Indianapolis Union Station

Indianapolis Union Station
Union Station, 2022
General information
Location	350 South Illinois Street Indianapolis, Indiana United States
Owned by	City of Indianapolis
Platforms	1 island platform (formerly more)
Tracks	2 (formerly 12)
Connections	Burlington Trailways Greyhound Lines
Construction
Accessible	Yes
Other information
Station code	Amtrak: IND
History
Opened	September 20, 1853; 170 years ago (1853-09-20)
Rebuilt	1888, 1984, 2002
Passengers
FY 2022	10,881[1] (Amtrak)
Services
Preceding station Amtrak Following station Crawfordsville toward Chicago Cardinal Connersville toward New York
Former services Preceding station Amtrak Following station Crawfordsville toward Chicago Hoosier State Terminus Kentucky Cardinal Jeffersonville toward Louisville Terre Haute toward Kansas City National Limited Richmond toward New York or Washington, D.C. Logansport toward Chicago Floridian 1971–1975 Louisville toward St. Petersburg or Miami Lafayette toward Chicago James Whitcomb Riley and George Washington 1971–1974 Cincinnati (River Road) toward Washington, D.C. or Newport News Preceding station Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Following station Speedway toward Springfield Springfield – Hamilton New Palestine toward Hamilton Preceding station Illinois Central Railroad Following station Frances toward Effingham Indianapolis Terminus Preceding station Monon Railroad Following station Massachusetts Avenue toward Monon Monon – Indianapolis Terminus Preceding station New York Central Railroad Following station St. Louis Big Four Route Main Line Muncie toward Cleveland St. Louis Lawrence toward Cleveland Augusta toward Chicago Chicago – Cincinnati Beech Grove toward Cincinnati Brownsburg toward Peoria Peoria & Eastern Railway Terminus Terminus Indianapolis – Springfield Mt. Comfort toward Springfield, OH Preceding station Nickel Plate Road Following station Massachusetts Avenue toward Michigan City Michigan City – Indianapolis Terminus Preceding station Pennsylvania Railroad Following station Lebanon toward Chicago Chicago – Louisville Southport toward Louisville St. Louis St. Louis – Pittsburgh Cumberland toward Pittsburgh Lebanon toward South Bend South Bend – Indianapolis Terminus Maywood toward Vincennes Vincennes – Indianapolis
Indianapolis Union Railroad Station
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Show map of Indianapolis Show map of Indianapolis Show map of Indiana Show map of the United States
Location	39 Jackson Place, Indianapolis
Coordinates	39°45′47″N 86°9′34″W / 39.76306°N 86.15944°W / 39.76306; -86.15944
Area	1.3 acres (0.5 ha)
Built	1886–1888 (head house); 1915–1922 (train shed)
Architect	Thomas Rodd
Architectural style	Richardsonian Romanesque
NRHP reference No.	74000032[2]
Added to NRHP	July 19, 1974

The Indianapolis Union Station is an intercity train station in the

Indianapolis was the first city in the world to devise a union station, in 1848. The station building opened on September 20, 1853, at 39 Jackson Place, operated by the Indianapolis Union Railway. A much larger Richardsonian Romanesque station was designed by Pittsburgh architect Thomas Rodd and constructed at the same location beginning in November 1886 and opening in September 1888. The head house (main waiting area and office) and clock tower of this second station still stand today.^[3]

Amtrak, the national rail passenger carrier, continues to serve Union Station from a waiting area beneath the train shed. It is served by the Cardinal (Chicago–New York City, via Cincinnati and Washington, DC), and was the eastern terminus of the Hoosier State until its discontinuation on June 30, 2019.

