improvements suggested by the Union Station Master Plan study. The public was encouraged to attend and experts and visuals were available to explain ideas for increasing capacity for more trains, people, and traffic on nearby streets. The presentation material is available for download.
