Union Stations: The Best, the Worst, and the Mildly Regrettable
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- Why are there so many Union Stations? WHAT DOES IT MEAN??? Well, I'm going to get into all that, count down the ten best, and go through a litany of honorable, dishonorable, and other kinds of mentions, so buckle up.
----------
CityNerd is now available on Nebula -- streaming ad-free, along with lots of other great creators! Discount for signing up at my channel:
go.nebula.tv/c...
----------
Patreon - a way to directly support continuing CityNerd output! Thanks to all who have signed up so far.
/ citynerd
----------
Instagram: @nerd4cities
Threads: @nerd4cities
BlueSky: @nerd4cities
Mastodon: @nerd4cities@mstdn.social
Twitter: @nerd4cities
----------
Previous CityNerd Videos Referenced:
- None! But go watch some of my other cool train videos anyway: • High Speed Rail
----------
Resources:
- en.wikipedia.o...
- en.wikipedia.o...
- railpassengers...
- www.smithsonia...
- www.viarail.ca...
- www.amtrak.com...
----------
Images
- Linked here: docs.google.co...
----------
Music:
CityNerd background: Caipirinha in Hawaii by Carmen María and Edu Espinal (TH-cam music library)
----------
Business Inquiries: thecitynerd@nebula.tv
This video might have the distinction of being the most positive media attention the Senate of Canada has received in years.
I think a lot of the bad Senate headlines petered out a while ago when the never-ending Wallin/Duffy/Brazeau/Meredith/Beyak scandals ran their course. Those nincompoops could only do so much to keep people bad-mouthing the upper chamber.
I don't think anyone's really talked about the Senate (other than about those goons) for a while now. Senators are sorta like MLB umpires, you really only get to know their names when they do something stupid, but if they're quietly doing their job you forget they exist.
Hahaha!
Now this is a good comment
For Americans: Canadian Senators are appointed based on a non-political application process with final decision by the prime minister and serve for life until mandatory retirement at the age of 75. Yes, this is British House of Lords style!
Note that the Senate will return to its wing of Centre Block at Parliament Hill by 2030 when renovations of Parliament Hill are complete. At which time it will return to a mere Senate of Canada office building.
Les Lye's comedically drunken, unshaven, stammering dad character on You Can't Do That On Television (which was made in Ottawa) was a Canadian Senator.
As a resident of Ogden, thank you for calling us out for having a car museum in our non-functioning union station. It's hilariously sad
The city is actively planning on moving the FrontRunner station back to Ogden Union Station at some point.
That really is like kicking someone when they’re down
And hopefully the Rio Grande Plan happens
Washington Union Station also serves as the interstate bus station for the city
@@AstroMagi do you have a source on that? I knew they were doing long range planning for the OUS area, but hadn't heard anything specific about moving the FrontRunner platform to be closer to the station building itself.
A couple other things that Toronto Union station has going for it are the new bus terminal, and it's connection to the PATH - an underground maze of tunnels that connects pretty much every major building downtown to Union Station. There's a good number of people who live in apartments connected to subway lines who can travel from home in the suburbs to any office tower downtown without going outside in the winter, all because of the PATH connection at Union.
This could be a fun video tunnels for people not cars
Also, the airport connection(s) (plural) are pretty good - you can take a streetcar to Billy Bishop or UP express to Pearson.
@@slavkovalsky1671 You can also take the free bus shuttle to Billy Bishop from across the street.
Yes the PATH and it's indoor walkway to the Aquarium, CN Tower, and Skydome. The architecture is pretty amazing too.
That’s cool but does your Canadian PATH connect you to the financial hub of the entire globe?
The Raleigh Union Station (RUS) is the initial ambitious investment in Raleigh's transit future. It was built from the structure of a dilapidated warehouse in a since re-emerged warehouse district downtown. Phase 2 is breaking ground soon (you can see the site prep in the birdseye aerial in the video) and will include a a bus terminal (RUS Bus) and hundreds of new apartments in two towers. The train station was purpose built to support future regional rail service, and was a really good move by the city to push forward with this station.
Also, the frequency of intercity service between Raleigh and Charlotte has increased significantly since the new station opened and is the main reason NC Amtrak ridership is at record highs.
@@BigCheeks5122 ...and it will be the station for HSR northward through Richmond and DC.
Some day, starry eyed dreaming, it could be a station for a regional rail system.
As a North Carolinian I really would love to see Raleigh in the top 10 of this list some day. I think it could do it too! The Triangle would benefit so massively from regional rail.
Would love to see more people taking rail into Asheville too. Too many damn cars in this small city
I fully expected Toronto's Union Union station to be #1... after getting snubbed on a certain list of urbanist sports stadiums I'm glad you've come to your senses ;)
I was a bit baffled by that, too. Scotiabank Centre (hockey/basketball) is across the street and Rogers Centre (baseball) is a 5 min walk away from the centre of the regional rail network. Does the central station need to be under the ball park?
I’ll revisit Scotiabank Arena at some point
@@andrew20146 Scotiabank arena isn’t even across the street, it’s legitimately attached to the station.
I approve of this comment.
@@lemonade4181 This is correct. To get from inside of Union Station to the Union Station Bus Terminal the most effective route is from the back of Union Station via Scotiabank Arena. The two buildings are basically attached.
The best part about Toronto Union Station that you didn't mention was the fact that it was in the literal heart of downtown, literally everything is within walking distance from it, unlike say LA which sorta sits on the edge of the city's downtown.
This is huge! You're totally right. We kind of have the opposite problem to Chicago where we only have a single downtown transit hub- but the benefit of that is that basically everything in the city is accessible from that one stop
Two words, the Gardiner
@@trainsandmore2319 Hot take, the Gardiner is given way more crap than it actually deserves. Its only 80ft wide (so its a lot narrower than most stroads) and takes at most 10s to cross. The only real issue with the Gardiner is less the gardiner and more Lake Shore Boulevard underneath it which is always congested and busy. Say we theoretically remove LSB, all that's left is a viaduct on the backside of ScotiaBank Arena but can be crossed easily.