Architecture

Thomas Rodd's design clearly shows the influence of architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). Historian James R. Hetheringon has concluded that Pittsburgher Rodd would have studied the nearly completed Allegheny County Courthouse designed by Richardson prior to his death in 1886. Considered by Richardson to be his best work, the Courthouse was highly influential, with the Union Station one of the oldest surviving examples.^[3][4][5][6]

The three-story Union Station is built of

The first railroad to reach Indianapolis was the

As Indianapolis and its railroad traffic grew, the limitations of the original structure became increasingly obvious. In 1886, Thomas Rodd was hired. At the time, Rodd was employed by the Pennsylvania Railroad, but did independent civil engineering and architectural projects on the side. The new station was completed in 1888,^[8] and during 1889 320,996 passenger train cars (across 45,204 trains) and 861,991 freight cars passed through the station.^[11] In 1893, approximately 25,000 passengers rode an average of 120 passenger trains daily.^[3][8]

By 1900, over 200 trains a day were being serviced, forcing the station to eventually build an expansive train shed on an elevated platform (built from 1915 to 1922

Passenger services, particularly named trains, at the union station included:[15]

Decline

Throughout the 1960s and well into the Amtrak era, the number of train passengers declined to such a trickle that, in cities in which rail stations did not serve commuter traffic, most were allowed to physically decline to a point where many were closed and some demolished. Indianapolis's Union Station almost suffered that fate. By the late 1970s, vagrants and vandals had taken over much of the facility and numerous police and fire runs were made to the cavernous building. Local business and political leaders began looking for some way to preserve Union Station and transform it into a vital part of the city again. Also in the 1970s, Amtrak planned to run its proposed AutoTrak service out of the Indianapolis Union Station, but this planned service was ultimately scrapped.^[16]

In 1971, the city's mayor allocated $197,000 toward purchasing the building.^[17]

The station was placed on the

In 2002, the 21st Century

In January 2011, a new underground walkway between the newly-expanded Indiana Convention Center (ICC) and nearby Lucas Oil Stadium opened. It also contains a connection to the Crowne Plaza hotel at the west end of Union Station. This climate-controlled pedestrian path replaces an above-ground link between the hotel and the now-demolished RCA Dome, which stood where the new wing of the convention center is now situated.

Passenger train service has been very limited in the Amtrak era. When Amtrak began operations in 1971, it ran three trains through Indianapolis–the

Amtrak withdrew the National Limited in 1979, severing Indianapolis from the national rail network. It also isolated Amtrak's primary maintenance facility, the Beech Grove Shops in nearby Beech Grove. Rail service returned to Indianapolis in 1980, when the Hoosier State began running daily to Chicago. Northbound trains would leave in the morning, while southbound trains would arrive in the evening. It was joined in 1986 by the New York-to-Chicago Cardinal, successor of the James Whitcomb Riley. For most of the time from 1986 until Indiana withdrew its support for the train in June 2019, the Hoosier State ran on the four days that the Cardinal did not operate, thereby providing daily service along the route.

From 1999 to 2003, the station was served by the Kentucky Cardinal, an extension of the Hoosier State that ran to Louisville, operating as a section of the Cardinal on the days that the Cardinal ran. The southbound train split from the eastbound Cardinal at Union Station, while the northbound train joined the westbound Cardinal for the journey to Chicago. With the discontinuation of the Hoosier State, Indianapolis is served by only one train for only the second time in its history.

The station is served by two

The 1888 station building is mostly leased for offices to pay for the building upkeep. The city struggled with finding a use for the building that is financially viable and high-profile. The Crowne Plaza Hotel still operates in the train shed structure, and leases out the main concourse, the Grand Hall, for weddings and other events.[19]

Gallery

• 
  North front, 1970
• 
  Tower detail, 1970
• 
  South Illinois Street entrance
• 
  Train gates, 1970
• 
  Main hall
• 
  Waiting room
• 
  Platforms

See also

• Transportation in Indianapolis
• List of attractions and events in Indianapolis
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Center Township, Marion County, Indiana
• List of Amtrak stations
• List of Greyhound Bus stations
• List of tallest clock towers

References

Further reading

• Powell, Eric (2016). "Indy's Union Station still dazzles". Classic Trains. 17 (1): 76–77.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Union Station (Indianapolis).

• Indianapolis – Amtrak
• Indianapolis – Station history at Great American Stations (Amtrak)
• Indianapolis Amtrak Station (USA Rail Guide -- Train Web)
• Rethinking Adaptive Reuse, or, How Not to Save a Great Urban Terminal by Erik Ledbetter
• Hetherington, James. "The History of Union Station" (PDF). Indiana Historical Society. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 8, 2011. Retrieved October 12, 2012.
• Indiana Historical Society page on Union Station
• Union Station from Indianapolis: a National Park Service Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary