Chicago Union Station is anintercity andcommuter railterminal located in theWest Loop neighborhood of theNear West Side ofChicago, United States.Amtrak's flagship station in theMidwest, Union Station is the terminus of eight nationallong-distance routes and eight regionalcorridor routes. SixMetra commuter lines also terminate here.
Union Station is just west of theChicago River between West Adams Street and West Jackson Boulevard, adjacent to theChicago Loop. Including approach and storage tracks, it covers about nine and a halfcity blocks (mostly underground, beneath streets and skyscrapers, some built with the earliest usage of railwayair rights).
The present station opened in 1925, replacing an earlierunion station on this site built in 1881. The station is thefourth-busiest rail station in the United States, afterPennsylvania Station,Grand Central Terminal, andJamaica station inNew York City,[3] and the busiest outside of theNortheast Corridor. It handles about 140,000 passengers on an average weekday (including 10,000 Amtrak passengers).[4] It hasBedford limestoneBeaux-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 theChicago Transit Authority bus andChicago L lines,Metra,Pace,Greyhound, and more either within the station or within walking distance.
Chicago Union Station is named aunion 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.
Chicago Union Station is situated in theWest Loop Gate neighborhood of the Near West Side of Chicago, just west of Chicago'sLoop. The station's underground concourse and train sheds abut theChicago River; passageways extend west beneath Canal Street to the main station building, one block over.[7]
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Unlike many major American intercity and commuter rail hubs, Union Station does not have any direct connection to localrapid transit service. However, twoChicago "L" stations are within walking distance of Union Station.
BlueBrown,Orange,Pink, andPurpleMetra's other three downtown terminals – theOgilvie Transportation Center,LaSalle Street Station andMillennium Station – are all within walking distance of Union Station. Passengers connecting from Ogilvie can access Union Station's north platforms on the opposite side of Madison Street.
NumerousCTA bus routes stop directly at Union Station:[8]
Union Station Transit Center is located adjacent to Union Station's parking garage.[9] The bus station opened in 2016, on land formerly used for a surface parking lot.[10] 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.
Union Station has a counter operated by theGreyhound intercity bus company. Tickets are available for purchase, and some Greyhound andMegabus 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.[11]
Union Station was served by lines in all directions even beforePenn Central andAmtrak consolidated the downtown terminals. The station served as a terminal for the following railroads:
| Burlington Route | Gulf, Mobile and Ohio | Milwaukee Road | Pennsylvania | Great Northern | Northern Pacific | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| California Zephyr Denver Zephyr Twin Cities Zephyrs American Royal Zephyr Kansas City Zephyr Western Star | Alton Limited Abraham Lincoln Ann Rutledge Midnight Special | Twin Cities Hiawatha Midwest Hiawatha Pioneer Limited Olympian Columbian Olympian Hiawatha | City of San Francisco City of Los Angeles City of Portland Challenger Sioux The Arrow | The Admiral Broadway Limited The General Trail Blazer Cincinnati Daylight Express | The Fort Pitt Pennsylvania Limited Pennsylvanian Manhattan Limited South Wind Gotham Limited | Empire Builder Western Star | North Coast Limited Mainstreeter |
Some of these trains and their names have survived to present Amtrak services, such as theEmpire Builder, theCalifornia Zephyr, and theHiawatha.
The nameAnn Rutledge was used by Amtrak as a Chicago-St. Louis-Kansas City route until a name and service consolidation in 2009. There is also aLincoln Service that operates in Illinois.
Located west of Canal Street, Union Station'sstation 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.[12]
The headhouse includes a space formerly used as aFred 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.[13]
The headhouse also includes a Metropolitan Lounge, one of seven Amtrak offers in its stations. The lounge operates like anairport 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 13,500 square feet (1,250 m2), 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.[14][15]
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 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.[16] 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 theHiawatha, theBorealis, and theEmpire Builder, and byMetra for theMilwaukee District West,Milwaukee District North, andNorth Central Service routes. The south tracks are used for all other Amtrak services, as well as by Metra for theBNSF,Heritage Corridor andSouthWest 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 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 fromOgilvie Transportation Center, are a set of entrances to the north platforms.
Union Station was designed byD. H. Burnham & Company (known for its lead architectDaniel Burnham, who died before construction began). The successor firm ofGraham, Anderson, Probst and White completed the work. The terminal was among the first to anticipate automobile traffic; it was first designed in 1909, one year after theModel T entered production. It was designed with ticket offices, concourses, platforms, waiting and baggage rooms, and shops, all on a single level, meant to be easy to navigate. At opening, the terminal also housed a hospital, chapel, and jail cell.[6]
The main building, a square Neoclassical structure, takes up one city block. Its architectural style contrasts with modern glass-faced buildings around it. The station has wide porticos and large colonnades on its exterior. The street-level entrances utilizeIndiana limestone.[6]
The station originally featured a largeBeaux-Arts concourse building along the river, made with marble, glass, and iron.[6] Massive steel arches held up the vaulted roof, and several stairways led passengers down to the platforms. The concourse was demolished in 1969 and replaced with an office tower.[17]
At the building's center is the Great Hall, a 110-foot (34 m)-high atrium capped by a large barrel-vaulted skylight. The 24,000-square-foot (2,200 m2) room has connecting lobbies, staircases, and balconies. Enormous wooden benches are 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.[18] The room's columns are of textured Roman travertine, with leafy golden Corinthian capitals. The ceilings and insets are coffered, with decorative rosettes.[6]
Two statues byHenry Hering –Night andDay – look down on passengers, symbolizing the 24-hour operation of the railroads. The statueNight holds an owl, whileDay holds a rooster.[18]
TheChicago Union Station Power House is a decommissioned coal-fire power plant that provided power to Union Station and its surrounding infrastructure.[19][20][21] Located on the Chicago River, north ofRoosevelt Road, it was designed in theArt Moderne style by Graham, Anderson, Probst and White in 1931.[19][20][21] The power plant was decommissioned in 2011.[19][20][21] It was included inPreservation Chicago's 7 Most Endangered list in 2017 and 2020, as Amtrak has plans to demolish the building.[19][21][22][23][24]
The same architecture firm that designed Union Station also designed theOld Chicago Main Post Office, a post office atop the station's southern tracks. The post office, opened four years before Union Station, utilized the rail system, funneling mail to and from the trains below. An expansion in 1932 made the structure the world's largest post office.[7]
The large amount of land above the tracks and platforms has tempted property owners and developers. Possibly inspired byTerminal City, a development built atop New York'sGrand Central Terminal's train shed, Chicago moved to develop theair rights above Union Station's tracks. The first building to be built was that of theChicago Daily News in 1929. Designed in theArt Deco style, it was the first structure to add a public promenade along the river, which would be namedRiverside Plaza. Soon after, in 1932, the newChicago Main Post Office opened. Also in the Art Deco style, it is a gigantic structure that occupies two full city blocks. TheGreat Depression and subsequentWorld War II halted development, but in the 1960s, work began on Gateway Center, aModernist complex of five buildings. Only the first four were built, and construction lasted into the 1980s through several economic cycles.
In 1990 theMorton International Building opened. Now named forBoeing, it was the tallest building constructed over the tracks. With the construction ofRiver Point beginning in 2013 and150 North Riverside beginning in 2014, the entire length of the train shed and tracks from Union Station north to Fulton Street and south to Polk Street is enclosed by overhead development.
Chicago Union Station's train shed, covered by buildings built above the tracks, helped lead locomotives to funnel significant soot and smoke in and around the station. This was unlike Grand Central Terminal, which has only allowed electric trains into its trainshed since opening.[7]
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,[25] 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, theLoop, and threatened its expansion. The various stations also made travel difficult for through-travelers, many of whom had to make inconvenient transfers often slowed by street traffic from one station to another through the Loop. Union Station was part of architectDaniel Burnham's city-widePlan of Chicago in 1909.[6]
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On December 25, 1858, thePittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad opened as far asVan Buren Street in Chicago. It built the first station at what would eventually become today's Union Station on the west bank of theChicago River.
The railroad built a permanent depot at the corner of Canal and Madison streets in 1861.
On April 7, 1874, five railroads agreed to build and share aunion 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 theIllinois Central Railroad'sGreat Central Station, soon decided to back out of the agreement, and continued to use the Illinois Central Depot. TheChicago and North Western Railway, not part of the original agreement, considered switching to the new station from itsWells Street Station but deferred instead. In 1911 it built theChicago and North Western Passenger Terminal for its operations.
The remaining four original companies used the station when it opened in 1881. Theheadhouse of the Union Depot, a narrow building, fronted onto Canal Street and stretched from Madison Street to Adams Street.[26] 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. The station, along with its successor, was effectively two back-to-back stub-end terminals. Virtually all trains arriving would terminate there, and passengers traveling further would need to change trains.[7]
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 theChicago 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 Pennsylvania Railroad, then the U.S.'s largest railroad company, planned and directed the project.[7]
The architectural firm wasD. H. Burnham & Company (known for its lead architectDaniel Burnham, who died before construction began). The successor firm ofGraham, Anderson, Probst and White completed the work.[6] Work began on the massive project in 1913, and required purchasing adjacent properties and moving freight facilities. Construction stalled duringWorld War I, and resumed in 1919.[7] The station finally opened on May 16, 1925, twelve years after construction began; some viaduct work continued into 1927. The construction cost, funded by the railroad companies involved, was projected to be $65 million, but ended up costing $75 million.[1] 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 theButler Brothers Warehouse along the Chicago River. It is one of about a dozen monumentalBeaux-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 andurban planning. Union Station was hailed as an outstanding achievement in railroad facility planning at the time.
DuringWorld War II, Union Station was at its busiest, handling as many as 300 trains and 100,000 passengers daily, many of them soldiers. IllustratorNorman Rockwell captured this era with his cover painting for a December 1944 issue ofThe Saturday Evening Post, depicting the station jammed with Christmas travelers.[27] After the war, the growth of highway construction and private ownership of automobiles caused a severe decline in American passenger-rail ridership, including at Union Station.
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In 1969, the station's owner demolished the concourse building, making way for a modern office tower. A new and modernized, though less grand, concourse was constructed beneath the tower.[6] In May 1971, the national railroadAmtrak was formed to take over long-distance passenger train service, while commuter trains remained privately operated.[28] In 1980, the station'sFred Harvey restaurant experienced a large fire. The space was damaged, windows on Clinton Street were destroyed, and the space was left vacant since then.[13]
In 1984, Amtrak bought out the shares of Chicago Union Station Company held byBurlington Northern (successor to the Burlington Route) and the Milwaukee Road, becoming sole owner of the station.[28]
In the 1990s,Lucien Lagrange Associates made some patchwork renovations, including to the Great Hall and its skylight, which had been blacked-out since World War II.[29] Restoration of Union Station continued. Numerous spaces within the station had yet to be renovated, and many sat unused, especially within the station building.[6]
After theSeptember 11, 2001 attacks, Amtrak closed the pair of taxicab drives in the name of security. Passenger traffic has increased and is exceeding the design capacity of the 1991 renovation.[30] On May 1, 2002, the station was designated aChicago Landmark, protecting its exterior, rooflines, and public interior spaces from alterations.[6][31] The status protects all exteriors, rooflines, the central lightwell, vehicular drives, the Great Hall, skylight, and select interior features – balconies, porticos, corridors, lobbies, and stairs.[32]
In 2010, Amtrak (the current owners of the Chicago Union Station Company) announced plans to air-condition the Great Hall for the first time since the 1960s.[33] That year aChicago Tribune investigation revealed high levels of diesel soot on the underground platforms of Union Station.[34]Metra established an "Emissions Task Force" to study this problem and recommend solutions to improve air quality in the underground areas.[35] In 2011, its lighting system was replaced with more energy-efficient light bulbs and motion sensors, reducing the station's annual carbon emissions by 4 million tons.[5] Custom steel lighting covers were added to top these safety/light towers, helping them blend in with the overall neoclassical style of the station.[36]
In 2011, the city held a public meeting to discuss goals for the station, aiming to accommodate the expected 40 percent growth in passengers by 2040.[5] In the following year, city agencies joined to publish a master plan for renovating and improving Union Station.[6] Short-term goals were to improve station entrances and expand waiting rooms, as well as enhance bus lanes on Clinton and Canal Streets and create a bus terminal (completed in 2016). Goals for the next five to ten years included widening commuter platforms, using unutilized mail platforms (including an extra-long through platform) for intercity passenger trains, adding more through tracks and platforms, reorganizing facilities for better capacity and flow, increasing height clearances of the tracks, 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 was also analyzed.[4]
In June 2015, Amtrak announced that it would renovate the station, including opening up long-closed spaces and replacing the worn staircases with marble from the original quarry nearRome.[37] In 2016, the women's lounge was restored, renamed the Burlington Room, and opened for use as an events space.[6] The space was initially a women's lounge, and later became an Amtrak warehouse. It then suffered years of neglect and water damage, and was eventually closed off. In November 2016, the room was renovated and reopened. An architecture firm removed wooden decking that divided the space into two floors, and took out a drop ceiling that defaced the original ornate ceiling. The work restored the room's columns and chandeliers, including creating several replica chandeliers. The room also has four French block murals of landscape scenery; three of the four were cleaned and preserved, while the fourth was reproduced. An original mirror and banister were added to the room's north end. The space was improved for events with color-changing lights and an audiovisual system.[12]
In 2016, Amtrak held a competition for renovations and development of Union Station. The winner, Riverside Investment & Development Co., proposed multiple changes, including new retail, a food hall, and two 12-story towers. The plans followed an unrealized 2007 plan for a tower addition above Union Station.[38]
From 2018 to 2019, a $22 million restoration of the Great Hall, including restoring original detailing and rebuilding the large skylight, was completed, increasing natural light by 50 to 60 percent.[39] The skylight, originally built in the 1920s, suffered from decades of harsh weather, leading to countless patchwork repairs, many of which blocked light from entering the Great Hall. The 2018–19 renovation restored the historic skylight to its original appearance, and added another glass skylight atop it. The new skylight is better-designed to prevent water and snow damage, and increases light entering the Great Hall.[15]
In 2018, Riverside Investment & Development Co. released a revised plan that included a seven-story addition above Union Station, adding 404 apartments to the building. The planned design was created bySolomon Cordwell Buenz, resembling Burnham's earlier proposed tower above the station, designed to handle the weight. The addition was to be clad in glass and light bronze, differentiated from the station's design as recommended in its landmark designation. The developers also planned to renovate the existing upper levels of Union Station's headhouse, adding 330 hotel rooms. The proposal was met with mixed reactions by preservationists and architectural critics, withBlair Kamin, theChicago Tribune's critic, calling it "banal" and "top-heavy".[40] Several months later, the developers announced they were cancelling the plan for the seven-story addition, instead constructing only a single additional penthouse floor, set back to not be visible from the street. The revised plan kept hotel rooms in the station's upper floors, and added a proposed 50-story office tower replacing the station's underutilized parking garage.[41]
In 2018, Amtrak announced plans to redevelop the former Fred Harvey restaurant 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.[13]
In September 2019, Union Station's 700-car parking garage permanently closed in order to be demolished. Its replacement is the 700-foot (210 m), 1.5-million-square-foot (140,000 m2),BMO Tower, opened in 2021. The skyscraper includes a 1.5-acre (0.61 ha) park above 400 parking spaces. The construction did not affect thepedway from the terminal to its adjacent Union Station Transit Center.[42]
In March 2020, U.S. Representative for IllinoisDan Lipinski filed a bill to shift operational control of the terminal from Amtrak to Metra. Lipinski noted that Metra utilizes the station much more than Amtrak does, and operates its other large stations more effectively than Amtrak operates Union Station. Amtrak officials threatened to stop service to Union Station if the change is to be made, stating it would be impossible to operate and would serve as a blockade to regional and national Amtrak service. Congress was out of session during theCOVID-19 pandemic, and aimed to discuss Lipinski's bill once sessions resumed.[43]
Union Station is used as a filming location in television and movies. Films in which the station appears includeThe Sting (1973),Silver Streak (1976),On the Right Track (1981),Doctor Detroit (1983),The Untouchables (1987),The Package (1989),My Best Friend's Wedding (1997),Flags of Our Fathers (2006),Public Enemies (2009), andMan of Steel (2013).[44][45][46] It featured prominently in a third season episode of the TV seriesER (1994) titled "Union Station". It was also featured in Season 4, Episode 8 of the TV seriesFargo (2020), although it was depicted asKansas City Union Station.[47] A 2016 exhibit in Union Station showcased the station and Chicago's use as a filming location in American cinema.[48] A photograph of Union Station is featured on the cover ofTo All Trains, the final album by the Chicago rock bandShellac.
In 2019, Amtrak handled 3,379,760 arrivals and departures at the station. 3,161,204 of these were coach and business class tickets, and 218,556 were first class andsleeper class tickets. 2,365,259 trips were taken on state supported Amtrak services (Blue Water,Hiawawatha Service,Hoosier State,Illinois Zephyr/Carl Sandburg,Illini/Saluki,Lincoln Service,Pere Marquette, andWolverine), and 1,007,508 trips were taken onlong-distance Amtrak services (California Zephyr,Capitol Limited,Cardinal,City of New Orleans,Empire Builder,Lake Shore Limited,Southwest Chief, andTexas Eagle).[49]
In 2019, the average trip to/from the station was 327 miles (526 km) in distance. Among coach and business class passengers, the average trip was 263 miles (423 km) in distance, while the average trip among first and sleeper class trip was 1,243 miles (2,000 km) in distance.[49]
Between the fiscal years 2002 and 2008, Amtrak ridership more than doubled at the station, surpassing 3.1 million in the 2008 fiscal year.[50]
| Year | Passengers (in thousands) | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 3,379.8 |  2,6% |
| 2018 | 3,293.6 |  0,8% |
| 2017 | 3,321.2 | 4,0% |
| 2016 | 3,191.0 | 1,7% |
| 2015 | 3,247.4 | 1,9% |
| 2014 | 3,311.3 | 3,7% |
| 2013 | 3,437.7 | -- |
The following is the top-ten stations which receive the most ridership to/from Chicago Union Station out of the 265 that Amtrak rail services that directly connected with Chicago Union Station as of 2019:[49]
| Rank | Station | City | Distance from Chicago Union Station | Connecting Amtrak services |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Milwaukee Intermodal Station | Milwaukee, Wisconsin | 86 miles (138 km) | Hiawatha |
| 2 | Gateway Transportation Center | St. Louis, Missouri | 284 miles (457 km) | Lincoln Service,Texas Eagle |
| 3 | Milwaukee Airport Railroad Station | Milwaukee, Wisconsin | 78 miles (126 km) | Hiawatha |
| 4 | Uptown Station | Normal, Illinois | 124 miles (200 km) | Lincoln Service,Texas Eagle |
| 5 | Illinois Terminal | Champaign, Illinois | 129 miles (208 km) | City of New Orleans,Illini andSaluki |
| 6 | Ann Arbor | Ann Arbor, Michigan | 243 miles (391 km) | Wolverine |
| 7 | Springfield | Springfield, Illinois | 185 miles (298 km) | Lincoln Service,Texas Eagle |
| 8 | Kalamazoo Transportation Center | Kalamazoo, Michigan | 138 miles (222 km) | Blue Water,Wolverine |
| 9 | Sturtevant | Sturtevant, Wisconsin | 62 miles (100 km) | Hiawatha |
| 10 | John D. Dingell Transit Center | Dearborn, Michigan | 273 miles (439 km) | Wolverine |
| Cumulative weekday Metra ridership at Union Station | ||||||||
| Period of study | Daily inbound alightings | Daily outbound boardings | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2018[51] | 55,979 | 54,882 | ||||||
| Fall 2016[52] | 55,565 | 55,494 | ||||||
| Spring 2014[53] | 55,098 | 54,422 | ||||||
| Fall 2006[52] | 54,388 | |||||||
| Fall 2002[52] | 49,883 | |||||||
| Fall 1999[52] | 51,221 | |||||||
| Fall 1997[52] | 48,579 | |||||||
| Fall 1995[52] | 43,920 | |||||||
| Fall 1993[52] | 42,301 | |||||||
| Fall 1989[52] | 42,409 | |||||||
| Fall 1987[52] | 39,510 | |||||||
| Spring 1985[52] | 35,968 | |||||||
| Spring 1983[52] | 32,834 | |||||||
| Cumulative weekday Metra ridership at Union Station by time of day | ||||||||
| Period of study | Inbound alightings | Outbound boardings | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AM peak | Midday | PM peak | Evening | AM peak | Midday | PM peak | Evening | |
| Fall 2018[51] | 49,911 | 4,442 | 2,108 | 518 | 1,542 | 4,994 | 43,887 | 4,459 |
| Fall 2016[52] | 47,725 | 4,653 | 2,643 | 544 | 1,561 | 5,039 | 43,439 | 5,455 |
| Spring 2014[53] | 48,066 | 3,985 | 2,492 | 555 | 1,587 | 4,542 | 42,845 | 5,448 |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Lines |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stations and terminals | |||||
| Rolling stock | |||||
| Incidents | |||||
| See also | |||||
