Union Station (Los Angeles) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Los Angeles Union Station
Amtrak, Metrolink and LA Metro station
Main building and tracks
Location	Amtrak/Metrolink 800 North Alameda Street Metro 801 Vignes Street Los Angeles, California 90012 United States
Coordinates	34°03′19″N 118°14′07″W / 34.05515°N 118.23525°W / 34.05515; -118.23525
Owned by	Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Platforms	6 island platforms (Amtrak/Metrolink) 1 island platform (Metro L Line) 1 island platform (Metro B/D Lines) 1 island platform (Metro J Line)
Tracks	12 (Amtrak/Metrolink) 2 (Metro L Line) 2 (Metro B/D Lines)
Construction
Parking	3,000 spaces
Bicycle facilities	74 bike rack spaces 20 locker spaces
Disabled access	Yes
Other information
Station code	Amtrak code: LAX
Website	UnionStationLA.com
History
Opened	May 3, 1939; 85 years ago (May 3, 1939)
Traffic
Passengers (2018)	1,717,405  0.06% (Amtrak)
Rank	1st in California
Services Preceding station Amtrak Following station Hollywood Burbank Airport toward Seattle Coast Starlight Terminus Glendale toward San Luis Obispo Pacific Surfliner Fullerton toward San Diego Terminus Southwest Chief Fullerton toward Chicago Sunset Limited Pomona toward New Orleans Texas Eagle Pomona toward Chicago Preceding station Metrolink Following station Terminus 91/Perris Valley Line Norwalk/Santa Fe Springs toward Perris–South Orange County Line Commerce toward Oceanside Riverside Line Montebello/​Commerce toward Riverside–Downtown San Bernardino Line Cal State LA toward San Bernardino–Downtown Glendale toward Lancaster Antelope Valley Line Terminus Glendale toward East Ventura Ventura County Line Preceding station Metro Rail Following station Civic Center/Grand Park toward North Hollywood B Line Terminus Civic Center/Grand Park toward Wilshire/Western D Line Little Tokyo/Arts District (temporary bus bridge) toward Atlantic L Line Chinatown toward APU/Citrus College Preceding station Metro Busway Following station Civic Center/Grand Park (with interim street stops) toward Downtown San Pedro J Line LA County+USC Medical Center toward El Monte
Former services Preceding station Amtrak Following station Glendale toward Sacramento Spirit of California Discontinued in 1983 Terminus Terminus Desert Wind Discontinued in 1997 Fullerton toward Chicago Las Vegas Limited Discontinued in 1976 Pasadena toward Las Vegas San Diegan Changed to its current name in 2000 Fullerton toward San Diego Preceding station Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Following station Terminus Main Line Via Pasadena, Pomona Highland Park toward Chicago Main Line Via Fullerton, Riverside Rivera toward Chicago Surf Line Fullerton toward San Diego Preceding station Southern Pacific Railroad Following station River toward San Francisco Coast Line Terminus Terminus Sunset Route Alhambra toward New Orleans Glendale toward Oakland Pier San Joaquin Daylight Terminus Glendale toward Sacramento Sacramento Daylight Glendale toward San Francisco Coast Daylight Lark Preceding station Union Pacific Railroad Following station Terminus Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad East Los Angeles toward Salt Lake City Preceding station CalTrain Following station Glendale towards Oxnard Los Angeles–Oxnard Terminus
Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Built	1939
Built by	Robert E. McKee Inc.
Architect	Parkinson, John & Donald B.
Architectural style	Moderne, Art Deco, Mission/Spanish Revival
NRHP reference No.	80000811
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	November 13, 1980

Los Angeles Union Station (LAUS) is the main railway station in Los Angeles, California, and the largest railroad passenger terminal in the Western United States. It opened in May 1939 as the Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal, replacing La Grande Station and Central Station.

Approved in a controversial ballot measure in 1926 and built in the 1930s, it served to consolidate rail services from the Union Pacific, Santa Fe, and Southern Pacific Railroads into one terminal station. Conceived on a grand scale, Union Station became known as the "Last of the Great Railway Stations" built in the United States. The structure combines Art Deco, Mission Revival, and Streamline Moderne style. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

Today, the station is a major transportation hub for Southern California, serving almost 110,000 passengers a day. It is by far the busiest train station in the Western United States; it is Amtrak's fifth-busiest station, and is the twelfth-busiest train station in the entire country.

