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Union Station (Kansas City, Missouri)

Kansas City Union Station
KCUnionStation.jpg
Location 30 West Pershing Road
Kansas City, Missouri 64108
Coordinates 39°05′05″N 94°35′08″W / 39.0848°N 94.5855°W / 39.0848; -94.5855Coordinates: 39°05′05″N 94°35′08″W / 39.0848°N 94.5855°W / 39.0848; -94.5855
Owned by Union Station Assistance Corporation
Line(s)
Platforms 1 island platform
Tracks 4
Construction
Parking Yes
Disabled access Yes
Other information
Station code KCY
History
Opened October 30, 1914
Closed 1985
Rebuilt November 10, 1999 (as home to Science City et al);
2002 (Amtrak service resumed)
Previous names Union Depot (April 8, 1878–October 31, 1914), West Bottoms
Traffic
Passengers (2015) 153,770 Decrease 2.1% (Amtrak)
Services
Preceding station   BSicon LOGO Amtrak2.svg Amtrak   Following station
Terminus Missouri River Runner
toward St. Louis
toward Los Angeles
Southwest Chief
toward Chicago
  Former services  
Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe
toward Los Angeles
Main Line
(Via Topeka)
toward Los Angeles
Main Line
Major stations
(Via Ottawa Cut-off)
toward Los Angeles
Rock Island Line
Terminus Kansas City – St. Louis
toward St. Louis
Union Station
Kansas City Union Station is located in Missouri
Kansas City Union Station
Kansas City Union Station is located in the US
Kansas City Union Station
Location Pershing Rd. and Main St., Kansas City, Missouri
Area 20.2 acres (8.2 ha)
Built 1901
Architectural style Beaux Arts
NRHP Reference # 72000719
Added to NRHP February 1, 1972

Kansas City Union Station is a union station opened in 1914, serving Kansas City, Missouri, and the surrounding metropolitan area. It replaced a small Union Depot from 1878. Union Station served a peak annual passenger traffic of over 670,000 in 1945 at the end of World War II, quickly declining in the 1950s and was closed in 1985.

In 1996, a public/private partnership began funding Union Station's $250 million restoration. By 1999, the station reopened as a series of museums and other public attractions. In 2002, Union Station saw its return as a train station when Amtrak began providing public transportation services and has since become Missouri's second-busiest train station. As of 2010, the refurbished station boasts theaters, ongoing museum exhibits, and attractions such as the Science City at Union Station, the Irish Museum and Cultural Center, and the Todd Bolender Center for Dance and Creativity.

On April 8, 1878, Union Depot opened on a narrow triangle of land in Kansas City between Union Avenue and the railroad tracks of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad in present-day West Bottoms. Nicknamed the "Jackson County Insane Asylum" by those who thought it was too large, it was the second union station in the country, after the one in Indianapolis. The new depot was a hybrid of the Second Empire style and Gothic Revival. The lead architect was Asa Beebe Cross who "adorned the exterior of the building with intricate towers of varying heights, arched windows framed in stone and rows of dormers projecting from the steeply pitched mansard roof"; it had a clock tower above the main entrance that was 125 feet (38 m) in height. By the start of the 20th century, over 180 trains were passing daily through the station, serving a city whose population had tripled during its first-quarter century of operation. In 1903, the lack of room for expansion and a major flood led the city and the railroads to decide a new station was required.


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