Kansas City Union Station

Location

30 West Pershing Road
Kansas City, Missouri 64108

Coordinates

39°05′05″N 94°35′08″W / 39.0848°N 94.5855°WCoordinates: 39°05′05″N 94°35′08″W / 39.0848°N 94.5855°W

Owned by

Union Station Assistance Corporation

Line(s)

Missouri River Runner

Southwest Chief

Platforms

1 island platform

Tracks

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

2.1% (Amtrak)

Services

Preceding station		Amtrak	Following station
Terminus		Missouri River Runner	Independence toward St. Louis
Lawrence toward Los Angeles		Southwest Chief	La Plata toward Chicago
	Former services
Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe
Kansas City, KS toward Los Angeles		Main Line	Sheffield toward Chicago Dearborn Station
Lawrence (Via Topeka) toward Los Angeles		Main Line Major stations	Henrietta toward Chicago Dearborn Station
Ottawa Junction (Via Ottawa Cut-off) toward Los Angeles		Main Line Major stations	Henrietta toward Chicago Dearborn Station
Rock Island Line
Terminus		Kansas City – St. Louis	South Lee toward St. Louis

Union Station

U.S. National Register of Historic Places

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.

...
Wikipedia