Four of Amtrak's long-distance trains originate and terminate here: the Coast Starlight to Seattle, the Southwest Chief and Texas Eagle to Chicago, and the Sunset Limited to New Orleans. The state-supported Amtrak Pacific Surfliner regional trains run frequently to San Diego and also to Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. The station is the hub of the Metrolink commuter rail system and is a major transfer point for several Metro Rail subway and light rail lines. The Patsaouras Transit Plaza, on the east side of the station, serves dozens of bus lines operated by Metro and several other municipal carriers.

History

In 1926, a measure was placed on the ballot giving Los Angeles voters the choice between the construction of a vast network of elevated railways or the construction of a Union station to consolidate the city's two mainline railroad stations (Central Station and La Grande Station). The election took on racial connotations and became a defining moment in the development of Los Angeles. One proposed location for Union Station was located in the heart of what was Los Angeles' original Chinatown. Reflecting the racial prejudice of the time, Los Angeles Times, a lead opponent of elevated railways, argued in editorials that Union Station would not be built in the "midst of Chinatown" but rather would "forever do away with Chinatown and its environs." The Times also attacked the elevated railways for blocking out the California sun and in general being antithetical to the ethos of Los Angeles.

Two questions were put to vote in 1926. First, the voters approved Union Station instead of elevated railways by 61.3 to 38.7 percent margin. Second, the electorate voted in favor of Los Angeles Plaza, not Chinatown, as the site of the new station, but by a much smaller 51.1 to 48.9 percent margin. However, largely due to the efforts of preservationist Christine Sterling and Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler, Union Station would not replace the Plaza, but be built across the street in Chinatown, which was demolished for the project. During the construction process of Union Station, archaeological remains from the Tongva village of Yaanga were uncovered. Researcher Joan Brown summarized this in 1992:

Previous archaeological studies conducted at and near Union Station indicate that buried intact prehistoric and historic deposits exist in-situ beneath and in the vicinity of Union Station. The extent of the archaeological deposits is unknown at this time. Union Station was constructed on three to twenty feet of fill dirt placed over the original Los Angeles Chinatown. Chinatown, in turn, had been built over the remains of an Indian village, tentatively identified as the village of Yangna.

Santa Fe's combined Super Chief/El Capitan at the station in 1966

The glamorous new $11 million station (in 1939 dollars) took over from La Grande Station which had suffered major damage in the 1933 Long Beach earthquake and Central Station, which had itself replaced the Arcade Depot in 1914.

Passenger service was provided by the Santa Fe, Southern Pacific, and Union Pacific, as well as local lines of the Pacific Electric Railway and Los Angeles Railway (LARy). The famed Super Chief luxury train carried Hollywood stars and others to Chicago and thence the East Coast. Union Station saw heavy use during World War II, but later saw declining patronage due to the growing popularity of air travel and automobiles.

In 1948 the Santa Fe's Super Chief lost its brakes coming into the station, smashed through a steel bumper and concrete wall, and stopped with one third of the front of the locomotive dangling over Aliso St. No one was killed or injured, but the engineer lost his job.

The station was designated as a Los Angeles Historic–Cultural Monument No. 101 on August 2, 1972, and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

The first commuter rail service to Union Station was the short-lived CalTrain that began operating on October 18, 1982, between Los Angeles and Oxnard. The service faced economic and political problems from the start and was suspended in March 1983. The next attempt at commuter rail came in 1990 with the launch of the Amtrak-operated Orange County Commuter. The once-daily round-trip served stations between Los Angeles and San Juan Capistrano.

In December 1989, the Santa Fe Pacific Realty Co purchased Southern Pacific's shareholding in the station, followed in January 1990 by Union Pacific's 22% and Santa Fe's 34%.

