Talk:Union Station (Chicago)
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[edit] No Picture of Current Station
Why isn't there a single picture of the exterior of the famous current station, neither from it's early years or today? Yet, there are two pictures of the previous station which it replaced? Seems kind of strange doesn't it. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 136.176.103.64 (talk • contribs).
There likely aren't any free photos of the old station available, or there weren't when editors went looking. I'll be in Chicago next month, so I'll try to stop over there for some current photos. Slambo (Speak) 11:48, 24 March 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Through tracks?
This is something I was trying to figure out recently, and couldn't. Does Union Station have through tracks, or do all the tracks from both sides end? Whichever way it is, it should be mentioned in the article. --SPUI 05:28, 4 Feb 2005 (UTC)
- There are one or two through tracks on the south end of the concourse next to the river, but the rest are all stub tracks. slambo 13:43, Feb 4, 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Image removed?
Why was the image of the grand hall removed? I'm guessing it's because the image didn't have an appropriate copyright tag on it? In a little searching, I found the image on http://www.cityofchicago.org/landmarks/U/UnionStation.html but what I couldn't find was a concise statement concerning using the image except at the bottom of that page where it says "© Copyright 2003 City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development, Landmarks Division. All Rights Reserved." Perhaps someone more familiar with that site or its maintainers can obtain official permission and mark the image as such? I've got a couple photos that I took there a couple months ago, but they aren't near as pretty as the one that was originally linked here. slambo 16:02, Feb 16, 2005 (UTC)
- Copyright is an issue with lots of Wikipedia's architecture articles. The really good shots are copyrighted. We're counting on you! --Wetman 18:12, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)
- Neat picture, but I'd rather see a discriptive photo than an artistic one.Cacophony 22:36, August 27, 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Chicago as railroad center
Isn't Chicago still the railroad center of the US? It's the only city where six Class I railroads meet. Could we change the first sentence of the article so that Chicago doesn't sound like it's lost that?
[edit] Info from A Guide to Chicago's Train Stations Present and Past by Ira J. Bach and Susan Wolfson
Built 1881 by consortium including PFW&C, C&A, CB&Q, CM&StP and others, headhouse was to one side of the tracks because tracks approached from both sides, designed by W. W. Boyington, two-story brick headhouse, demolished 1925 for room for trackage to new station a block to the south
construction begun 1914, designed by successor firm to Daniel H. Burnham, known as Graham, Anderson, Probst and White by completion in 1925, originally two buildings - concourse/shed and waiting room/office building, connected by tunnel under Canal Street, skylight over concourse demolished in late 1960s --SPUI (talk) 03:27, 25 November 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Usage statistic from On the Bi-Level
Recently picked up a copy of On the Bi-Level, which is Metra's commuter newsletter, and it claimed that Union Station sees 126,000 passengers per day. I added the updated information. However, and I have no reason to discredit OtBL as a reliable source, but it seemed pretty high. Thoughts? Anyone have anything different? Gws57 12:18, 14 July 2006 (UTC)
If you go to the Metra budget section at their website, it contains the passenger load averages for all lines. Based on my calcs, there are 114,000 riders on the lines that use Union Station each day, which isn't the same as how many passengers come through the station. (I took the sum of the weekday average totals. If you exclude reverse commuters, the number is closer to 110,000.) And this is still incorrect because this would include riders who don't board at Union Station.
The only way I got 120,000 was to take the weekly (incl. Sat & Sun) totals and divide by 5, which is very incorrect. Without station level detail, it's hard to say how many passengers ride the train without going through the downtown terminal.
