Chicago Union Station is an intercity and commuter rail terminal located in the West Loop neighborhood of the Near West Side of Chicago, United States. 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, and 120,000 daily Metra riders and the busiest outside of the Northeast Corridor. It handles about 140,000 passengers on an average weekday (including 10,000 Amtrak passengers). It has Bedford limestone Beaux-Arts facades, and an interior with massive Corinthian columns, marble floors, and a Great Hall, highlighted by brass lamps.

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 Chicago Union Station is named a union station, like many train stations across the United States that were shared by several railroad companies. 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 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.

Services

Amtrak

Blue Water (Chicago – Port Huron, Michigan) Borealis (Chicago – St. Paul) California Zephyr (Chicago – Emeryville) Cardinal (Chicago – New York) City of New Orleans (Chicago – New Orleans) Empire Builder (Chicago – Portland/Seattle) (Chicago – Miami) Hiawatha (Chicago – Milwaukee) Illini and Saluki (Chicago – Carbondale, Illinois) Illinois Zephyr and Carl Sandburg (Chicago – Quincy) Lake Shore Limited (Chicago – New York/Boston) Lincoln Service (Chicago – St. Louis) Pere Marquette (Chicago – Grand Rapids) Southwest Chief (Chicago – Los Angeles) Texas Eagle (Chicago – San Antonio/Los Angeles) Wolverine (Chicago – Pontiac)

Metra

North Concourse (odd tracks)

to Fox Lake, IL to Antioch, IL to Elgin, IL - Big Timber Road

South Concourse (even tracks)

to Aurora, IL to Joliet, IL to Manhattan, IL

Connections

Ogilvie Transportation Center Union Station is located adjacent to Ogilvie Transportation Center, one of Metra's other downtown Chicago terminals. Ogilvie is located in front of Union Station's Madison Street Entrance, which can be accessed through the platforms in the North Concourse.

Metra's other two downtown terminals – LaSalle Street Station and Millennium Station – are in the Loop proper past the Chicago River and can be accessed by walking or taking a CTA bus.

CTA - Chicago "L" Rapid Transit Unlike many major American intercity and commuter rail hubs, Union Station does not have any direct connection to local rapid transit service. However, two Chicago "L" stations are within walking distance of Union Station.

(two blocks south of the station): (three blocks east of the station, on The Loop): , , , and

CTA and Pace - Local Bus service

Numerous CTA bus routes stop directly at Union Station:

Union Station Transit Center: West side of Clinton, north side of block: West side of Clinton, south side of block: Southwest corner of Clinton/Jackson: 755 (Pace) Madison Street entrance:

Union Station Transit Center is located adjacent to Union Station's parking garage. The bus station opened in 2016, on land formerly used for a surface parking lot. It features an elevator and stairway to the Amtrak underground pedestrian tunnel, allowing commuters to pass between Union Station and the bus staging area without crossing at street level.

Inter-City Buses Union Station has a counter operated by the Greyhound intercity bus company. Tickets are available for purchase, and some Greyhound and Megabus buses pick up passengers on South Canal Street, on the east side of the station building. The full-service Greyhound station is four blocks southwest of Union Station.

Historical services

Union Station was served by lines in all directions even before Penn Central and Amtrak consolidated the downtown terminals. The station served as a terminal for the following railroads: Chicago and Alton Railroad – only a tenant, later part of the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (Burlington Route) Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (Milwaukee Road) – The station housed its corporate offices from 1924 to 1986 Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway (PRR) Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (Panhandle) (moved to use the PFW&C approach after April 23, 1917) Penn Central Transportation Company (former services of the New York Central Railroad and Michigan Central Railroad) (moved from LaSalle Street Station October 27, 1968) Amtrak (began May 1, 1971, moved from Dearborn Station May 2, 1971 and Central Station March 6, 1972 (Floridian moved January 23, 1972); Amtrak's Calumet and Indiana Connection commuter trains also ran into Union Station)

Burlington Route Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Milwaukee Road Pennsylvania Great Northern Northern Pacific California ZephyrDenver ZephyrTwin Cities ZephyrsAmerican Royal ZephyrKansas City ZephyrWestern Star Alton LimitedAbraham LincolnAnn RutledgeMidnight Special Twin Cities HiawathaMidwest HiawathaPioneer LimitedOlympianColumbianOlympian Hiawatha City of San FranciscoCity of Los AngelesCity of PortlandChallengerSiouxThe Arrow The AdmiralBroadway LimitedThe GeneralTrail BlazerCincinnati Daylight Express The Fort PittPennsylvania LimitedPennsylvanianManhattan LimitedSouth WindGotham Limited Empire BuilderWestern Star North Coast LimitedMainstreeter

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.

Future Services The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) has funded and programmed two new passenger rail services that will originate at Union Station. One service will be operated by Amtrak and the other service will be operated by Metra.

Amtrak future services

Quad Cities (Chicago – Moline, IL)

Metra future services

Rockford Intercity Passenger Rail (Chicago – Rockford, IL)

Interior Station building

Located west of Canal Street, Union Station's station building occupies an entire city block. At its center is the Great Hall, the main waiting room. Arrayed around the Great Hall are numerous smaller spaces containing restaurants and services, and a wide passageway leading to the concourse. Above the main floor 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.

The Burlington Room is an event space at the northwest of the Great Hall. The room features large columns, chandeliers, four French block murals of landscape scenery, and an original mirror. The space, initially a women's lounge, was restored in November 2016, after years of damage and neglect. For event uses, the space has color-changing lights and an audiovisual system.

The headhouse includes a space formerly used as a Fred Harvey restaurant. After a large fire in 1980, the space was damaged, windows on Clinton Street were destroyed, and the space was left vacant since then. In 2018, Amtrak announced plans to redevelop the space into a multi-level food hall, using funds from the sale of its parking garage. A new entrance and canopy would be installed on Clinton Street, and new windows would replace the bricked-up windows. The food hall was planned to open in the summer of 2020.

The headhouse also includes a Metropolitan Lounge, one of seven Amtrak offers in its stations. The lounge operates like an airport lounge, accessible to business- and first-class passengers, as well as other high-price ticketed passengers. The lounge reopened in June 2016, moving from the concourse to the headhouse. It has two stories and , double the space of the previous lounge. It features different seating areas intended for businesspeople, families and children, and people using phones or tablets. The space has bathrooms with showers, and an elevator.

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. Unlike most of Amtrak's major stations, every train calling at Union Station either originates or terminates there; all passengers traveling through Chicago must change trains to reach their final destination. There are two 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 or northern-bound trains to board on the south platforms. 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. 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, the Borealis, 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 other Amtrak services, as well as by Metra for the BNSF, SouthWest Service, and Heritage Corridor lines. 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 station's headhouse.

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. The Union Station Transit Center bus terminal across Jackson Boulevard has a stairway and elevator leading to the south concourse. On Madison Street, across the street, and one block east from Ogilvie Transportation Center, are a set of entrances to the north platforms.

Architecture