Metrolink commuter rail service began on October 26, 1992, with Union Station as the terminus for the San Bernardino Line, the Santa Clarita Line (later renamed the Antelope Valley Line) and the Ventura County Line. In January 1993, Metro's Red Line subway began service to the station, followed by Metrolink's Riverside Line in June. The Orange County Commuter train was discontinued on March 28, 1994, and replaced by Metrolink's Orange County Line. In May 2002, Metrolink added additional service to stations in Orange and Riverside counties with the opening of the 91 Line.

Metro L Line train at Union Station

Light Rail service arrived at Union Station on July 26, 2003, when Metro's Gold Line began operating to Pasadena from tracks 1 and 2. The line was expanded south over US 101 in November 2009 with the opening of the Gold Line Eastside Extension.

In February 2011, the board of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) approved the purchase of Union Station from Prologis and Catellus Development (a descendant of the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific railroads) for $75 million. The deal was closed on April 14, 2011. Since taking over ownership of the station, Metro has focused on increasing services for passengers at the station. One of the most noticeable changes is the addition of several retail and dining businesses to the concourse.

Amtrak opened a Metropolitan Lounge at Union Station on September 23, 2013. The lounge is open to Amtrak passengers traveling in sleeping car accommodations or business class as well as some Amtrak Guest Rewards members (Select Plus and Select Executive levels only). The lounge features a staffed ticket counter, complimentary refreshments, complimentary Wi-Fi, and a conference room. Passengers using the Metropolitan Lounge receive priority boarding.

Metro plans to install Bluetooth beacons in Union Station to enable sending text messages to travelers' smartphones.

Architecture

Waiting room

Original ticket lobby, with ticket counter at the right

Union Station was partially designed by John and Donald Parkinson, the father-and-son architectural firm who had also designed Los Angeles City Hall and other landmark Los Angeles buildings. They were assisted by a group of supporting architects, including Jan van der Linden. The structure combines Art Deco, Mission Revival, and Streamline Moderne style, with architectural details such as eight-pointed stars, and even elements of Dutch Colonial Revival architecture (at the suggestion of the Dutch-born Jan von der Linden).

Enclosed garden patios are on either side of the waiting room, and passengers exiting the trains were originally directed through the southern garden. The lower parts of the interior walls are covered in travertine marble; the upper parts have an early form of acoustical tile. The floor in the large rooms is terra cotta with a central strip of inlaid marble (including travertine, somewhat unusual in floors since it is soft). The ceiling in the grand waiting room has the appearance of wood, but is actually made of steel. The original ticket lobby has 62-foot (19 m) high ceilings and a 110-foot (34 m) counter it is closed to the public, but occasionally rented out for film shoots or special events. Public art has been added to the station including an aquarium with a wall featuring etchings of Gabrielino Indians and Latino settlers such as Pío Pico.

Inside the grand waiting room, is the Traxx restaurant and bar, which is Art Deco-themed, reflecting the history and architectural grandeur of its home. The restaurant opened in the late 1990s, and became a "top draw" at Union Station, according to the Los Angeles Times. Traxx closed between May and September 2019 as ownership of the restaurant changed.

Attached to the main building to the south is the station restaurant designed by the famed Southwestern architect Mary Colter. It was the last of the "Harvey House" restaurants to be constructed as a part of a passenger terminal. The vast rectangular dining room has a rounded central counter, streamlined booths and spectacular inlaid cement tile floor reproduces the pattern of a Navajo blanket. Colter also designed a sleek, Streamline Moderne cocktail lounge. The restaurant closed in 1967 and for decades remained largely empty, used only for the occasional film shoot or special event. In October 2018, following a four-year renovation process, the dining room re-opened as the "Imperial Western Beer Co.," a restaurant and bar with its own attached brewery, and the cocktail lounge re-opened as "The Streamliner," a smaller craft cocktail bar.

Even with its grand scale, Union Station is still considered small in comparison to other union stations.

Public art

Although Union Station contains no distinct sculptures or artworks from its early years, Metro rail development in the 1990s funded the installation of a variety of notable public art murals and sculptural installations for the station's new subterranean lobbies, portals and subway platforms. The following Union Station public artworks include murals, granite seating sculptures, electronic wall-mounted art, glass mosaics, and a river-themed sculptural installation incorporating found objects from the subway excavation and an aquarium of native sea life.