In fact, its even narrower than most sections of the Union Station Rail Corridor so if anything in downtown Toronto is causing a physical divide, its the railway corridor, not the Gardiner. If you were to walk down Bay Street from Front Street to Queens Quay, whilst you only have to walk under 80ft of highway, you have to walk under 420ft of a railway with basically no sunlight. The teamway does try to make the environment nicer, but speaking personally its a much larger barrier to walking than the Gardiner is.
Not to mention that on my point of walkability from Union, you very rarely actually need to cross the Gardiner. Most of the major destinations that you'd walk from Union are either north of the station, or are north of the Gardiner. The only major destination south of the Gardiner is the harbourfront center, but if you really don't want to cross the gardiner, the 509/510 streetcar is literally right there and will take you from Union to the Harbourfront.
@@Absolute_Zero7 Honestly the bigger problem is the cost. The maintenance budget is more than all other Toronto infrastructure.
@@Absolute_Zero7 10seconds to cross? It has 40 second countdowns and I can barely cross it in that time
I keep hearing rumors about restoration of Toronto-Chicago service. That would be nice.
On another note, South Bend, Indiana's Union Station is still on a major rail line, but Norfolk Southern doesn't want it used for passenger rail service -- they even ripped out the concrete platforms and use the five tracks there to stage freight trains into the Elkhart yard. So Amtrak gets to use a "shed" a couple of miles to the west.
At least their south shore line runs frequently... way out at the airport.
i’m willing to bet that St Paul Union Depot just missed the top ten mark, and i respect the data. it’s a rare survivor… closed in the 70’s but underwent a gorgeous restoration in 2010 and now serves amtrak and local rail again!
St Paul Union Depot is gorgeous, and since restoration has become the central focus of Lowertown end of downtown St. Paul
As someone who took the train between Chicago and St Louis alot, the differences are jarring between these stations. And I have said for decades that St Louis should have kept their Union Station as a mixed use train station and not as a tourist trap.
St. Louis Union Station is literally only a block away from the transportation center, but feels like it's miles away. The multi-modal station is like a wasteland of human existence. They could easily connect tracks back through the parking lots into a part of the old train shed. I guess part of the issue is that it was designed as a terminal with dead-end tracks, so it would limit the through-running of trains. But still, there had to have been a better option than what they have now.
St. Louis Gateway Station is a long way from ideal for sure. But after a quarter century of the "temporary " facility ( sometimes referred to as St.Louis Union Trailer), it was a big step up. Another statement on the sad status of our rail passenger system.😢
Also most people who would catch a train in st, Louis would use the kirkwood station.
I completely agree. I loved St Louis Union. I actually arrived by train in that station in 1972, and as a ten year old, thought it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. They completely emasculated the Midway (concourse) in the horrible remodeling. Yes, they could bring trains back and need to. I am sure it will happen someday when people get some common sense.
Today, I appreciate the tourist trap as a stealth museum, with what the old shed still shows. I could do without the pond that belches fire to music, but the Ferris wheel is cool.
Also with Toronto Union its connected to the PATH so you can walk to a ton of downtown destinations without ever having to go to street level which is a godsend in the winter.
I knew people who lived in condos by the PATH and worked in the downtown skyscrapers. They literally didn't have to wear a coat in winter.
@@retropuffer2986living in 100% climate controlled comfort from home to work to errands and beyond would be pretty incredible
@@BytesAndCoffee The PATH is legitimately amazing. Every major landmark downtown has an entrance, so you can walk from Union to the Skydome without having to navigate downtown traffic hell as a pedestrian.
Union station is one of my favourites in Toronto architecture! Glad to see it as #1.
However it's heartbreaking to see so many beautiful union stations demolished or used so poorly 😢
Regina Union Station. Beautiful building, but it is used as a casino now.
To my mind it Toronto Union Station and the Dominion Public Building to its east make up the most impressive streetscape in Toronto.
Toronto Union also has the UP Express or Union Pearson Express which operates every 15 minutes, seven days a week, as a 25-minute journey with stops at Bloor and Weston in between. Not to mention the PATH tunnels and long-distance buses to places like Detroit and NYC. And two things you didn't mention about Denver Union Station is how the RTD system has direct service to Denver International Airport from the station as well as the fact Amtrak runs a Winter Park Express/Ski Train during winter weekends, so skiers can skip the traffic! It drops passengers 100 yards from the ski lifts, closer than parking would! If it wasn't for Moffat's vision of connecting Denver to the west with Salt Lake City and tackling the Continental Divide with the Moffat Tunnel, it wouldn't have become the economic engine that it is today.
Here's some Union Station facts to go along with the video: DC's Union Station was designed by Daniel Burnham. He was Director of Works for the 1892-93 World's Columbian Exposition, which was referred to as "The White City". He also worked on Chicago Union, Pittsburgh Union/Pennsylvania Station, the plans for Manila and Baguio when the Philippines were a part of the US, and he even worked on NYC's Flatiron Building and London's Selfridges department store! Cincinnati Union Terminal opened in 1933 and was designed by Alfred T. Fellheimer, who was the lead architect for GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL! He also worked on the Buffalo Central Terminal, Erie Union Station, Burlington Union Station, and what's now the Hamilton GO Centre.
Burnham also drafted the 1909 Plan of Chicago. You probably knew that but I'm surprised it wasn't listed in your comments above with all of the other accolades :)
@@cobrakai3732 Thank you for this mention. Until very modern times, Chicago was the only city on the Great Lakes where the lakefront was dedicated to the people as parkland. Other cities allowed industry. The two young men who pushed this design for Chicago were Daniel Burnham, as you said, and a fellow named Montgomery Ward. Burnham's monument in Graceland Cemetery (Chicago) is stunning, befitting a city planner, and should be on the tourists' lists. For architecture, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is also buried there with a very simple marker. Cyrus McCormick, many other famous Chicagoans.
Going UP anyone?
I am from KC, just recently rode the Southwest Chief for the second time in my life and Missouri River Runner for the first, probably because of you and @notjustbikes channels. Going to take MO River Runner to St Louis two more times this year with the family.
Greatly miss the trains in Europe and South Korea
Note for pittsburghs union station, the bulding you showed is not used for rail, but is apartments. There is a seperate building that serves amtrak. That building has no right being on this list
And it’s a total bummer to see the beautiful old station, only to be shoved over into the terrible Amtrak building.
To add insult to injury, Pittsburgh's light rail has a line that goes to the station, but is not used at all.
The Pittsburgh Amtrak station is NASTY. It doesn't even have parking.
I don’t know why Pittsburgh’s Amtrak station is referred to as a Union Station. As far as I know it was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad and only their trains used that station. Pittsburg had a different station for the B&O Railroad as well as the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad. I believe only the P&LE station served other railroads than their own but never was referred to as a Union Station.
Toronto Union also has the Union Pearson Express, a respectable airport rail link with 15m frequencies on a 25m journey to Pearson airport!
When you consider UP + VIA + Amtrak + Ontario Northland + GO + TTC subway and streetcar and having a sizeable bus hub it's position on this list makes a lot of sense. I think it's the 2nd busiest station on the whole continent only behind NY Penn!
Completely correct: As a proud Chicagoan one of the parts that I yearn for the most is a quick airport to central downtown connection. Orange Line from Midway to downtown isn't that long but O'Hare has most of the flights and Blue Line takes forever. When I had a 5-hour layover in Toronto I was able to, briefly, visit the city because of the Union Pearson Express train. I knew it wouldn't take too long to get there and back.
I find very shockingly few cities in the WORLD have this kind of service which sucks because airport are on the outskirts of town usually (well.. not the aforementioned Midway) AS THEY SHOULD BE. If there is a solid and fast connection I'm more likely to visit during a layover or use the rail connections instead of connecting flights like how I frequently fly to Munich but will sometimes fly to Frankfort and then just use Deutsche Bahn to get to Munich.
When we visited Toronto last winter, we deliberately chose to not rent a car and use the train to get around instead. The train out to the airport was nice and we didn't have to drive the 401.
@@dragnflye3797 As a visitor, you made the right choice in taking the train. The flip side is if you had rented a car, traffic can be pretty bad and not just the 401.
I love the UPX! I even take it from the Bloor Dundas W Station on TTC line 2 as an express downtown - a lot of people do this.
By my count, more than half of all passenger train lines in Ontario go through Union (including TTC streetcar, TTC subway, GO trains, UPX, VIA, Amtrak)
I love that ours says GO BY TRAIN right up top. :)
St Louis's Union Station is actually quite nice. To connect to Amtrak, you get off one stop later heading downtown and not at Union Station proper. Union Station itself is a mall but what's nice is the area around it like dense high-rise apartments, grocery stores, urban parks, a huge library, city hall, several theaters, a bunch of government buildings, all within walking distance or short bicycle trips with PROTECTED lanes!
I’m very surprised there was no mention of Union Depot in St. Paul, MN (then again, it's a Union Depot not Union Station). It has a beautiful old building, including a restaurant, ticket office, small lounge and it’s often used for events. It has one Empire Builder in each direction every day as well as the addition of the Great River between it and Chicago, a light rail station on the METRO Green Line, and a bus terminal with both intercity and local buses. The headhouse was designed by architect Charles Sumner Frost, who designed many buildings for the Chicago and North Western, and also worked on the Navy Pier Auditorium.
10. Kansas City 2:35
9. Portland 2:57
8. Alexandria 3:30
7. Dallas 6:25
6. New Haven 7:16
5. Los Angeles 8:02
4. Denver 8:40
3. Washington, DC 13:12
2. Chicago 13:46
1. Toronto 14:37
spoiler alert
Great comment thank you
Boo. It’s all about the suspense!
The read more kinda serves as a spoiler.
THANK YOU FOR THESE TIMESTAMPS, johnmberger!
Toronto Union Station also has the UP Express (Union-Pearson Express) to the airport, and a bus station with regional, intercity and international buses to Detroit and New York.
I love to use the word "AmShack" when referring to Houston's Amtrak station
Yay Toronto!
Er, I mean… thanks! I should add that Union Station also has:
- one end of the Union Pearson Express airport train to Pearson Airport, and
- the city’s main bus terminal for regional, intercity, and international buses.
In addition, one of the tram routes passes near the terminal of the downtown Island Airport (you just walk one block south past Little Norway Park).
They dug down underneath it and tripled the size of the passenger concourses and built an additional level of shopping and restaurants, which is finally filling out and being populated. They are expanding these concourses to the south as well.
The station has been under construction for about 15 years…
I don't know if the buses count. They used to before they built the new bus station. But now to get from the train station to the bus station you have to run sideways across a bunch of Leafs/Raptors fans exiting the ACC like that one scene in the movie 1917.
@@falsum2701 hey, at least it's close and connected. Considering the wasteland that was the old Coach terminal and annex at Bay/Edward/Elizabeth through the 90s for GO and very recently for most other lines, this location is much nicer, accessible, and faster for most routes to get out of the downtown core.
@@jtsholtod.79 I didn't think the old terminal was so bad. It worked well enough, was much closer to the main station, and had direct pedestrian access to Front Street. Sure, it wasn't great that it was outdoors-partiucularly in the winter. Generally, though, I had no complaints.
@@falsum2701 There will be another route with a bridge between CIBC Square North Tower (which is still under construction) and Union Station directly.The north and south towers are to be connected by a bridge/park.
@@falsum2701that’s the old Union Station Bus Terminal (USBT) you mention, not the old Toronto Coach Terminal? For those watching from afar, the old USBT was regional GO buses only; the old Toronto Coach Terminal (TCT) was intercity and international buses. The TCT was several subway stops and a trudge through a mall away from Union Station.
Both terminals have been recombined into the new USBT. (I say recombined, because before the old USBT was built, GO buses went to the Toronto Coach Terminal as well.)
Thanks for shouting out Columbus! I was hoping you would. I did a project on it during my masters at osu. The fact that the freeway cuts right through where rail used to be is such an insult to injury
Same thing was done to Syracuse. New York Central Railroad Station lobotomized for freeway 690. Painful.
Build Ohio 3c an ncbt
Denver Union Station does anchor a very impressive expansion of Downtown, has a 22-bay underground, climate-controlled bus terminal, and the Ski Train. But it's all substance over style: in 2019, Denver's LRT and Commuter Rail combined got less ridership than San Diego's LRT alone, despite San Diego having a far crappier central station.
Thank you for mentioning Tacoma and Seattle Union Stations, even though they don't have service anymore. Beautiful spaces that I wish could still be used for their original design, but Seattle's Union Station is a possibility for a new Link Light Rail station in the future.
Also, as a Pacific Northwesterner, I would be interested in a video about the 2017 derailment on the Point Defiance Bypass. Such a shame, but I would be interested in your take on it.
The International District/Chinatown station on Link is located right where the trains serving Seattle Union Station would've stopped, it's just the Station building that isn't being used.
The bypass is efficient but the original path is so darn scenic.
From an architecture standpoint, I'm a big fan of Union Station in Worcester, MA. I've taken trains from there west into upstate NY and it's quite nice.
Toronto Union Station also has the Union Pearson Express which makes getting from the airport to the middle of Toronto easy. Also, a huge food court, connections to the Toronto Path system and just beautiful architecture inside and out.
One you missed is New Orleans, which is a terminus for three long-distance Amtrak trains, and there is also a streetcar stop out front. It's a 1950s vintage building, so it's nothing to look at, but there are some nice murals inside. I continue to support an Amtrak Chicago-to-Florida train, which if it happens would put Nashville back on your list.
So you support high speed rail?
@@qjtvaddict Only when it makes sense, typically for distances of about 400 miles or less.
i take the DC union station almost every day and love it! such cool architecture with tons of shops and places to eat inside. could definitely use another metro line connection tho
A car museum in a train station...incredible logic, Ogden! That's just as bad as the fact that the Museum of Bus Transportation in Hershey, Pennsylvania...doesn't even have a bus stop! That aside, here's some New Haven lore: The current building is the third such station in the city of New Haven, preceded by both an 1848 station in a different location, and an 1879 station near the current station's location. Designed by Cass Gilbert (who also worked on the state capitols of Arkansas, West Virginia, and Minnesota), the present beaux-arts Union Station was completed in 1920 after the previous Union Station (once near the site of the current Union Station parking garage) was destroyed by fire.
The New Haven Railroad who once owned it went bankrupt in 1961, and the station was transferred to Penn Central in 1969 before they too went bankrupt the next year! It closed in 1973 and was almost demolished before the Northeast Corridor Improvement project saved it in 1979. After extensive renovations, it reopened in 1985. You can take the shortest Amtrak journey in the country from New Haven Union...to New Haven State Street. Two-minute journey and it's free! New Haven-style pizza is locally known as apizza. It originated in 1925 at the Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana and is now served in many other pizza restaurants in the area like Sally's Apizza and Modern Apizza.
It's nice to see Denver mentioned on this channel, we rarely get any attention, good or bad.
Another entry for the “No Longer a Train Station” list: Cleveland Union Terminal. It’s still served by local metro as the Tower City stop, but regional rail has been discontinued, and the one intercity train has been rerouted to a sad looking station built in the 70’s closer to the mainline, where the Lake Shore Limited passes through in the predawn hours.
The Union Terminal concourse has been converted into a mall, Tower City Center, that’s been struggling post COVID; the platforms and sidings, other than those still used by the RTA, have been converted to underground parking for the mall.
Woohoo! I think this is the first time my city ranked #1 on one of your videos! Union Station also links to the UP Express - which is a relatively-new train service that goes from Union Station to Pearson International Airport. It also makes two stops along the way, which has been really helpful to people living in the Northwestern part of Toronto.
Phoenix is only an urbanist dream if you're in an alternative universe. But in that universe, yes, we'd already have two through-connected regional rails, intercity lines to Tucson and possibly Yuma, a little larger light-rail line, and BRTs that steal space from cars on our broad straight stroads.
I think the Amtrak station issue is a red herring; in-state lines are the greater need, and an economically viable Brightline might one day run a line to L.A.
I am is 65 years old and I lived in the northern Virginia, DC area for pretty much 60 of those years. I’m ashamed to say that I had no idea, regardless of the number of times I’ve passed or been in that train station that it was officially named Alexandria Union Station
Any city that combines the facilities of the train service they still have, with that of intercity bus, and local public transit, deserves credit in these times. It's a tremendous help to travelers.
The thing that drives me UP THE WALL about Pittsburgh's Union Station is that it's a gorgeous building... that you don't go in. The building with the breathtaking rotunda has been luxury apartments for decades. Instead, next to the beautiful building, they built a shed under the train overpass. The waiting room has too few seats for the number of people boarding each train and you have to go up an escalator to get to the old train platform which is still in operation twice a day. Clownery.
I grew up staying at the Royal York Hotel when in Toronto, so have tons of experience in Union Station. I used to walk from the hotel to the video arcades in Union via underground passageways (actually, can do a LOT of underground walking from block to block throughout downtown; chalk it up to fine winter-based urban planning). Would have been shocked to see this station anyplace other than #1.
Lucky you! It’s always been my dream to stay at the Royal York and sashay from my train right into the hotel lobby.
Am I the only one to speak unp for Denver? They rebuilt it beautifully, and made connections for local busses and regional ones that run up and down the front range. The Gray Dog is only a few blocks from the 16th Street Mall free bus. I've navigated through this station for years.
Greyhound, Burlington Trailways and Xpress Arrow have moved into the bus concourse beneath the tracks.
@@rwrynerson I will not miss trekking to the bus, nor that nasty station. $38M tear down!
This man makes my week bearable to go through. 😁
I'm split on the now former Ottawa Union Station. On the one hand it's a beautiful building in the heart of the city, it's next to the Rideau Centre and Chateau Laurier, and I wish trains still went downtown along the canal and over the Alexandra Bridge into Gatineau. On the other hand I kinda love the way the canal is today with walking/cycling paths alongside it.
Oh well, at least they didn't tear it down.
Have to agree and while Tremblay Station isn't the most beautiful building in the area, it functions quite well overall and I've chosen to reach/leave the city by train far more often than by air; location really is important!
We could still have the canal that way while making the train station a train station again. Just put train tracks down Colonel By!
@@falsum2701 lol well if they're just closing it off anyways...might as well!
@@DanielRWomack Colonel By is exactly the kind of destructive urban freeway that good cities should be dismantling. Plus, it used to be train tracks!
I don’t love the way there are 3 highways/parkways for motor vehicles adjacent to the multi use pathways beside the Rideau canal. I would love to see them removed (at least the two on the east side of the Canal) and replaced with tracks, but that won’t happen in my lifetime, especially since the Shaw Centre is now in the way.
For what it's worth, STL's repurposed Union Station does have an adjacent light rail station.
You missed the beautifully restored Meridian (Mississippi) Union Station, now (rather optimistically) called the Meridian Multi-Modal Transportation Center. It doesn't boast much Amtrak frequency, but (like many other train stations and depots) it has served as the centerpiece of revitalization efforts in its area. It's also quite photogenic.
I'll be attending Brownfields 2023 in Detroit next month and detouring enroute to photograph a LOT of current and former train stations, including several that you featured.
If they dropped Union from its name, it is not eligible for this list.
@@stevengordon3271 The big sign still says "Union Station" and the locals and Amtrak still call it that.
The LA Union Station can totally be #3 or #4 if we can increase Metrolink/Metro frequencies!
Even as is it should be at least number four. It has more rail services of different types running through the station than the station he listed as number four. There are several Amtrak and Metrolink lines that use LA Union Station not just one or two
Actually Metrolink got a ton of money from the state to upgrade all the lines to 30 minute frequencies for the Olympics. Metro is also getting a massive boost in service. I agree that even as is LA Union should be at least number 4 or 3 on this list, but after the upgrades it will probably be in contention for the top stop. No other hub is planning anything even remotely as transformational as LA Union.
@@TohaBgood2 Very true and it will be getting an expansion and reworking of it train tracks to accommodate the HSR by installing run through tracks on its platforms which it currently doesn't have
Toronto Union belongs at the top of this list, what wasnt mentioned is the addional service via Ontario Northland Railway to north bay, cant wait for those new trainsets.
A car museum in a train station has got to be the greatest insult ever.
STL union station really is a shell of what it was and the Amtrak station downtown is kinda sketch. The Kirkwood Amtrak station is way cuter than the STL station AND it gets Lincoln Service & MO River Runner coming through it. Plus it’s kept open mainly by volunteers since the city bought it from Amtrak. Not a union station but I think still worth mentioning 😊
I definitely would have ranked L.A. above Pittsburgh and Winnipeg. LAUPT is not ideally situated relative to downtown but it has WAY more intercity rail than either of them. Winnipeg is down to either 8 or 10 arrivals and departures a week. Neither station has any kind of local rail service. I think San Diego deserved a mention. It's a gorgeous building that is well situated. It has commuter rail and light rail. It also has/had frequent Amtrak service before the various land slips developed. BTW when mentioning places like Denver, its not one Amtrak departure a day, the California Zephyr does run in both directions, otherwise their would be a huge pile of cars and locomotives at one end. And, as long as I'm doing the picking of the nits, if you count trains the way flights are counted, Denver would be up to an unbelievable FOUR arrivals and departures per day 😅. An arrival and a departure each day for Oakland and Chicago. But you are entirely right, even by my count its pathetic, a shadow of a ghost. Despite my contrary thoughts I did enjoy your work on this.
I arrived in St. Louis at Union Station, with my mother and sister, in 1959. Despite that I was not quite four years old, I still remember it. I grew up in St. Louis County, and was back to Union Station a few times. I also traveled with my mother and now two sisters from the Kirkwood station that was then Missouri Pacific. I have been back to Kirkwood station several times in the last couple of decades, mostly because there is an ice cream stand next door.
Always love it when a video opens with a shot of Denver
toronto union station is also the central hub for ontario's regional bus system which isn't as bad as it sounds, depending on what city you're going to it can be faster than taking the train outside of rush hour.
also i've been watching this channel for about a year now and i didn't realize until today that i wasn't subscribed because every video shows up in my recommended anyways.
When you explained your criteria, I thought Toronto would measure up well. I was surprised, however, when you placed it at the top of the heap.
slightly surprised LA wasn't one or two places higher. Sure, Metro frequencies of ~10 min headways during peak times aren't what they should be, but are they really worse than 4th place Denver? LA union station is by far the busiest train station by number of passengers in the Western US (thought definitely doesn't come close to some of the eastern hubs). Also, while most intercity Amtrak is only a couple trains a day (like across most of the US), LA Union Station is the linchpin of the Pacific Surfliner, which is the typically the busiest intercity train service in the US outside of the North East corridor, and which didn't get mention in the video. Granted, the Surfliner is in dire straights given track erosion on the Southern leg. But its still relatively-high ridership is a testament to the immense demand which exists *today* on this corridor, if only those issues could be remedied.
Completely agree. The headway is 5 minutes on the LA subway lines during peak hours. It's 10 minutes on the light rail lines.
Denver has not restored all the pre-pandemic service due to financial problems and reduced downtown employment.
L.A. Union Station is also a start/end point for the L line which rakes you to Pasadena, also the point to get the Fly Away bus to LAX, and other LA bus lines. Want a good view of the station and the old original ticket counter, watch the first 4 or 5 minutes of Social Distortions Maxhine Gun Blues, and the extended version of Princes Cream. Finished in 1939 it was the last purpose built station in the USA. Art Nouveau to boot and close to Olvera Street, and Original Philippe’s.
And it was built as LAUPT, Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal. It became a 'Station" when the Metro line opened a through track.
You might have mentioned that the Canadian Senate uses the Ottawa Union Station only while the actual Senate Chamber on Parliament Hill is being renovated.
As a native of DC, I was ALSO saddened that we weren't Number 1. However, I can see how Toronto wins. Chicago? It's close, but I'll concede. Fair play.
I’d like to make the argument that Denver is top 3. There’s actually 3 more light rail lines and a regional rail line for a total of 7 at the northeast portion of the station and 11 bus lines in an underground bus terminal underneath the rail station. There’s several parks plazas surrounding the main building and the station itself extends several blocks in lower downtown. It’s very nice
Does it even count as transit if the light rail lines operate at 30-60 minute headways? Only the airport line has the "best" headways at 15 minutes.
@@rlbond one line is every 60 minutes, mostly because its incomplete. 2 run every 30 during peak times and the rest are every 15 during peak times.
@@aaronchapa1117 That is really an unacceptable level of service. #3 DC's red line which connects to Union Station runs every 6 minutes on weekdays as a comparison and the least frequent line is 15 minutes off-peak. I don't see how Denver could be top 3
@@rlbond you’re being really defensive for no reason. I’m talking about the station. I do not care about how much better DC’s transit system is
I was definitely surprised when moving to Seattle a few years ago that we have a Union Station… but with no trains. I’m bummed that Sound Transit seems to be barely considering using Union Station as part of future light rail alignments. It’s in such a perfect location.
Yes! Such a pity!!!
Thing is Union Station and King Street Station is basically the same station, just 2 different buildings at opposite sides of the rail corridor. So you can technically argue that Seattle does use its Union Station.
I didn’t expect Winnipeg Union Station to make it into the honourable mentions but I’ll take it.👍🏽
7:34 the Metro-North New Haven line actually terminates at State Street station, which is just north of New Haven Union station. It stops in both however
New Haven! It is about time we got some love on here.Also, the underground tunnels to the tracks at new Haven are amazing. They look like a set from Logan's Run.
Had the last Solari di Udine board, something the Nerd didn't mention
You missed some fun intercity(ish) services out of Denver Union Station(ish). There's the Winter Park Express, which runs one round trip Fri-Sun during the winter. Its not exactly intercity because most riders do the round trip in a single day for skiing, but it is run by Amtrak and does connect to a city outside of Denver's urban area. Then there's the Rocky Mountaineer, a private sightseeing train to Moab that runs twice weekly during the spring through early fall. But despite the check-in for this service being at Union Station (really across the street), the train boards at a siding near a different regional rail station and guests ride a coach bus from Union to get there.
As someone not from the USA it's bizarre how infrequent the trains to these stations are
Some rural stations don't even have a train every day, maybe just 3 times a week.
It truly is. My car centric small Eastern European train station has like 20 trains a day and it's considered poor.
Yes. Honestly how do you make it into a top ten list with 3 trains per DAY.
@@danielkelly2210 As far as I know, the only Amtrak train that runs less than daily is the Sunset Limited, which runs three times a week in each direction. During the pandemic, some other trains only ran that much but I believe they all run at least once a day now.
If you can believe it, Indianapolis (the biggest city in the state of Indiana) only has a single train 3 times a week connecting to Chicago! It's honestly just sad.
I'm seeing all these "yay Toronto!" comments, but as a resident in the city, I think it speaks more to how bad urban/public transit is in North America than actual praise of the system (though seeing lower ranks with "one daily intercity train" was pretty damning as is). Effectively, the list was topped with "It's fine, I guess" and it's terrible that that's good enough. Would it even place on a fully-international list of union-equivalents? I doubt it.
Writing as a European I suspect Toronto might make an international list. I gather from RMtransit videos that Toronto's main bus station is right next to the Union rail station. That is a huge plus in favour of Toronto when compared to European cities of a similar size (eg Berlin).
Toronto Union Station also has a regional/intercity/international bus terminal, 7 different companies operate out of it with approx. 485 bus trips per weekday.
Kansas City's Union Station is less of a hub for transport anymore, but is almost always busy due to the consistent traveling exhibits, an IMAX theater, and Science City. It's a great place to spend a day.
Wooo! Love the rare recognition that Canada exists from an American content creator :) Great video!
Can you make a video about the outrage of the destruction of New York's Pennsylvania Station in 1963? I was only two when this happened, but thinking about it almost brings me to tears.
The saddest Union Station I've been to is the one in Buffalo, NY. It has been abandoned for 70+ years (pretty much since the street car lines were removed) and is completely bypassed by all rail traffic in the area. Some local activists have petitioned to have the Amtrack line moved there, but that hasn't gained enough steam.
Detroit has a similar situation; I believe they are renovating it.
@@jaygatz4335Name: Michigan Central Station. Closed: 1988. Used by Amtrak from 1971 until that time (18 years)
I take the Pennsylvanian from Pgh to NYC regularly and it’s so great. I love taking the trains so much 😭
Transcendent content. Would definitely be interested in seeing a piece about the derailment on Point Defiance line.
Houston just recently approved another major freeway expansion. I know NJB made a Houston video, but would love to see a good ol' fashioned City Nerd dunking on Houston. As a resident here, it is frustrating getting around by just a car 99% of the time and I feel legitimately terrified here most of the time.
To add to Winnipeg's honourable mention- It was designed by the same architecture firm that did NYCs Grand Central Station, so it is actually quite nice from that perspective. It is also directly adjacent to The Forks which is a central city park/market/gathering place (both of which have been given National Historic Site designations). While Union Station doesn't have much traffic right now, there are plans to use it as a Bus Rapid Transit hub in the future once the network has expanded.
Winnipeg's current bus and cycle networks could use some improvement but I'm glad to see things hopefully trending in the right direction, albeit slowly.
There's a lot of potential for passenger rail in Winnipeg. Intercity, regional, metro, Ottawa style O-train, etc. The whole city was built around railroads and a lot of right of ways still exist. Just looking at Google Maps, there's a fairly clear route for a train from the airport to downtown Union Station, using existing lines.
@@andrewleach3983 LRT would be a great solution. From what I remember a few years ago though, the rail companies have been hesitant to give up any of their rail lines+yards, so I'll still take BRT over nothing, especially since the small amount of BRT that has gone up so far has incorporated parallel bike paths alongside.
It took a full half century from the time we hired Norman Wilson (of the Toronto Subway) to devise a rapid transit plan for Winnipeg in 1959 for the first phase of the first line of a BRT to open in 2012. We like to take things nice and slow in Winnipeg 😹
@@YoungThos Yeah there's a huge car centric culture issue here. I love cars more than most, trust me, but there's a difference between car enthusiasm and car reliance. I think a lot of people here just haven't experienced good transit and walkable cities to understand how much better it is to have multiple legitimate commute options and how much better of an investment of our tax dollars they are.
I work near downtown but live on the north side of the city. I would love to transit or bike to work and stop paying for parking but that turns my 20 minute drive into either an hour+15 bus ride (if they show up), or a 45 minute bike (which is fine, problem being it's down almost exclusively unprotected roads). We somehow avoided building freeways but didn't bother to spend that money on other modes of transit instead. Might have to move further south/central honestly because the north side of the city is quite neglected for these things and I think I'll be dead before it gets better lol.
The current rapid transit "station" outside of Union Station is hardly BRT as it doesn't have a dedicated right of way or any sort of transit priority outside of rush hour. I'm excited about the prospect of Union Station becoming a Transit Hub, especially given its connections to The Forks and Main Street as an arterial route. Union Station is such a beautiful building and it would be amazing to breathe some new life and use out of it other than Via Rail.
To be honest, I think that Main Street is fairly overbuilt for the amount of traffic it actually handles-especially considering the other connections to North Winnipeg like the Salter or Arlington bridges. The street could really use a dedicated BRT lane and bike infrastructure as well. I'm hoping the city makes this happen and makes fully funding the Transit Master Plan and frequent service network a priority in the near future.
I knew Toronto was gonna come in at #1. You can get some pretty good beef patties there. And it's actually connected to Scotiabank Arena, where the Raptors and Leafs play. You can go from the train to the game without ever walking outside.
Yes, Please do a video on that Cascades derailment!
I live in Ottawa and had no idea that our old train station had been called Union Station. I'd always thought it was just "Ottawa Central Station" or something like that.
Fully agree on Toronto Union Station. It's smack downtown and has great connections to pretty much everywhere in the Greater Toronto Area.
Indianapolis Union Station has to be on the forgettable list. To be fair since the daily train from Indy to Chicago has been discontinued, not much there anymore except for the Greyhound and the grand hall for weddings, events, etc.
And the fact that the new downtown BRT hub was built far enough away to where it’s an inconvenient transfer frustrates me. Should’ve used some of the underutilized Pan Am Plaza for bus bays and have IndyGo move into Union for indoor functions it currently houses at the new facility.
It's so sad, because you can see it was beautiful at one time. On the potential upside, I've been hearing about the potential of Amtrak bringing back daily service. But yeah, also super weird that the new transit hub is so far away from it 🙃
Kansas City Union Station is a rare W for the city. In the 90’s it was almost demolished entirely as the interior was neglected with the roof falling and the floor flooded. Amtrak operated from a shed a block away, so there was zero reason to use it. Luckily it was given funding and reopened with its Amtrak terminal inside after almost a decade of work along with weird tourist bits similar to the St. Louis union station. Only one terminal, and the tourist bits are on the west side, so it doesn’t fill up all that much unfortunately, but it’s never empty either.
Union Station in DC has so much potential. For intercity rail to Philly/NYC/Baltimore its hard to beat the Acela and NEC in the US (low bar but still its unquestionably the best intercity rail line in the US). Heck, even to Boston if you really hate driving and driving. MARC and VRE are both legit commuter rail systems. Rail connection to Richmond has a lot of potential. It's hard to knock the metro connection and the streetcar line would be amazing if they ever continue it across town to Georgetown through K st. MARC to Baltimore is solid. They are proposing a 2nd Metro line through Union Station going East-West mostly through DC
Hi CityNerd. I know you cover larger cities, but there is a smaller city in New Jersey called Phillipsburg that used to be a railroad hub. Phillipsburg sits on the edge of the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania, roughly evenly distanced apart from both New York City and Philadelphia. The area has always been a busy logistical hub, with canals reaching down the Lehigh and Delaware Rivers, as well as being the western terminus for the famous Morris Canal. Eventually, rail began to be built through the region, and many railroads were built. The Lehigh Valley Railroad, the Central Railroad of New Jersey, the Reading Railroad, the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Lehigh and New England Railroad, the Lehigh and Hudson River Railroad, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad and many more have all once traversed through the area. This area has so much rich railroad history, including the Phillipsburg Union Station. This at one point used to serve both the CNJ and the DL&W, but passenger service from both railroads ceased to exist in 1941 and 1967 respectfully. Due to the oil embargo, New Jersey Transit brought back service in 1974, only to terminate it in 1983. A local group dedicated to the old station purchased it and restored it to look like its original self. They even opened a railroad museum on this year's Father's Day Weekend. It's worth checking out and it just goes to show how many towns lost once thriving passenger service.
As a car-free Old Town Alexandria resident, I am SO happy to see ALX mentioned!
We love ALX
i grew up in cincinnati - i didn't realise union terminal was a functioning train station until i graduated college and moved away. it has an awesome children's science, natural history, & local history museum inside of it, primarily!
And the architecture is unique and stunning.
Forgot Cleveland's Union Station (Terminal Tower) hub for the RTA
Toronto Union GO also has a bus depot for intercity service for areas not covered by the GO Train lines. It also features as the endpoint hub of the PATH underground walkway network which is a unique and easily overlooked feature.
Regarding the Point Defiance Bypass derailment: I think that would be an excellent opportunity for a collaboration with / guest appearance on the Well There's Your Problem podcast. I think your dry humor would fit right in there!
Thank you! I have thought about the many Union Stations. Glad to know I'm not the only one. I have spent countless hours at the one in Los Angeles with a shout-out to Denver
Burlington, VT Union Station just got Amtrak service at the beginning of this year, it's the first time since the 1950s that there's been passenger trains running to it.
As a patient Torontonian, I feel heard and rewarded
Considering that "Canada wins", Toronto definitely better be on your city visiting list, and be one of the first. Cuz, as far as North America goes, you know we do really well. And we're heavily investing in multiple under-construction train lines, electrifying our regional rail, and the city/metro area is growing (and densifying) faster than any other.
Was VERY surprised to see EBJ Union Station here in Dallas as 7th on the list after all the stuff you've said about DFW and DART (which is well-deserved, to be honest).
Not surprised it made it due to level of service and exterior architecture, but I thought it would surely get dinged for the atrocious interior 😢
My wife and I stayed at the Nashville TN. Union Station Hotel, which was beautiful. I'm glad Toronto's Union Station survived the 1970s, which saw a lot of great classical architecture torn down and replaced with concrete brutalist structures.
A new Union Station opened in May this year... in a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. It's named after the nearby road, but is coincidentally a combined station for what were the previously two closest stations on the network - they needed to be moved to grade separate that part of the line.
One thing you didn't mention about Denver Union Station is the number of local and regional bus lines that also stop at that station, including a free bus that goes up and down 16th street mall very frequently. There's even a lite rail that goes all the way to the Denver Airport, one of the largest and busiest airports in the world. Of course, frequency could be better on the bus routes.
This British viewer is not surprised at your choice of number one, but then he is a Patreon subscriber to Toronto based RMTransit TH-cam channel! Sadly, several provincial British cities have TWO main stations. That Includes Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow. The great advantage of a Union or 'Hauptbahnhof' station is for people changing trains. They never have the cross city journey (usually by 'the tube' or Metro) faced by people changing trains in London or Paris. Significantly both Berlin and Vienna have opened new Hauptbahnhofs in the last fifteen years, though Vienna still has two smaller dead-end stations handling mostly local services.
It used to drive me nuts that I couldn't get a bus to Manchester Piccadilly when I lived there. And connecting between the two Glasgow stations is always super annoying. Especially when it's raining, which is always.
London's four stations for pre-WW2 UK's four competing major railroads can make for a shitshow, a London Union station really should've happened in the nationalized British Rail era.
@@nlpnt I take your point. But the situation is even worse than you say. London has 12 main line stations (Paris has only 7) and it will in about 2030 acquire a thirteenth. Initially the HS2 high-speed line to Birmingham and the North will terminate at Old Oak Common, two miles west of the city centre. HS2 will also mean that Birmingham has a third main line station, at Curzon Street, a mile from New Street and about half-a-mile from Moor Street.
Thank you for talking about Columbus. As someone who grew up there it is such a weird city that is built so heavily around cars but in ways unique from the sunbelt. The downtown are is a husk with so little going on outside of small gentrified areas with 670 cutting off the rest of the city from the downtown area. The amount of prime property in the heart of the city used up by freeways is so sad. But unfortunately it's highly likely nothing structural will change.
While Ottawa's replacement station isn't named Union, I think you'd love it for the architecture! It's a modern take on the high train sheds of old, with a black space frame, glazing, and spiral ramps. I love it, and tried to get a company I worked for to lease our offices there. :) Unfortunately train service is not that exciting, with only some VIA trains to Montreal or Toronto, and it's far enough from the centre of the city that it's not a hub at all for any other service (though at least there's a stop on the light rail now), so it's middling as a station proper. But it's a win in the design department. Thanks for the video, excited that TO's Union topped the list! With GO electrification and the new platforms it'll be even more exciting in the future. :)
The Union Pearson Express also runs from Toronto's Union Station to the Airport, which has been really nice!
Now we need top 10 non union stations
I grew up on a farm in the Midwest in the 1970s. Before that, they had passenger rail service to the nearest town of ~100 people. That ended sometime in the 1950s. But at least they still had freight rail to haul grain from that town. Sometime during the late 70s or early 80s, they took out the entire railroad tracks. The infrastructure was already there. It just needed to be maintained which was less costly than starting from scratch. But the government priorities at the time and to this day are all short-term. Now the USA desperately needs passenger rail, but it is very costly to build it (again!) from scratch.
Actually, besides the three long-distance trains serving Los Angeles Union Station, there are also many Amtrak Surfliner trains each day, as well as several bus connections with the San Joaquin trains. And for local service, besides the Metro Rail and metro link trains, quite a few bus lines stop at the Metro building just through the tunnel from Union Station.
There will be trains stopping in Phoenix soon. It’s supposed to happen this year, but I haven’t seen anything yet.
Glad to have been through a number of these as a passenger!
The current Amtrak/Greyhound station opened in 2008 - a huge improvement over the two previous temporary structures we called “Amshack.”
The St. Louis Union Station was actually our second, the first was 6 blocks east. It opened June 1, 1875, but it was quickly considered inadequate - it was a through station in a tight area which limited the number of trains/platforms.
The cornerstone for the Union Station shown was set on July 8, 1893 - just over 130 years ago. The Terminal Railroad Association acquired a larger site and designed an end terminal station. A decade later more lines/platforms were added.
This was the right design at the time, but not decades later. If it was a through station design, like KC, it would still be in use for Amtrak.
So glad you mentioned New Haven and Waterbury. We in Connecticut are a trying people, a lot of our cities have pretty good bike-abilty, and our busses are great. Along with the great Metro North branch lines, New Cannan, Greenwich and Norwalk are really well served as well as many small towns like mine. Great trails are here like the NRVT and Farmington. Plus, we are on the Acella! Come see Ct for yourself.
Fun fact, Pittsburgh Union Station does actually have a connection to the T light rail system built into it, they just stopped running trams to it. However, they got some plans to start doing so again, so here's hoping!
One thing to know about Raleigh Union Station (one of your honorable mentions) is that the local transportation companies are working on making that a regional hub. In addition to new Amtrak routes, they are working on a local rail system that will connect the triangle, and are building a brand new bus hub next door