Union Station (Kansas City, Missouri)

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°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)	Missouri River Runner   Southwest Chief
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  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 Rock Island Line Terminus Kansas City – St. Louis South Lee toward St. Louis
Union Station
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
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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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Wikipedia