• L.A.: City of Angels (1993) by Cynthia Carlson
• Traveler (1993) by Terry Schoonhoven
• Union Chairs (1993) by Christopher Sproat
• La Sombra del Arroyo (1995) by East Los Streetscapers
• City of Dreams (1996) by Richard Wyatt Jr.
• River of History (1996) by May Sun
• Riverbench (1996) by May Sun and Paul Diez
• A-Train (1996) by Bill Bell
• Solar Shift: San Bernardino and Santa Monica (2006) by Roy Nicholson

Location

Union Station and the MTA Building

Aerial view of LA Union Station area in 2014.

Union Station is located in the northeastern corner of Downtown Los Angeles, on the property bounded by Alameda Street, Cesar Chavez Avenue, Vignes Street, and the Hollywood Freeway. It is across Alameda Street from L.A.'s historic Olvera Street and El Pueblo de Los Angeles State Historic Park. The historic Terminal Annex building is on the opposite side of the Chavez Avenue underpass. Chinatown and Civic Center are a short distance away.

The site of the Tongva village of Yaanga, which was "believed to have been the largest of the Tongva villages," was in the vicinity.

The Patsaouras Transit Plaza on the east side of Union Station hosts several connecting bus lines, including Metro Local, Metro Rapid and Metro Express lines, as well as downtown DASH shuttles, many municipal bus lines, FlyAway express bus service to Los Angeles International Airport, and University of Southern California campus shuttles. The Transit Plaza is named after Nick Patsaouras, former RTD board member and advocate for public transportation.

The Gateway Transit Center includes the station itself and the Patsaouras Transit Plaza, both of which were designed by Ehrenkrantz & Eckstut, along with the western terminus of the El Monte Busway, as well as Metro's headquarters building.

As of October 2019^[update], Amtrak and Metrolink share 12 of Union Station's 14 outdoor tracks, with 94 trains departing on most weekdays (95 on Wednesday, 96 on Friday).

Services

Amtrak

Amtrak long-distance routes

Passengers at the information booth at Union Station.

Union Station is the western terminus for four of Amtrak's long-distance trains:

• Coast Starlight, to Seattle (daily, service began 1971)
• Southwest Chief, to Chicago (daily, service began 1939 as Super Chief, renamed Southwest Limited in 1974 and Southwest Chief in 1984)
• Sunset Limited, to New Orleans (tri-weekly, service began 1939)
• Texas Eagle, to Chicago (tri-weekly, service began 1982): Runs combined with the Sunset Limited to San Antonio, where the train is split.

Amtrak California regional routes

Amtrak California operates multiple-times-daily regional rail services to cities across the state:

• Pacific Surfliner, from San Diego to San Luis Obispo via Los Angeles (service began 1939 as San Diegan, renamed Pacific Surfliner in 2000): 13 daily round trips, most of which originate and terminate here; three run to Goleta and two run to San Luis Obispo.
• Connections to the San Joaquin to Oakland or Sacramento are provided through Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach services. (see below)

Metrolink

The station is the hub for Metrolink and six of Metrolink's seven lines serve the station:

• Antelope Valley Line, to Lancaster (service began 1992)
• Riverside Line, to Riverside (service began 1993)
• Orange County Line, to Oceanside (service began 1990 as the Amtrak Orange County Commuter)
• San Bernardino Line, to San Bernardino (service began 1992)
• Ventura County Line, to Ventura (service began 1992)
• 91/Perris Valley Line, to Perris (service began 2002)

Metro Rail

Three Metro Rail lines (the B (Red), D (Purple), and L (Gold) Lines) serve the station with about 300 Metro Rail trains departing every weekday.

Metro B Line/Metro D Line

The B Line and D Line subway platforms as seen from the mezzanine level.

The Metro B and Metro D subway lines have their eastern terminus at Union Station and share two tracks below Union Station. There are two entrances to the platform: one is located inside Union Station's main concourse on the west side of the complex, near Alameda Street, and the other is located near the Patsaouras Transit Plaza on the east side of the complex.

Metro L Line

The Metro L Line (Gold) is a light rail line that passes through Union Station as it travels between Azusa and East Los Angeles. Trains use Tracks 1 and 2 of Union Station's 14 outdoor tracks. The platform is accessible via staircase and elevator from the main passenger tunnel. From the Gold line's opening on July 26, 2003, until the segment to East Los Angeles opened on November 15, 2009, this station was the southern terminus. The platform features an art installation, entitled Images of Commonality/Nature and Movement, created by Beth Thielen.

The platform station will be served by the A Line, which will run from Long Beach to Azusa, once the Regional Connector is complete in 2022.

Metro Busway

Metro J Line

One Metro Busway bus rapid transit line makes a stop at the Patsaouras Transit Plaza. The Metro J Line operates between El Monte Bus Station, Downtown Los Angeles, Harbor Gateway Transit Center and select trips to San Pedro using the El Monte Busway and Harbor Transitway.

Bus and coach services

Long-distance motorcoach

Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach

Buses at the Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach boarding area of Los Angeles Union Station.

Amtrak California operates several routes under the Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach brand from Union Station using dedicated bus bays at the north side of the station.

Connections to San Joaquin trains are provided through bus routes 1A & 1B that travel to and from the Bakersfield Amtrak Station. Direct rail service to Bakersfield is not possible because passenger trains are not normally allowed on the Tehachapi Loop near Bakersfield.

• Route 1A: Bakersfield – Los Angeles
• Route 1B: Bakersfield – Los Angeles – San Pedro (serving the cruise terminals and Catalina Island ferries in Long Beach and San Pedro)

When trains are not running during the overnight hours several bus routes provide service along the Pacific Surfliner route (to Santa Barbara, San Diego and select intermediate stations) and the San Joaquin route (to Fresno and select intermediate stations.):

• Route 1A: Bakersfield – Los Angeles – San Diego
• Route 1A: Bakersfield – Los Angeles – Santa Ana
• Route 1B: Fresno – Bakersfield – Los Angeles
• Route 4: Santa Barbara – Los Angeles

Amtrak also offers a Thruway Motorcoach route to Las Vegas from Union Station.

Flixbus

While it does not stop on the Union Station property, Flixbus provides intercity service to destinations across the Western United States from a parking lot across the street from the station on the northwest corner of Cesar Chavez Avenue and Vignes Street.

Megabus

Megabus operates three long-distance motorcoach routes from Berth 1 at the Patsaouras Transit Plaza:

• M10 to Las Vegas
• M11 to San Francisco via Oakland
• M12 to San Francisco via San Jose

Metro and municipal buses

Bus services using the Patsaouras Transit Plaza:

• Metro Local: 30, 33 (late nights only), 40, L Line Shuttle
• Metro Rapid: 704, 733
• Antelope Valley Transit Authority: 785*City of Commerce Municipal Bus Lines: Citadel Outlets Express
• City of Santa Clarita Transit: 794*LAX FlyAway
• LADOT Commuter Express: Bunker Hill Shuttle*, 431*, 438*, 448*, 534*LADOT DASH: D
• Mount St. Mary's College Shuttle*Orange County Transportation Authority: 701*University of Southern California Shuttles: UPC, HSC, ICS

Bus services using the Union Station Patsaouras Bus Plaza Station, which is located in the median of the El Monte Busway next to US-101.

• Metro Busway: Metro J Line
• Metro Express: 487, 489* Foothill Transit: Silver Streak, 490*, 493*, 495*, 497*, 498*, 499*, 699Bus services using the bus stop on Cesar Chavez Avenue & Vignes Street (northeast corner of station):

• Metro Local: 68, 70, 71, 76, 78, 79
• Metro Rapid: 770
• LADOT DASH: Lincoln Heights/Chinatown

Bus services using the bus stop on Alameda Street & Los Angeles Street (outside western entrance):

• Big Blue Bus: Rapid 10*LADOT DASH: B
• Torrance Transit: 4XBus service using the bus stop on the west side of Union Station (near the taxi stand and the Mozaic Apartments):

• Dodger Stadium Express (home games during baseball season only)

* Indicates commuter service that operates only during weekday rush hours.

Platforms and tracks

Future expansion

New transit station on El Monte Busway

A new transitway station for the Metro J Line and other transit buses operating on the El Monte Busway is planned to the south of the Patsaouras Transit Plaza, in the median of the El Monte Busway, funded by tolls collected as a part of the Metro ExpressLanes project. It will allow buses traveling in both directions on the busway to serve Union Station while minimizing dwell time, according to Metro.

The station was originally expected to be completed in June 2014, but because all bids came in over budget, they were cancelled and the Metro Board of Directors increased the budget and solicited new bids. Station construction was delayed by a number of factors, including the discovery of human remains from a pre-colonial Tongva settlement. As of September 2020^[update] the station is nearly complete and expected to open by the end of October. On November 1, 2020, the station was officially opened.

Link Union Station

A Metrolink train at Union Station

With the number of trains using Union Station expanding, the stub-end layout of trackage is limiting the station's capacity. Trains can only enter or exit from the north side of the station. The configuration forces trains without cab-cars to slowly reverse in or out of the station and trains heading to or from the south to make a near-180 degree turn. Compounding the problem, is that while the station has 14 boarding tracks, multiple trains must squeeze onto just 5 tracks (originally, there were more tracks at "the throat", but Metrolink had some removed to allow for faster speeds along the curves in and out of the station to improve efficiency) as they enter or exit the station. This choke-point can delay arriving trains as they are forced to wait outside of the station to allow a departing train to exit the station (departures are usually given priority, to free up platforms and to keep them from experiencing delays along their route).

Therefore, Metro has proposed the Link Union Station (formerly titled the Southern California Regional Interconnector Project) which would extend tracks 3–10 as run-through tracks, which will exit Union Station and cross over US Route 101 on a long, elevated "S-curve" that will tie into the existing tracks along the Los Angeles River. The plan also includes tracks along the river that would create a "loop" around the station allowing all trains (including those to/from the north or west) to use the run-though tracks.

Metro authorized preliminary engineering for the project in July 2012. A Request For Proposals (RFP) for Link Union Station was being prepared as of June 2013. The $31-million contract for the engineering work on the project was approved on April 24, 2014. The project's estimated value is $350 million. A draft environmental impact report on Link Union Station is expected in 2017

During construction, several tracks may be taken out of service due to their extension. To make up for the temporary loss of those platforms, track 13 was revitalized for use and tracks 14 & 15 were re-constructed. The project was completed on October 17, 2012. Once the SCRIP project is finished, the run-through tracks and tracks 13–14 will be in regular use (track 15 will be used for storage), resulting in a 40% increase in track capacity.

On July 27, 2019, the Metro board approved environmental studies for the Link US Union Station run-through tracks project that includes an expanded central concourse hallway and eliminated loop tracks. These modifications reduced project costs while prioritizing rider convenience while transferring between trains. The board action officially certified the Link US Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR), and a funding plan for the project was approved on April 21, 2020, with the project's completion targeted for 2026.

In late 2020, the tracks 3-6 will be temporary closed due to reconstruction.

Former Run-Through Tracks Project

California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and the Federal Railroad Administration previously drafted a plan to create run-through tracks at Union Station, but the project involved just four tracks and lacked the station "loop" limiting usage of the tracks just to trains heading to or from the south.

The final environmental impact report for the "Los Angeles Union Station Run-Through Tracks Project" was published by the FRA in November 2005.

California High-Speed Rail

Union Station is planned to be a major hub for the future California High-Speed Rail System. Upon completion, it is projected that passengers will be able to get from Union Station to the Transbay Transit Center in the city of San Francisco in 2 hours and 40 minutes.

As a part of its Master Plan, Metro is currently studying how to best integrate tracks and platforms for high-speed trains arrival into Union Station. Options include an aerial structure above the existing platforms, an underground structure under Alameda Street, an underground structure under Vignes and an aerial structure east of Vignes. All plans include a new concourse for high-speed rail passengers and three platforms with six tracks.

See also

In Spanish: Union Station (Los Ángeles) para niños